아일랜드 문학전통에 있어서 예이츠의 정체성 문제

Abstract

It seems to me that the most important reason Yeats was not recognized as a great Irish writer by modern Irish people and critics, was that he was an Anglo-Irish writer. Therefore, the main purpose of this thesis is to revaluate him as an Irish writer from the viewpoint of post-colonialism by examining the question of Yeats’ status in Irish literary tradition and to research how the question of Irish identity has had an effect on him. To achieve this purpose, this paper investigates the difference between Ireland and Britain in the definition of Anglo-Irish literary tradition, the question of Irish literary scope, the relationship between Yeats and Irish literary tradition, and the discussion of relating the Irish Literary Renaissance to the question of Anglo-Irish identity. It has also suggested that Yeats’ definition of Irishness is very different from that of the Gaelic and Celtic revivalists and that his argument that ‘nationhood’ is determined, not by his native place․religion․language․culture, but by the force of his own will of the nation where he wants to live in. Conclusively, this thesis has suggested that we should regard Yeats not as an English writer, but as an Irish writer who made a significant contribution to Irish literary tradition and national literature, if we accept the fact that Irish literature was any literature written by a person of Irish birth or a person born elsewhere who chooses to live in Ireland, identify himself with Ireland, and write in an Irish context.