Primitivism, Science, and the Irish Revival [Hardcover]

What is the relevance of the Irish Revival to modernism? Why did Yeats's vision of a theatre for Ireland take a ritual form? What was so incendiary about J. M. Synge's vision of the Irish peasantry? These are among the questions that Garrigan Mattar seeks to answer by exploring the primitivism of the Irish Revival in relation to comparative science.

Introduction
1. The Rise of Celtology
2. Yeats, Celticism, and Comparative Science
3. Yeats's Ritual of Revolt
4. The Passing of the Shee: John Millington Synge
5. Lady Gregory: The Primitive Picturesque
Conclusion