On The Triple Aspects Of The Self In Yeats's Poetic Drama

The present thesis aims at investigating Yeats's poetics of the Self in his poetic dramas,"The Cat and the Moon," "At the Hawk Well," "The Player Queen" and "The Countess Cathleen," which are closely related with the theory of the self.Rooted in his mystical philosophy,the key word "self" takes its implications both from Yeats's theosophism and from Freudian and Jungian psychoanalysis.From three levels,this thesis endeavors to make a systematic analysis of the meanings of the self in Yeats's poetic drama and it is exemplified as individual self,anti-self and national self.This thesis consists of four chapters.Chapter One firstly analyzes the meanings of the self in Yeats's poetic dramas from three aspects.In Yeats's eyes,the human soul is divided into two sides:individual self and anti-self(antithetical self,second self and other self).Individual self nearly equals to Freud's Ego,which refers to "the first matter" or the original essential state of the personality.Anti-self refers to one's own intrinsic opposite or antithetical self and it is the recreation of his emotion. Only when one's individual self finds it anti-self and unifies with it consciously can one's personality achieve perfection.National self is defined as collective cultural self.Nations,races and individuals,which are unified and synthesized into the common collective value,cultural quintessence and kernel,are all involved in national self.In Chapter Two,the presentation of individual self is fully examined in more details in Yeats's poetic drama.It further investigates the communication between individual self and wisdom,the dialogue between individual self and soul,the complementary opposites between individual self and its daimon,all of which reflect the various aspects of Yeats's personalities.Chapter Three is a discussion of anti-self and its poetic representation in Yeats's poetic drama.Individual self and anti-self in Yeats's drama consistently interact and inter-conflict with each other. They also co-exist in a framework of dialectic unity,"each living the other's death and dying the other's life".In terms of unity,human can achieve the so-called "Unity of Being",the most consummative phase of individual's personality,in Yeats's philosophical system.Chapter Four focuses on the analysis of national self in the historical and cultural background.Yeats holds the view that only the nation,like the individuals,finds out various opposites within it and unifies them,can it realize the Irish cultural integration and the zenith of cultural achievement—the state of Unity of Culture.In Yeats's opinion,this perfect cultural integration symbolically exists in his Byzantium and in the times of Renaissance. Yeats believes that the poetic drama should represent the organic unification of three aspects of the self:individual self,anti-self and national self.Only through this unification,can poetry echo the individuality of the poet,evoke the spirit of the nation,and reconstruct the cultural identity of the nation.Therefore,the unique interpretation of three aspects of the self,which is permeated in Yeats's monumental poetic drama,is the source of Yeats's creation and at the same time transcends his experience of poetics and aesthetics.