The (Northern) Irish writer has often been characterized by a divided mind. This dissertation will provide a close, chronological analysis of Carson's early works to examine his developing understanding and acceptance of an "in-between" position. The Insular Celts centers on the hermit-scribe, isolated from human contact. Subsequent works turn to domestic scenes, craftwork, and exploration through travel and memory as his speakers consider how to represent the world around them and preserve what is in danger of being lost. Early anxieties about division give way to gradual acceptance of a hybrid position. His essays and reviews reveal the writers and works that led him more directly to employ Belfast, with its landmarks and a past fundamentally tied to Carson's identity, as a source and setting. They also show the influence of his work with traditional music. The mix of present-day experiences, personal associations, and layers of the past that a performance creates parallels the mapping of a person's or place's identity.

While his Belfast volumes stand out for their depiction of the modern city and for a new form, considering his earlier works enables a reading that moves beyond seeing them simply as "Troubles poems." The books are set in Belfast but are not just about it; the city serves as a context for Carson's ongoing investigation of how identity incorporates the specific and particular, joining elements from the past and present into something new and characteristic of a moment in time and place while subject to continual change.