The Question of Irish Identity in the Writings of William Butler Yeats and James Joyce

310 Pages·1998·2.141 MB·English

by  Eugene O'Brien

THE QUESTION OF IRISH IDENTITY IN THE WRITING
OF W. B. YEATS AND JAMES JOYCE
ii
THE QUESTION OF IRISH IDENTITY IN THE WRITING
OF W. B. YEATS AND JAMES JOYCE

BY

EUGENE O’BRIEN
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To Áine, Eoin, Dara and Sinéad
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xiii

INTRODUCTION: NEGATIVE IDENTITY: ADORNO, LEVINAS,
DERRIDA 1
CHAPTER 1: SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL NOTIONS OF IRISH
IDENTITY
(i) The backward look: the centripetal past 25
(ii) Vectors of national definition 34
(iii) Tara to Holyhead: The Centrifugal Vector 50
(iv) Defenders and United Irishmen: Two Views of Irish Identity 64
CHAPTER 2: THE QUESTION OF LANGUAGE
(i) What ish my language? 87
(ii) Centripetal Revival 94
(iii) Revival or redefinition? 109
CHAPTER 3: YEATS: VOICES OF MYTH – VOICES OF CRITIQUE

(i) Yeats and the creation of an Irish mythology 123
(ii) From creation to critique 150
(iii) Cuchulain discomforted 164
CHAPTER 4: JOYCE: A COMMODIUS VICUS OF RECIRCULATION

(i) Joycean epistemology of identity 183
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(ii) Nets that must be flown by 207
(iii) Emigration as trope 216
(iv) Patrick W. Shakespeare 225
CONCLUSION: TOWARDS AN ETHICS OF COMMUNITY 249
WORKS CITED 253
BIBLIOGRAPHY: W. B. YEATS AND JAMES JOYCE 265
INDEX 273

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Foreword

The purpose of this study is to foreground the ethical consequences of the attitudes
to Irishness, and to Irish identity, that are to be found in the writings of William
Butler Yeats and James Joyce. It is my contention that their work enunciates an
ethical definition of Irishness which has overt and covert political and societal
implications for Ireland today.

While there are many justified caveats entered in the field of academic study about
the dangers of any imbrication of the literary, the aesthetic, and the political,
nevertheless, I intend to argue that there are concomitant positive and emancipatory
results of such an imbrication, and that these results have ethical implications for
notions of Irishness and of community. Hence, I propose to theorize the different
aspects of Irishness that are to be found in both writers, by contrasting them with
others that were hegemonic at that time through an articulation of the theoretical
writings of Theodore Adorno, Emmanuel Levinas, and Jacques Derrida.

Given that this study has been written during the ongoing peace talks in Northern
Ireland, talks wherein definitions and categorizations of ‘Irishness’ have been
crucial, I feel that this book is a timely exploration of issues dealing with the literary,
political and ethical dimensions of Irish culture and identity.
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