Identity Crisis In MacNeice's Autumn Journal

Louis MacNeice, as a giant in Irish poetry, has a strong influence on contemporary Irish poets. Autumn Journal, written in 1939, records his experience in the autumn of 1938. But this long poem has not been given due critical attention both at home and abroad. This thesis will analyze Autumn Journal and make an attempt to make up the margin of the research on this poet in China. Based on relatively detailed textual analysis, this study will examine and explore Autumn Journal from a postcolonial perspective, as well as elaborate on the poet's identity crisis and trace his unremitting quest for a complete self.This thesis is composed of five parts. Chapter one briefly discusses the life of MacNeice, his influence on contemporary Irish writers, and the studies that have been done on his life and works. Chapter two explains the research approach of the thesis and gives a brief explanation of the identity crisis in the postcolonial process, and specifies the identity crisis of not only MacNeice but also all the Irish in Britain. With detailed text analysis, chapter three focuses on MacNece's loss of identity in Autumn Journal. Without a complete self, he locates himself as an in-between and he even can not locate in a certain place and time, and all these lead to the sense of loss in the poem. Chapter four analyzes MacNeice's effort in searching the identity for himself and his nation. With the establishment of the soul of the Irish and Ireland, MacNeice will obtain a sense of belonging. Furthermore, putting the effort of constructing identity into practice will be the effective way to get rid of identity crisis. Chapter five will present the conclusion. It outlines the reasons of MacNeice and many diasporic writers'identity crisis. Though there is no definite answer to MacNeice's elimination of identity crisis, his efforts in dealing with identity crisis in Autumn Journal are rewarding and will be illuminating for people who are suffering from identity crisis.