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

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Foregrounds the ethical consequences of the attitudes to Irishness and to Irish identity in the work of the two Irish writers, contending that their writing enunciates an ethical definition of Irishness that has overt and covert political and societal implications for an Ireland in the midst of peace talks. Theorizes the different aspects of Irishness found in the two by contrasting them with others that were hegemonic at the time, drawing on the theoretical efforts of Adorno, Levinas, and Derrida. Double spaced. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or. THE QUESTION OF IRISH IDENTITY IN THE WRITING OF W. B. YEATS AND JAMES JOYCE THE QUESTION OF IRISH IDENTITY IN THE WRITING OF W. B. YEATS AND JAMES JOYCE BY EUGENE O’BRIEN To Áine and Eoin, Paul and Katie, Alice and Bill, Foreword Preface Acknowledgements INTRODUCTION Negative Identity: Adorno, Levinas, Derrida CHAPTER 1 SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL NOTIONS OF IRISH IDENTITY (i) The backward look: the centripetal past (ii) Vectors of national definition (iii) Tara to Holyhead: The Centrifugal Vector (iv) Defenders and United Irishmen: Two Views of Irish Identity CHAPTER 2 THE QUESTION OF LANGUAGE What ish my language? (ii) Centripetal Revival (iii) Revival or redefinition? CHAPTER 3 YEATS: VOICES OF MYTH – VOICES OF CRITIQUE (i) Yeats and the creation of an Irish mythology (ii) From creation to critique Know, that I would accounted be I MADE my song a coat Old Butlers when you took to horse and stood (iii) Cuchulain discomforted ‘Whether under its daylight or its stars ‘But you have grown to be the taller man.’ ‘Yet somewhere under starlight or the sun ‘Aged, worn out with wars ‘Your head a while seemed like a woman’s head And through that new blade’s guard the old blade ‘Cuchulain I, mighty Cuchulain’s son.’ CHAPTER 4 JOYCE: A COMMODIUS VICUS OF RECIRCULATION (i) Joycean epistemology of identity Nets that must be flown by Stephen Dedalus (iii) Emigration as trope (iv) Patrick W. Shakespeare Conclusion: Towards an ethics of community WORKS CITED Bibliography: W. B. Yeats and James Joyce Bibliographies of critical work on W. B. Yeats A chronology of the writings of W. B. Yeats Bibliographies of critical work on James Joyce A chronology of the writings of James Joyce: