예이츠와 소포클레스의 오이디푸스

Abstract

This article surveys the correlation between Yeats’s translation of the two Oedipus plays of Sophocles, Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus, and Yeats’s own plays so that the development of Yeats as dramatist may be explored. In the first place, this article examines why Yeats had the long-standing interest in staging Sophocles’ tragedy. The reasons are explained in relation to Yeats’s tragic tendency and political purpose. Then the long and complex process of completing Yeats’s Oedipus project is pursued mainly on the basis of Clark and McGuire’s W. B. Yeats: The Writing of “Sophocles’ King Oedipus” (1989). In particular, this article concentrates on the time when Yeats decided to write his own version of Oedipus and the reason why the project had a long dormant period before it restarted and finally was completed in 1927. In the final place, the effects the Oedipus project had upon Yeats’s own plays are studied through a comparative analysis between Yeats’s translation of the two Oedipus plays and his other plays. On Baile’s Strand (1904) and The Herne’s Egg (1938) are treated to figure out the similarities between Oedipus and Yeats’s heroes such as Cuchulain and Congal. In addition, The Resurrection (1931) and Purgatory (1939) are dealt with to reveal the mysterious death of the old Oedipus at Colonus and the new perspective of death and old age it offers to Yeats. In conclusion, this article claims the Oedipus project made significant influence upon Yeats as playwright, so that the result pervaded nearly the whole plays of Yeats.