예이츠의 신화적 공간과 영토적 정체성

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore mythological place and territorial identity in Ireland in Yeats' poems and proses. Territorial nationalism is the desire to revive spiritually to its own territorial rights. Irish people who opposed British imperialism have tried to find true Irishness. As a result, they strengthened the meanings of place, thrived to revive Gaelic and recognized the plurality of identities between England and Ireland. At first, Yeats regards the undeveloped and primitive ground in Ireland as divine ground, or the place of soul. His territorial consciousness of Ireland is instinctive, unconscious and spiritual, so it surpasses the industrial society of England. The mythological hero that Yeats created is also related to Ireland's territorial dignity. Druidism is the religion that had been practised by the Irish native monks called Druids, and is used in Yeats' mythological imagery. Yeats thinks of the divine ground as Arcady, which pursues its ideal,ultimate and romantic character. He may think that Ireland was the beauty of unattainable perfection. We can know this attitude through the first and second “Irish Literary Movement,” that Yeats participated in. Those movements resisted the British-centered discourses in terms of culture in literature. Therefore, Yeats applied to the territorial identity in his poetry to make Irish nationalism come true. In addition, his interpretation and attitude toward the mythology in his poetry represented both romantic and idealistic Irish nationalism.