On The Self-Exile Of W.H. Auden

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) was a leading poet of the generation following W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot in Anglo-American poetic history. In January of 1939 when he was at the height of his early celebrity in Britain and even in Europe, Auden suddenly departed from his native land and exiled himself to America. Approached from traditional biographical criticism, this thesis attempts to present a systematic analysis of Auden's voluntary exile, including his motivations for exile, his full embrace of exile, and the influence of exile on him.This thesis investigates Auden's motivations for exile at first. Since the mid-1930s, Auden began to feel disappointed with Britain and even with Europe. He meditated on the social and political functions of art and gradually retreated from political writing. Eventually he felt his growth and poetic creation had been greatly trapped. Increasing discomfort with his situation in Britain and motivations from his gay identity make it urgent for Auden to exile himself.This thesis analyses Auden's embrace of exile from two aspects, including his physical exile, i.e. his experience of living rootlessly in America, and his spiritual exile represented by his canonization of exile. Auden maintained that the traditional notion of people belonging to a certain place had lost its meaning. He canonized a neutral citizenship characterized by the displaced person exiling between or among nations rather than belonging to a certain one, because to him the state of exile was the ultimate community for mankind.Finally, this thesis explores the influence of exile on Auden. Auden's voluntary exile was of great significance to him both as a person and as a poet. By cutting him off from his roots, it freed him from previous troubles and offered him a scope he needed to complete a project of refashioning himself in life, belief and poetic creation. However, Auden could hardly avoid the unhealable traumas along with exile. He had to endure an eternal loss of domesticity, which incited his great concern with marriage and residence.Motivated by social, artistic and personal reasons, Auden chose to exile himself. He celebrated exile, and completed a project of self-refashioning. Though he changed his nationality, belief as well as poetic creation, these conversions implied his quest for speaking truthfully and pursuit of a better world for mankind.