Greek Mythin WBYeats

IIUC Studies, 2012

The folklore, myth, and legends of ancient Celtic traditions inspired William Butler Yeats a lot. By not falling into the trap of overly romanticizing his work, as many other authors of the time would do, Yeats was able to begin a tradition of another sort, the Irish literary tradition. By giving importance on the Irish culture in his work, Yeats fulfilled his own sense of national pride to the delight of his readers and audiences and to the chagrin of many of his English contemporaries who felt that nothing of value or worthy of study could come out of Ireland. From 1890 he was a member of the occult group of the Golden Dawn 1 , which fuelled his fascination with the mystic symbols of rosicrucianism and cabbalism. Because of these activities his thinking gave an emphasis on magic and apocalypticism that would remain a constant feature of his work. This article aims at exploring the Irish myth, folklore, occultism and the tradition that inspired William Butler Yeats.

The critical discussion I engage in this essay—illustrative of the politicizing not only of literature, but of literary study—was begun in the eighties, and fell silent in the late nineties, but it still matters for a couple of reasons. First, it concerns specifically the role of literature in creating cultural and political identities—the consequential praxis of any act of reading or writing: literary, critical, or otherwise. Second, with bigger fish to fry, the world seems to have forgotten Irish difficulties; the Irish, I presume, have not. Moreover, in an academe increasingly animated by debate about the nature and effect of globalization and the counter-current of (especially) American imperialism (political, economic, and cultural) in the East and in the West on “smaller” cultures and political systems, we had better not forget that when it comes to political and cultural imperialism we haven’t very far to look—in history or geography—for evidence that cultures and cultural identities under threat do not go quietly. Part I of this essay, “The Debate,” deals with the terms of a debate between Denis Donoghue and Seamus Deane as an extension of a decades-old argument about the way to read literary texts, and suggests that ideology is imminent in any programme of reading. Part II, “Donoghue’s Alternative,” deals with Donoghue’s own programme, which emphasizes the limits of form, but which ultimately fails to judge Yeats’ poetry and mythology without the force of cultural and ideological awareness. Part III, “Political Necessity,” tries to read “Ancestral Houses” as an individual poem, but quickly confirms the necessity of political and contextual awareness in engaging with any of Yeats’ poems as a constituent of a greater mythology which is itself ideologically oriented.

The paper intends to analyze the importance of Irish mythological heroes in the poetry of W.B.Yeats in the context of Irish nationalism. The Irish Literary Revival had its ramifications, as is quite evident from the inspiration which rebels got from the Irish legendary heroes like Finn, Oisin and Cuchulain in fighting against all odds for the sake of Irish soil. Yeats being a serious artist and staunch patriot was well aware about the importance of myths, folklore and legends in shaping the psyche of the common masses. The paper will try to highlight the significance of these mythological heroes as a source of inspiration for the Irish nationalists. Taking 'time and space' limitations into consideration, the main focus will be on Irish legendary heroes like Cuchulain and Oisin.

Platonisms: Ancient, Modern, and Postmodern. Ed. Kevin Corrigan and John D. Turner. NY: Brille, 2007. 205-18.

Academy Punlisher, 2014

This paper aims to go through mythological study of Keats’s odes in the light of Bakhtinian Dialogism. Thus, primarily it will discuss the traces of Greek mythology in Keats's odes, and then it will further argue its social and political implications resulting from the main concerns of his poetry about inseparable joint of pain and pleasure of human, expressed in the odes. Finally, dialogical nature of Keats’s odes indicated in a shared sense of mythology between the poet and reader will be dealt with.

Translating Myth, 2016

W.B. Yeats is one of the most prolific poet of his genre, whose poems had multifarious dimensions. This paper deals with the political vision of the poet. The political vision is found to be interpreted in terms of mythology, is the focal point of this paper. The colonization of the English power and the agonized turmoil of Ireland resulting to a trenchant degraded socio-political scenario are discussed herein.

Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 2006

While the tide of Keats's "La Belle Dame sans Merci" points to Alain Chartier's medieval poem as major source, there is an even earlier subtext suggesting itself in both the ballad's narrative and structure. As demonstrated in this paper, Keats's depiction of the relationship between the knight and the fairy-figure, between poetic ward and mysterious muse, ,refers to the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as it is presented in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Exceeding what can be regarded a fine example of creative reception, the recurrence to the classical tale of poetic inspiration and, as it were, despair adds a metapoetic level to "La Belle Dame." Playing on in a world that is depicted as having fallen silent, the ballad becomes a means for reviving orphic singing and enacts an encounter with antiquity, in which the poet's anxiety of belatedness is eventually overcome. Thereby Keats emerges as another Ovid or even a new writing, writing himself into a...

International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 2018

W. B. Yeats’s ‘King Oedipus’ is one of the most influential receptions of Greek tragedy in modern times. For this reason a large amount of scholarship surrounds it, but the literature has not explained what Yeats’s motivations were for appropriating the ‘Oedipus Rex’. This means that there is no current understanding for why Yeats’s ‘King Oedipus’ ever came about as an act of classical reception, and it has led to misinterpretations of events in the text’s genesis. The purpose of this study is to account for Yeats’s motivations and to emend the scholarship’s misreadings. This is achieved by explicating the link between the ‘Oedipus Rex’ and Yeats’s thoughts on Irish nationalism with its relation to censorship in Britain, which forms the basis of his motivations for appropriating the play. Once these factors are established, the events encompassing the writing of Yeats’s ‘Oedipus’ in its early years (1904-1912) are interpreted through the motivation for its creation. This shows how a race developed between Irish and British dramatists in attempting to stage the first Anglophone version. Yeats’s abandonment of the play in 1912 (for fourteen years) is explained through the loss of his motivations once Britain staged it first. These factors, amongst others, have been overlooked or inadequately explained by scholars because Yeats’s ‘Oedipus’ has not been addressed through his reasons for writing it. By tying together his motivations with the genesis of the text, this study explains the ‘King Oedipus’ in its essence as a work that receives the ‘Oedipus Rex’.

Scholia, 1997