W. B. Yeats's A Vision: Explications and Contexts (Clemson University Press)

Description

'W. B. Yeats's 'A Vision': Explications and Contexts' is the first volume of essays devoted to 'A Vision' and the associated system developed by W. B. Yeats and his wife, George. 'A Vision' is all-encompassing in its stated aims and scope, and it invites a wide range of approaches as demonstrated in the essays collected here, written by the foremost scholars in the field. The first six essays present explications of broader themes in 'A Vision' itself: the system's general principles; incarnate life and the Faculties; discarnate life and the Principles; how Yeats relates his own work to other philosophical approaches; and his consideration of the historical process. A further three essays include an examination of the elusive 'Thirteenth Cone', a consideration of astrological features in the automatic script, and a view of the poetry within 'A Vision'. The final five essays look at contextual themes, whether of collaboration and influence between husband, wife, and spirits, or with another poet or the gender perspective within these interrelations, the historical context of Golden-Dawn occultism or the broader political context of fascism in the 1920s and 1930s. Throughout, the different contributors take a variety of stances with regard to texts and the automatic script. This is an important contribution to Yeats scholarship in general and a landmark in studies of 'A Vision'. Clemson University TigerPrints 2012 W. B. Yeats's "A Vision": Explications and Contexts W. B. Yeats Recommended Citation Frontispiece Title Page Table of Contents List of Figures and Diagrams Preface Contributors Acknowledgments Abbreviations Neil Mann, "'Everywhere that antimony of the One and the Many': The Foundations of 'A Vision'" Rory Ryan, "The Is and the Ought, the Knower and the Known: An Analysis of the Four 'Faculties' in Yeats's System" Graham A. Dampier, "'The Spiritual Intellect's Great Work': A Discussion of the 'Principles' and 'A Vision's Account of Death" Charles I. Armstrong, "Ancient Frames: Classical Philosophy in Yeats's 'A Vision'" Matthew Gibson, "'Timeless and Spaceless'?--Yeats's Searf for Models of Interpretation in Post-Enlightenment Philosophy, Contemporary Anthropology and Art History, and the Effects of These Theories on 'The Completed Symbol,' 'The Soul in Judgment' and 'The Great Year of the Ancients'" Matthew DeForrest, "W. B. Yeats's 'A Vision': 'Dove or Swan'" Neil Mann, "The ' Thirteenth Cone'" Colin McDowell, "Shifting Sands: Dancing the Horoscope in the 'Vision Papers'" Wayne K. Chapman, "'Metaphors for Poetry': Concerning the Poems of 'A Vision' and Certain Plays for Dancers" Catherine E. Paul, "A Vision of Ezra Pound" Margaret Mills Harper, "Reflected Voices, Double Visions" Janis Haswell, "Yeats's 'Vision' and the Feminine" C. Nicholas Serra, "Esotericism and Escape" Claire V. Nally, "The Political Occult: Revisiting Fascism, Yeats and 'A Vision'" Glossary Index