Vanishing Points: an essay on landscape, memory and belonging

Abstract

This is a paper about the ambivalent relationships we can have with the landscapes we grew up in, with senses of belonging and nationality, and with memory itself. To approach and specify these themes, the paper aims to practise a particular form of landscape writing, prioritising individualised voice and perception to advance its arguments. Autobiographical and narrative-based in approach, the paper offers a sequence of reflections on questions of religion, culture, migration and identity in an Irish context. A middle section separately identifies and discusses ideas of perspective and the vanishing point as a specific interpretative pivot for the paper. In the final section, the paper situates and more widely re-contextualises its concerns regarding questions of landscape and belonging.