Irish Revival

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 527.

· aiming at preserving the language and culture

· “Celtic Twilight” W.B. Yeats (writer, poet, playwright) – to wake up cultural awareness of the Irish

· Irish language – language of the poor

· English was obligatory

Ireland – part of UK, fighting for the autonomy, treated as sth accidental partially culture was saved,

Celtic roots: language, literature, mythology, art

Cultural Initiative:

· National theatre – The Abbey Theatre (Dublin) -> 1901

· Lady Augusta Gregory – provided money for the promotion of the Irish drama, playwrights/literature

· Yeats (idea)

The Irish chose the continental tradition, not British one. They were more up-to-date.

Topics:

· Particular problems of the Irish

· Rich costumes, artificial decorations

· Language spoken in the street – contemporary

· Acting was important

· No celebrities, democratic projects

· In English (playwrights didn't know Irish) even Dublin audience didn't know Irish

Other playwrights:

· John Millington Synge (he didn't spread Irish well, his plays were in English

o “Riders to the sea” – a mythical tragedy based on Niobe, a woman who lost her children to sea

· Seán O'Casey- writes about the life of poor Irish people, (based on his life), a pacifist, his works were full of pity and compassion for human suffering, humorous (a lot of comedies, ironic effects)

· William Butler Yeats

o Problems with money of church were superficial for him, there was sth deeper

o Drama should be more profound (god existence, death, meaning of life)

o He was a mystic (he thought you can commune with souls, reach the world beyond (as Blake said)

o Art can push people further, open your mind to other works

o French symbolists poetry as his inspiration

o The idea of symbols:

§ Sea - human life as a journey

§ Harp – symbol of poetry

§ Boat – our existence inspiration

o Japanese theatre – Noh plays (dance masked plays, short, few acts, no imitation of reality, bare scenery, clothes not of of ordinary people, monologues, recitations of words just

speaking, no action)

o His plays were not for simple, ordinary people, they were elitist, commercially a total disaster, they made people think

o “The Land of Heart's Desire”

o Yeat's Poetry:

§ Symbolic, some imagery

§ “The second coming”, “Sailing to Byzantium”

§ Poetry can be a way of understanding and transgressing one's mind

§ Love poems

o A book: “A Vision”

WYKŁAD 14