Yeats, Shakespeare, and Irish Cultural Nationalism [Paperback]

Hennessey examines the role of Shakespeare within the discourse of Irish cultural nationalism and the work of W. B. Yeats. An evolving figure, Yeatss Shakespeare remained central to the Irish writers aesthetics and nationalist cultural agenda throughout his career. Hennessey demonstrates how Yeats interpreted and appropriated Shakespeares works, characters, and cultural authority to advance the Irish Revival and help write himself into the history of Irish nationalism. Shakespeares literary reputation was mythologized to promote Englands diverse political and cultural agendas. Yeats de-Anglicized Shakespeare and claimed that one should distinguish the Elizabethans sensibility from that of 'English' modernity. For Yeats, Irelands premodern folk culture emulated the culture that had inspired the dramatic genius. Hennessey shows three evolving stages of Yeatss Shakespeare: a premodern 'folk' Shakespeare, a 'symbolist' Shakespeare, and a cultural authority whom Yeats used to measure the inferior nationalistic culture of the burgeoning Irish state. Hennesseys study contributes to a fuller understanding of Yeatss nationalist thought, his identity politics, his aesthetics, and the role Shakespeares figure played within these contexts. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.This book examines Yeatss writing about Shakespeare in the contexts of his work on behalf of the Irish Literary Revival and contemporary trends in Shakespeare reception. These prose pieces reveal Yeats thinking about Shakespeares art and times throughout his career, and taken together they offer a new perspective on the contours of Yeatss cultural politics.Yeats, Shakespeare, and Irish Cultural Nationalism examines Yeatss writing on Shakespeare in the context of his work on behalf of the Irish Literary Revival. While Shakespeares verse drama provides a source of inspiration for Yeatss poetry and plays, Yeats also writes about Shakespeare in essays and articles plƒ,