Writing for a cause: building a national identity through literature : the case of W.B. Yeats and the Irish National Revival

Abstract

The aim of the thesis is to explore the potential that literature can have in studying mechanisms of identity building and identity shaping on the national level. National identity being defined as a cultural construct, my approach to the analysis will be from a cultural perspective, through literature. For this reason I intend to study a period from the many troubled ones in Ireland through the works of the Nobel Laureate in literature, William Butler Yeats. The aim is to try out a more or less unconventional approach to the studies of national identity and nationalism and set up a model through which other nationalisms could be analyzed through literature. The thesis builds on the assumption that literature, through themes specific elements, can have a significant influence on the way in which national identity is constructed and represented and in this respect, can be used as a tool in nation-building processes. It can be used as a tool in nation-building as a form of cultural revival for a nation through imagining a common past and a common future. It can be used as a tool also in a more imaginative way, in trying to create common identities where there has never been one as William Butler Yeats did. To what degree literature was and is part of this evolution of the Irish events remains, I must emphasize, an open question due to the highly subjective nature of both literature and nationalism. Nevertheless, the potential influence that literature can have is worth exploring on a larger scale