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ISSN : 1226-4946(Print)
ISSN : 2288-5412(Online)
The Yeats Journal of Korea Vol.12 pp.349-362
DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.14354/yjk.1999.12.349

Poetics of Violence in W. B. Yeats and S. Heaney

Sungsook Hong

Abstract

Irish literature since Free State has shown Anglo-Irish predicament, reflectingthe hope of Gaelic Revival armed with catholicism and strong nationalism. Howeverultimately Irish literature is to recover the conflicts of the colonized hybridity, and tomake a common-ground for the interest of all Irish people.
In the connection with this, it is very interesting that we should frequently meetwith the word ‘violence’ in Irish literary history. Aesthetical transformation of thehistorical violence is featured in most of modern Irish poets in the sense that a poetas a subject shows some response to the violence as a part of his own poeticexperiences.
The violence in Heaney’s and Yeats’s poetry is concerned with the problem whoholds the hegemony in the independent Irish society. Yeats and Heaney stand on theopposite social position and represent the race they respectively belong to.-Yeatsrepresents Anglo-Irish and Heaney the Gaelic.
I think Yeats mainly depends on satire to express his disgust against the newlyemerging catholic middle class. whereas Heaney seems to express his resistancerather secretly by combining lyricism and violence.
The combination of the two heterogeneous elements in Heaney’s poetry not onlyexpresses the poet’s resistance to violence effectively but brings forth the sense ofbeauty which is made by applying the aesthetic theory of ‘discordia concors’ and‘defamiliarisation’ etc.
Besides creating beauty, the combination of lyricism and violence suggests fixing the temporary time of violence to the permanent space. In addition, it suggests anIrish realistic attitude in front of the oppressed situation as well as their pride inIrish landscape. At the same time, it reflects the poet’s spirit for transcending twobinary concepts and accepting coexistence in difference.
Yeats attacks the philistine by using the tone of satire. Narrator, imaging theideal world, alienated from the materialized mass, evokes the romantic heroism, andinspires the mood of tragic joy. Meanwhile the beauty Yeats evokes involves thepraise of harmonious individuality full of life energy without digressing from theEuropean aristocratic spirit.
In conclusion, poetry can be a strategic weapon especially in a destitute time.Yeats, by evoking the mood of ‘tragic rapture’ and by poignantly satirizing thecatholic middle class as philistines, tries to save Anglo-Irish from their decliningfate. Meanwhile Heaney, combining lyricism and violence as one way ofaestheticization, shows his resistance against the historical violence without losing thesense of beauty.
These poetics as two main streams still coexist in modern Irish literary history.And yet they all contribute to establishing Irish literature on one common-groundand making Irish literature merge into the international literature. Although theyrepresent the different interests of two classes, they illuminate the new possibility ofcoexistence in difference.
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