A Study Of Heroic Writing In The Cuchulain Plays Of W.B.Yeats

William Butler Yeats’ s dramatist identity has long been hidden by his renowned poetic reputation.As an outstanding person of the Irish dramatic movement,Yeats’ s many plays both have aesthetic value and practical significance,which were undiscovered treasures of modern English drama.The Cuchulain plays series have five plays,written over several decades,which is undoubtedly the culmination of Yeats’ s dramatic productions,and one of the central themes linking the plays is the writing of the hero,Cuchulain.The adventure of legendary heroes have always been a popular literary theme among people in different times,places and nationalities,the hero is not only a classic literary figure but also a symbol of the precious human spirit recognized by the collective.For the people who have grown up and lived in former colony,writing about their own heroes is a return to the long-oppressed and fading national spirit,while for the writers themselves,writing about a hero is also a complete and deliverance for their ego.In The Cuchulain Plays,Yeats first identifies the key stages of Cuchulain’s life by drawing and adapting Irish-Celtic myth and legend,then skillfully adapts the archetypal model of the romantic legendary hero common in Western literature.Then he linked his national sentiments to the anti-colonial struggle of this times,and incorporated his philosophical ideas into the plays.In the end,he created the “Yeats’ s hero”,that is both deeply personal and universally instructive.On the linguistic forms,these plays are written by the language of the foreign colonialist,and the dialogues between the characters have poetic beauty,this is an excellent example for how to intellectuals from other colonist could achievement the cultural decolonization.In form and structure,the three later Cuchulain plays are representative of Yeats’ s experimental theatre,which draws on and assimilates the artistic characteristics of Japanese Noh.The high artistic quality of these plays demonstrates the possibility of a fusion of Eastern and Western literature.There are three chapters in this Dissertation.The first chapter takes the Archetype criticism as starting point,by analyses the plots and elements of the five Cuchulain plays,to search for the original mythological and legendary sources,and summarizes the consistency of the structural pattern of the series with the romantic legendary hero archetype,which complied by scholars such as Northrop Frye and Joseph Campbell.Then clarify the representative characteristics inherent in the specific type of literary hero group.The second chapter explores the specific figure of the main character Cuchulain in this series of poetic dramas,there have three levels: archetype and nation,reality and times,ego and philosophy.Drawing on archetypal theory,postcolonial theory,Nietzsche’s (?)bermensch philosophy theory,and linking Yeats’ s life experience,national theater career and literary theory,to discover the multiple connotations and special meanings that Yeats given into Cuchulain.In the series of poetic dramas,Cuchulain have three connotations: the hero of national mythology,the hero of Irish anti-colonial culture,and the symbolic hero of Yeats’ s philosophy.The third chapter explains the significance and value of Yeats’ s heroic writing through The Cuchulain plays,mainly from three dimensions: the artistic practice of the writer’s heroic ideal,the outstanding expression of cultural decolonization,and the specific explanations of the poet’s mysterious thought system.A study of the heroic writing of The Cuchulain plays will undoubtedly be a key to open Yeats’ s literary palace.