Yeats’ Imagined Ireland and Postcolonial Theory

Abstract

Abstract:

In the light of various authoritative definitions of the word ‘culture’, such as those expressed by Edward Said and Raymond Williams, the present paper investigates W. B. Yeats’ idea of Irish culture and explores the poet’s position regarding several crucial concepts which would eventually be taken up in ground-breaking studies of post- colonial theories, such as the “invention of tradition” (Hobsbawm & Ranger 1983), “imaginary/invented countries” (Kiberd 1995) and the “un-homed condition of the artist” (Bhabha 1994) in a postcolonial / postmodern society. This paper intends to explore the  often confusing and misleading use of fixed notions of ‘culture’, ‘identity’ and ‘tradition’ when employed to describe complex systems, and to show Yeats’ conscious and deliberate or culture-bound use of such terms in his own definition of Irish culture.

DOI:-

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