Literary Theory Of William Butler Yeats

Yeats’Symbolism literature theory is a blend of western Mysticism, Symbolism in the east such as Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry and Noh. At the same time he wished to revive the Irish national literature. All these ideas together made Yeats’unique Symbolism theoretical system. Yeats deeply believed in western Mysticism. He believes that behind the objective world’memory’or’soul’does exist. It is the crystallization of all the memory in the history, similar to the’collective unconsciousness’. The writer is responsible to lead the people to get near to it, and the symbol is the key which leads to this sacred maze. At that time, Irish Romantic literature gradually decayed, Nationalism literature started to flourish. Yeats thought poets could arouse the sense of Irish national identity by using cultural symbols from mythology and legends and achieve the spiritual unity of Ireland. The kind of national literature Yeats advocated is not the kind of literature which acts as political slogans, it should be’non-political’and express the national spirit. Yeats also dismissed commercial dramas of that time and emphasized the literariness of the drama. He believed that poetic drama is the best type of dramas, and actors should draw the people’s attention to the poetic lines. Yeats held the denial attitude to the Romantic way of expressing emotions and encouraged the writers to reflect people’s emotions and the calls of the time with’Masks’. Yeats hoped this new type of national literature could help to awake the’memory’, set up the national self-confidence and get all the Irish together.This article is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is about Yeats’call for national literature. Yeats thought violent revolution could not realize spirit redemption and the Irish social condition at that time was calling for literary reform. He believed romantic personal lyric was outdated and literature should not act as slogans of political movements. Instead literature should reflect the culture and history of Ireland to rebuilt self-confidence and cultural identity among the Irish who had been deprived of their native language and to achieve the real unity of Ireland. The second chapter is the analyses of Yeats’Mysticism tendency. Yeats believed there is soul or memory behind the objective world so he advocated the poets to use the important symbols of human memory to arouse the memory of the old times for the readers. He encouraged Irish poets to use the symbols which had rich cultural implications to arouse the Irish national consciousness among the Irish. The third chapter describes the Symbolism of Yeats’ poetry ideas in detail. Yeats advocated using national theme in poetry. He believed that poets should use rational symbols and make them complement each other so as to strengthen the subject. In addition, he also encouraged the poets to create wonderful rhythm and harmonious images. The fourth chapter is Yeats’theory of drama. Yeats held the denial attitude to the popular commercial dramas of that time and advocated poetic dramas. Yeats believed that magnificent sceneries and costumes in commercial shows drew the audiences’attention from the dramas’poetic language which was the most core part of the dramas and should be the focus of audiences’attention. Yeats advocated writing dramas with the ancient themes to pour the ethnic culture into the scripts and fight against the British colonial culture. The fifth chapter analyses the Yeats’theory of ’mask’. Yeats believed the’mask’was also an important writing technique. The sound of the author disapears by using the mask. Multiple masks could express people’s emotion and lead the readers from experiencing the emotions of the author to the spiritual world behind the mask, which delivered the voice of the nation and the age and even drew the people near to the memory of human beings. These are the most important part of Yeats’ Symbolism system.