The purpose of this thesis is to explore W. B. Yeats’ poetic representation fromthe perspective of an approach which has arrested critical attention in recentdevelopment of contemporary critical theories. In most of its previous readings, Yeatshas been generally considered as a romantist, occultist, and even modernist. However,this paper regards Yeats as a decolonialist living in a colonial society, and attemptsto locate Yeats’s position in the context of decolonialists view including FrantzFanon, Edward Said, and Gayatri Spivak.
Decolonialism as a literary theory is becoming an influential textual strategyrather than remaining as one of the academic master discourses. So far, theestablished textual reading theories have been closely related to logocentrism, andthey failed to be acknowledged as an objective way of reading. For this reason, thedecolonialism has an important implication in the sense that it subverts the colonialideology within the context of colonized society, and at the same time, reconstructscounter-discourse to find out self-identity and decolonized space.
Yeats lived in Ireland from birth to death. During his lifetime, Ireland was underthe colonial rule by England. At that time, under the influence of the Irish armedstruggle in 1916, Yeats had eye-witnessed historical moments of the death of hismother land, Ireland as well as of the Irish people, as the history of Irelandmanifests. In doing so, the Irish people broke the cycle of imperial situation. Theconsciousness of them became consciousness of the nation. The nationalists claimedthe independence of their Ireland. By way of this historical experience of authenticdecolonialization, Yeats’s aesthetics became, more and more, politicized against thecrisis which the repressive force of imperialism caused. In this traumatic disasters ofIreland, Yeats’s poetic quest makes him struggle against the colonial power in a poetic way.
In this regard, this thesis analyses Yeats’s text from the perspective ofdecolnialism. To begin with, focusing on the decolonization expressed by Yeats’stext, I tries to examine the process of his poetical writings and his attitude againstcolonialism. To this do, my major interest is in his myth and language employed inhis poetry. And I attempt to search for the true Irishness in which Yeats makesevery effort to materialize the reality of Ireland in his poetry.
To sum up, the decolonial discourse and its textual strategy have importantimplications that lay bare the dominant ideology hidden in the seemingly impersonalintention of imperiali’sm.