Yeats and Postcolonialism
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Abstract |
This paper is an attempt to read Yeats's poetry in terms of postcolonialism.
Drawing on the recent studies of Yeats and Irish literature, performed by such
critics and scholars as Edward Said, David Lloyd, Declan Kiberd, and Jahan
Ramazani, the paper examines the various aspects of Yeats as a postcolonial poet.
The fist part of the paper deals with the problems that we might encounter
when we try to define the postcoloniality of Ireland, which is, in Luke Gibbons's
words, "a First World country, but with a Third World memory." There also might
be some difficulty in deciding when the postcolonial literature in English began in
Ireland. Considering these problems and difficulties, the present writer understands
the term "postcolonial" as "anticolonial" rather than "postindependence" or "since
colonization," and discusses Yeats's poems which reveal the poet's anticolonial
attitude toward England.
The next main part of the paper begins by proposing "hybridity" as a feature of
postcolonial literature in general. It is assumed that the concept of hybridity can
provide the most appropriate and efficient way of understanding the true nature of
Yeats's postcoloniality. In this respect, the poet's familial background as an
Anglo-Irish Protestant, his complex relationships with the English poets, especially
Spenser and Shakespeare, and his use of the English language are discussed.
Lastly, in order to see postcolonial hybridity in the specific poetic forms of
Yeats's poetry, this paper discusses the use of place names and mythologies, both
Irish and non-Irish, in his poems, as an anticolonial and hybridizing gesture. The
paper also discusses some aspects of Yeats's poetic style, such as the lyrical form,
poetic diction, and images and symbols, and shows how he hybridizes the poetic
style which he inherited from the English poetic tradition. |
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Keywords :
- W. B. Yeats,
- (Ireland,
- postcolonial poetry in English,
- postcolonialism,
- anticolonialism,
- postcolonial hybridity,
- 예이츠,
- 아일랜드,
- 탈식민주의 영시,
- 탈식민주의,
- 반식민주의,
- 탈식민주의 잡종성,
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