Reconstructing Ireland: Irishness In Yeats’ Poetry

This thesis discusses Yeats’ s reconstruction of Irishness in his poetry.The first chapter focuses on literary geography,examining Yeats’ s reconstruction of Irish geographical space which is composed by natural geographical space,human geographic space,and dreamlike geographical space.The Irish countryside,represented by Yeats’ s hometown Sligo,is taken as the origin of Irishness.The pure,solitary and mysterious countryside is in sharp contrast with the materialized British metropolis and possesses the originality of Irishness.The Big House,represented by Coole Park and the Tower,symbolizes order and tradition and bears the essence of history.It is even more precious in the time of political violence and chaos.Byzantium,in addition,is Yeats’ s ideal palace of art and future of Ireland.Chapter two elaborates Yeats’ s reconstruction of Irish images.Yeats sees in legendary heroes the national spirit,which is to be passed on to national heroes of his time.While Irish women,under the ruling of the Free State,bravely express their sexual and spiritual desire for love.Yeats thinks that these people are nobler and more authentic than Irish middle class.Yeats reconstructs the Irish images by combining the pre-colonial simplicity and postcolonial bravery.Chapter three investigates Yeats’ s reconstruction of Irish culture by means of Irish folklore,language and oriental thought.Irish folklore carries national history and culture and is the origin of national identity and dynamic force of its promotion which is the core of Irishness.In his creation,Yeats uses English in a hybrid form,both to promote Irish literature through a more general language and to resist Englishness by changing the form of English.Besides Irish themes,Yeats also absorbs oriental philosophical thoughts and subject matters to enrich Irishness.Finally the conclusion is drawn.Through depicting the Irish geographic space,national image and culture,Yeats reconstructs Irishness in his mind.Irishness should not only simply equals to Catholism and Gaelic.Moreover,it values the pristine homeland,the heroic national spirit and the rich culture legacy,and gives a picture of ideal Ireland,which is led by the noblest group of people,based on national cultural heritage and shapes an eternal nation of art.