Title: "Bringing a new soul into Ireland": literary culture and poetics of orality in W. B. Yeats's early critical writings
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2015, vol. 41, iss. 1, pp. [145]-156
Extent
[145]-156
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2015-1-9
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/134769
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
The paper focuses on W. B. Yeats's idea of literary culture as it was theorised in his early essays and articles, with a particular attention directed to Ideas of Good and Evil and uncollected reviews spanning the last decade of the XIX century. It is argued here that Yeats projects his vision of a society as organised around poetic symbols that percolate down to the people like in ancient oral cultures. Instead of a politically-motivated and prejudiced nationalist ideology, Yeats proposes a religion of art that demands both a serious belief in the mystical insight conveyed by poetry and a constant questioning of this insight which is based on the notion that the true meaning of symbol cannot be fully understood. Thus Yeats's project of the literary culture is shown to have been pitched against the prevalent XIX century Irish nationalist dogmas that were promoted by old-school writers and political activists in the like of Charles Gavan Duffy.
Note
The article has been written within the framework of the project financed by The National Science Centre, Cracow, Poland, pursuant to the decision number DEC-2013/09/D/HS2/02782. When completing the paper the author has been supported by the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP).
References
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[2] Brown, Terrence (2001) The Life of W. B. Yeats: A Critical Biography. London: Blackwell.
[3] Cullingford, Eizabeth Butler (1995) "The Erotics of the Ballad: 'A Man Young and Old'". In: Liebregts Peter and Peter van de Kamp (eds.) Tumult of Images. Essays on W. B. Yeats and Politics. Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 109–130.
[4] Duffy, Charles Gavan (1893) "What Irishmen May Do for Irish Literature." In: Duffy, Charles Gavan (ed.) The Revival of Irish Literature. Two Addresses. London, 9–33.
[5] Eglinton, John (1917) Anglo-Irish Essays. London: Talbot Press.
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[9] Schuchard, Ronald (2008) The Last Minstrels. Yeats and the Revival of Bardic Arts. Oxford: Oxfrod University Press.
[10] Taylor, John F. (1890) "The Literary Movement in Ireland." The United Irishman.
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[12] Taylor, John F. (1892a) "Letter to the Editor." The Freeman's Journal 9 September. 4
[13] Taylor, John F. (1897) The Irish School of Oratory, 664–675.
[14] Yeats, W. B. (1970) Uncollected Prose. Volume I. Ed. John P. Frayne. New York: Columbia University Press.
[15] Yeats, W. B. (1970a) Letters to the New Island. Ed. Horace Reynolds. Cambridge MASS: Harvard University Press.
[16] Yeats, W. B. (1973) Memoirs: Autobiography—First Draft: Journal. Ed. Denis Donoghue. London: Macmillan.
[17] Yeats, W. B. (1986) The Collected Letters of W. B. Yeats. Volume I. Eds. John Kelly and Eric Domville. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[18] Yeats, W. B. (1994) The Collected Letters of W. B. Yeats. Volume III. Eds. John Kelly and Ronald Schuchard. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[19] Yeats, W. B. (1994a) The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume V, Later Essays. Ed. William H. O'Donnell. New York: Scribner.
[20] Yeats, W. B. (1996) The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats. Ed. Richard J. Finneran. New York: Scribner.
[21] Yeats, W. B. (1999) The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume III, Autobiographies. Ed. William H. O'Donnell and Douglas N. Archibald. New York: Scribner.
[22] Yeats, W. B. (2004) The Collected Letters of W. B. Yeats. Volume II. Eds. Warwick Gould, John Kelly and Deirdre Toomey. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[23] Yeats, W. B. (2007) The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume IV, Early Essays. Ed. Richard J. Finneran and George Bornstein. New York: Scribner.
[24] Zumthor, Paul (2010) "Pamięć i wspólnota." Literatura ustna. Trans. M. Abramowicz. Ed. Przemysław Czapliński. Gdańsk: słowo/obraz terytoria, 151–179.
[2] Brown, Terrence (2001) The Life of W. B. Yeats: A Critical Biography. London: Blackwell.
[3] Cullingford, Eizabeth Butler (1995) "The Erotics of the Ballad: 'A Man Young and Old'". In: Liebregts Peter and Peter van de Kamp (eds.) Tumult of Images. Essays on W. B. Yeats and Politics. Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 109–130.
[4] Duffy, Charles Gavan (1893) "What Irishmen May Do for Irish Literature." In: Duffy, Charles Gavan (ed.) The Revival of Irish Literature. Two Addresses. London, 9–33.
[5] Eglinton, John (1917) Anglo-Irish Essays. London: Talbot Press.
[6] Foster, R. F. (2008) W. B. Yeats: A Life, I: The Apprentice Mage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[7] Kershner, R. B. (1991) "Yeats/Bakhtin/Orality/Dyslexia." In: Orr, Leonard (ed.) Yeats and Postmodernism. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 167–188.
[8] Ong, Walter J. (1993) Orality and Literacy. The Technologizing of the Word. London and New York: Routledge.
[9] Schuchard, Ronald (2008) The Last Minstrels. Yeats and the Revival of Bardic Arts. Oxford: Oxfrod University Press.
[10] Taylor, John F. (1890) "The Literary Movement in Ireland." The United Irishman.
[11] Taylor, John F. (1892) "Letter to the Editor." The Freeman's Journal 7 September. 4.
[12] Taylor, John F. (1892a) "Letter to the Editor." The Freeman's Journal 9 September. 4
[13] Taylor, John F. (1897) The Irish School of Oratory, 664–675.
[14] Yeats, W. B. (1970) Uncollected Prose. Volume I. Ed. John P. Frayne. New York: Columbia University Press.
[15] Yeats, W. B. (1970a) Letters to the New Island. Ed. Horace Reynolds. Cambridge MASS: Harvard University Press.
[16] Yeats, W. B. (1973) Memoirs: Autobiography—First Draft: Journal. Ed. Denis Donoghue. London: Macmillan.
[17] Yeats, W. B. (1986) The Collected Letters of W. B. Yeats. Volume I. Eds. John Kelly and Eric Domville. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[18] Yeats, W. B. (1994) The Collected Letters of W. B. Yeats. Volume III. Eds. John Kelly and Ronald Schuchard. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[19] Yeats, W. B. (1994a) The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume V, Later Essays. Ed. William H. O'Donnell. New York: Scribner.
[20] Yeats, W. B. (1996) The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats. Ed. Richard J. Finneran. New York: Scribner.
[21] Yeats, W. B. (1999) The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume III, Autobiographies. Ed. William H. O'Donnell and Douglas N. Archibald. New York: Scribner.
[22] Yeats, W. B. (2004) The Collected Letters of W. B. Yeats. Volume II. Eds. Warwick Gould, John Kelly and Deirdre Toomey. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[23] Yeats, W. B. (2007) The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume IV, Early Essays. Ed. Richard J. Finneran and George Bornstein. New York: Scribner.
[24] Zumthor, Paul (2010) "Pamięć i wspólnota." Literatura ustna. Trans. M. Abramowicz. Ed. Przemysław Czapliński. Gdańsk: słowo/obraz terytoria, 151–179.