W.B. Yeats As an Anglo-Irish*
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Chongju University |
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Abstract |
However hard a poet may cry out 'art for art's sake', art works are likely to be
evaluated by the political surroundings: a poet is very likely to represent the class
he belongs to and to react to the political situation through his own works. A poet
who suffers from the turmoil of the transitional period can be a victim of the
period in the sense that he can be evaluated irrespective of the real value of his
works.
This paper is motivated by our current social phenomena that the fanatical
nationalism to evacuate the past is also applied to the work of reevaluating writers
of the past as well as of the present; interestingly, the same situation happened to
Yeats. This paper starts with some hypothesis that the primary reason for the lower
reevaluation of Yeats since the birth of Free State until its rebirth as a member of
E.U. is that he belonged to the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy. And then this paper
investigates identity and contribution of the Anglo-Irish to Irish history. And finally
this paper tries to find out how Yeats reacted to the radical change of hegemony
especially after Responsibilities.
The investigation into his poems leads us to the conviction that in his first
stage, he wanted to surrender his half-blooded Englishness to his another
half-blooded Irishness. This explains why he tried to dig up the ancient Gaelic
culture and to advocate the Gaelic Catholic in his first stage. However we can
witness his changing attitude after the Easter Rising: some threat from the majority
Catholic fanaticism awakened Yeats's self-recognition as an Anglo-Irish, advocating
their class and culture in his poems since Responsibilities.
It follows that although Yeats wanted to be an artist for art as such, he could
not but seek for reconciliation of two aspects of Ireland, -that is, its religion and ethnicity. Yeats's poetry reflects the shift in the political hegemony and the
definition of the Irish identity. My conclusion is as follows. The main reason
Yeats's evaluation was going down during the period Ireland was being established
as a republic country is that he belonged to the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, the past
power group. Through Yeats's poems we can witness the decline and agony of the
Anglo-Irish during the birth of Republic of Ireland.
Therefore the historical contribution of the Anglo-Irish is to be reevaluated;
Yeats's Literary Revival is also referred to as "a cracked mirror of the servant". By
reading again Yeats's poems from the new perspective towards Yeats as an
Anglo-Irish, we can see that Yeats's advocacy of the Anglo-Irish was made only
after he was threatened by the fanatical Catholic nationalism and that he adhered to
the reconciliation of the divided Ireland throughout his life. Meanwhile, this study
leads to another question: Is it possible that the art is free from the political
pressure or turmoil? In my opinion, although art is not free from that situation, it
can only survive when it shines in the filthy tide, searching for the independence
and freedom. I think W.B. Yeats is an example. |
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Keywords :
- the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy,
- the Anglo-Irish Twilight,
- Catholic Gaelic nationalism,
- unity of culture,
- Fascism,
- 앵글로 아이리시 지배,
- 앵글로 아이리시의 쇠퇴,
- 카톨릭 게일 민족주의,
- 단합된 문화,
- 파시즘,
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