Envisaging a Post-Colonial Theatre: W. B. Yeats and the Cuchulain Cycle of Plays Cover Image

Envisaging a Post-Colonial Theatre: W. B. Yeats and the Cuchulain Cycle of Plays
Envisaging a Post-Colonial Theatre: W. B. Yeats and the Cuchulain Cycle of Plays

Author(s): Ioana Mohor-Ivan
Subject(s): Anthropology, Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Nationalism Studies, Identity of Collectives
Published by: Editura Casa Cărții de Știință
Keywords: postcolonial studies; cultural nationalism; Irish theatre; Celtic myth; Noh drama; identity (re)construction;

Summary/Abstract: Starting from Edward Said‘s claim that W.B. Yeats‘s work should be seen as seminal in the process of Ireland‘s decolonisation, despite the artist‘s Ascendancy roots and Protestant sympathies, the paper focuses on the Yeatsian theatre as exemplified by the five plays which cluster around the figure of the Celtic hero Cuchulain (On Baile‘s Strand, The Golden Helmet, At The Hawk‘s Well, The Only Jealousy of Emer, and The Death of Cuchulain) in order to prove that the hybrid dramatic forms adopted by Yeats, which rework the Celtic myth within Greek and Japanese theatrical models, may be seen as a move away from "the regional nativism" characteristic of much of the Revival writings towards a "radically liberating" (Deane 1990: 5) vision on a ―contaminated‖ culture, characterised by plurality and dialogism. As such, the Cuchulain cycle of plays may be read not only as a reflection of the Yeatsian decolonising project, but also as an early instance of a postcolonial drama, whose hybrid paradigm subverts and revaluates both imperialist and nationalist assumptions on essentialist notions of identity.

  • Issue Year: 3/2016
  • Issue No: 06
  • Page Range: 102-111
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: English