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W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) is probably the most famous Anglo Irish poet and dramatist in the first half of the twentieth century. His works are considered the basis of Irish literary movement since he is well-known for his poetry, drama and criticism. W. B. Yeats belongs to an Anglo-Irish stock, he lived some of his early childhood in London as well as in Ireland. John Butler Yeats, the poet's father was a professional painter who evaluated art and artists, this atmosphere was considered a fertile soil for the birth of W. B. Yeats’ early interest in Irish folktales which he later published as Mythologies (1979), this book sheds light on Yeats as a collector of Irish folktales and legends. This effort was of great importance on Yeats’ later works.

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Literary Criticism

Irish

English

European

Welsh

Scottish

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Publié par	Dar Al-Falah for Publishing and Distribution
Date de parution	01 janvier 2016
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9796500335650
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

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Dr Amal Riyadh Kitishat

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Studies in Modern Drama Dr Amal Kitishat Dar Alfalah, Jordan TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication…………………………………………………….. 3 Table of Contents………………………………………..……4 Introduction…………………………………………………. 5 Chapter One: W. B. Yeats and the Establishment of the 26 Irish Dramatic Movement…………………………….. 1.1 Irish Nationalism in Yeats’ work …………………… 27 1.2 Yeats’ Role in the Establishment of the Irish Dramatic 34 Movement …………………………………………… Chapter Two: W. B. Yeats and the Concept of Irishness.....52 2.1 The Stereotyping of the Irish People ……………….. 55 2.2 Irishness and the Anglo-Irish: “The Totalizing Process” 59 2.3 Language and the Concept of Irishness …………….. 68 2.4 Religion and the Concept of Irishness ……………… 72 Chapter Three: The Sense of Nationalism and Identity 78 Crisis in Selected Plays of Yeats……………………… 3.1 Yeats’ Dramatic Philosophy..................................... 78 3.1.1 Yeats and the Drama League.............................. 84 3.1.2 Yeats between Nationalism; Politics and Authority 85 3.2Cathleen Ni Houlihan................................................ 93 3.3The Countess Cathleen………………………………… 106 3.4The Words upon the Window-Pane…………………. 116 3.5Purgatory……………………………………………. 132 Conclusion…………………………………………………… 150 Bibliography……………………………………………..........156

Studies in Modern Drama Dr Amal Kitishat Dar Alfalah, Jordan INTRODUCTION

W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) is probably the most famous Anglo Irish poet and dramatist in the first half of the twentieth century. His works are considered the basis of Irish literary movement since he is well-known for his poetry, drama and criticism. W. B. Yeats belongs to an Anglo-Irish stock, he lived some of his early childhood in London as well as in Ireland. John Butler Yeats, the poet's father was a professional painter who evaluated art and artists, this atmosphere was considered a fertile soil for the birth of W. B. Yeats’ early interest in Irish folktales which he later published asMythologies (1979), this book sheds light on Yeats as a collector of Irish folktales and legends. This effort was of great importance on Yeats’ later works.

Being a descendant of an Anglo-Irish stock, Yeats was accused of disloyalty to Ireland. Many critics undermined Yeats' efforts accusing him of belonging to a “colonial class”, a representation of English occupation. For instance John S. Kelly in “The Fifth Bell”, argues that “after some attempts to identify with the people, [Yeats] fell back into colonial and authoritarian attitudes" (110), though Yeats attempted to refute these charges, still as Donna Gerstenberger in “W.B. Yeats: Politics and History” points out that the debate over Yeats' nationalism continu ed “unsettled, unsettling, and unsatisfying” (81). The main

Studies in Modern Drama Dr Amal Kitishat Dar Alfalah, Jordan charge directed to Yeats is his hybrid stock. Regarding this point Gerstenberger comments:

Yeats stood on the margins between two centuries; culturally, he belonged to neither of the classes h e admired most, peasant or nobleman, his life divided him between England and Ireland; his literary precursor s were Shakespeare, Shelly, and Blake, although he wished to create a voice for Ireland, and, Protestant in a Catholic country, …, but found himself out of step with his times, shut out of or included only marginally in the arenas in which politics were being played out, in which history was being made. (86)

Moreover, his hybrid origins caused Yeats a lot of trouble since he did not match with all the main categories that were listed of the “Irish national being”. For example, inand Anglo-Irish-Literature, Synge three forces were introduced to identify the Irishness of any national literature: “(1) the Religious consciousness of the people, (2) Irish Nationalism, (3) the Land.” (qtd in Brown, 1988, 83). In this light, being of an Anglo-Irish protest ant Ascendancy, Yeats though “a major voice”, did not truly speak for “Irish reality”, he “stands for the Irish tradition as broken”. (Brown, 1988, 83)

Subsequent critics supplemented the suspicious attitude toward Yeats; Kiberd for instance inInventing Irelandargues that Yeats was “working from” a version of a

Studies in Modern Drama Dr Amal Kitishat Dar Alfalah, Jordan version” (137), which means that he introduced a “romantic English” vision of the Irish life: English rather than Irish. Evenmore, he argues that his works were never “wholly satisfactory, for what was Irish in it looked ungainly in an English garb and what was English was never perfectly mastered, never wholly absorbed into their being.” (Kiberd, 1996, 137-38)

Another charge directed to Yeats is his “Anglo-Irish elitism” (Brown, 1988, 84). By elitism, Yeats was described as alien to the majority of the Irish people; he was even attacked for his “sentimental idealization of the Irish peasant” (Brown, 1988, 80). Critics suggest that by being a representative of elitism, Yeats made a great distance between him and “the rough digestion of a crofter, a Connemara fisherman, a country shopkeeper, a country doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, a soldier” (Brown, 1988, 80). In other words, Yeats was accused of being cut off and isolated from the middle class Irish people. Also, other critics accused Yeats of in- authenticity because of Yeats' tendency to idealize Irish life as mythic which means that he detached Irish people from reality. Regarding this point, Kiberd states:

Having dazzled himself with this Ireland of stolen children and fairy forts, of stern towers and violent high ways, of big houses and cosy cottages, Yeats then

Studies in Modern Drama Dr Amal Kitishat Dar Alfalah, Jordan employed his immense rhetoric powers to enrapture everyday else. The result is that Irish people no longer live in a country of their own making, but in a kind of tourist's film set.! (1996, 11-12)

Yeats' efforts as seen above were mainly distorted and suspected on grounds of “political affiliation or religion”, a fact which only revealed “insularity” which Yeats often “railed” against. (Donoghue, 11). Not only did Yeats reject this insularity against the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, but he also participated in many national movements such as the establishment of the Irish National theatre, the participation in the Gaelic league as well as his literary activities. Nevertheless, even these national endeavours on Yeats' behalf were attacked by the nationalists:

The nascent nationalism of the early twentieth century in Ireland… saw as one of its enemies the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy which had been, so Irish Ireland reckoned, the chief agent of Anglicization in the country.… The literature it identified with that ca ste, Anglo- Irish literature, was received with the profoundest suspicion. (Terencer Brown, 77)

However, Yeats preferred to identify himself with the Irish people and rejected the English identity. Besides, he saw the only way to define the Irish identity by “contrasting it with English influences” (Kelly, 117). Kelly points out to the main reason for Yeats to do so saying, “He chose to be

Studies in Modern Drama Dr Amal Kitishat Dar Alfalah, Jordan an Irish writer, and he made his choice for specific reasons, chief among which was the hope of finding in Ireland an integrated audience” (117).

As for Yeats, his Anglo-Irish roots did not influence his sense of nationalism; on the contrary he identified himself with the Irish identity on the one hand, and asserted the belief that, “the Anglo-Irish tradition, mainly protestant and aristocratic, was capacious enough to include 'old fathers' … his own family, and the Pollexfens,….” Besides, there was also, “the Gaelic tradition to which Yeats had only indirect access by way of translations of the Celtic Sagas” (Donoghue, 55).

In other words, though Yeats is considered the key figure in the re-making of the Irish identity, still subsequent critics deal with his works suspiciously, politicians also degraded his national efforts. As a member of Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, he was accused of presenting the colonial vision of Irish identity by reporting the English stereotype, with regard to this point, Louro in “The Drama of J. M. Synge : A Challenge to The Ideology of Myths of Irishness” indicates that Yeats' plays were “attacked for not serving well enough the nationalist cause”. (2382).

However, this study aims to prove that Yeats served his national cause, and the previous charges are due to his opponents' misunderstanding his liberal vision of art and