Yeats and degeneration

We take Yeats's word for it that he and his generation were "the last romantics", but that still blinds us to the power of certain aspects of the romantic ideology or ideologies which he shared with his contemporaries. Even more so, it glamourises for us the applications of that ideology in his construction of the idea of Ireland and the very specific role it plays in his poetry. I am concerned here with only one aspect of this enterprise, although I would argue that it is central to an under..

Classical texts in post-colonial literatures: consolation, redress and new beginnings in the work of Derek Walcott and Seamus Heaney

This article examines the ambivalent relationships between classical texts and post-colonial literatures in English, with special reference to the work of Derek Walcott and Seamus Heaney. It is argued that analysis of the formal, discursive and contextual relationships between ancient and modern in poetry and drama reveals significant correspondences as well as important differences between the literary and political role of the Classical Tradition in Caribbean and Irish writing. These can be revealed and explained by the writers' balance between ideas of consolation, redress and new beginnings. This in turn opens the way to re-assessment of some of the models of appropriation, creativity and dialogue which have been used in recent research into both Reception Studies and Post-Colonial Literatures

Studies on W.B. Yeats

Dans ce recueil convergent différents regards sur la poésie de W.B. Yeats. Ces pages le situent par rapport à d’autres poètes comme MacNeice. Elles nous promènent aussi des premiers volumes, où l’espace de l’écriture devient l’écriture de l’espace, à Responsabilities, volume qui témoigne d’une intensité qu’Ezra Pound qualifie de « robustesse nouvelle », puis à travers les thèmes sexuels, politiques et esthétiques de Michael Robartes and the Dancer. Nous abordons ensuite les grands poèmes de la maturité avec The Tower. Cet ouvrage envisage également des sujets généraux, comme l’importance de la tradition pour Yeats, sa conception de l’au-delà avec la dette envers l’Inde en particulier, son attitude face à la dégénérescence, sa vision de l’Apocalypse avec le symbole de la spirale. D’autres études se concentrent sur certains grands poèmes tels que « The Circus Animais Desertion », qui tisse ensemble et la vie et l’art, ou « Lapis Lazuli » et la notion de « joie tragique ».In this book, different perspectives on W. B. Yeats' poetry converge. These pages place him in relation to other poets such as MacNeice. They also take us from the first volumes, where the space of writing becomes the writing of space, to Responsabilities, a volume that reflects an intensity that Ezra Pound calls "new robustness", and then through the sexual, political and aesthetic themes of Michael Robartes and the Dancer. We then discuss the great poems of maturity with The Tower. This book also considers general topics, such as the importance of tradition for Yeats, his conception of the afterlife with the debt to India in particular, his attitude towards degeneration, his vision of the Apocalypse with the symbol of the spiral. Other studies focus on some major poems such as "The Circus Animais Desertion", which weaves together life and art, or "Lapis Lazuli" and the notion of "tragic joy"