How To Be Irish:the Polemic And Transmutation Of Irishness In Irish Literary Revival

The Irish Revival,which took place between 1891 and 1922,is a cultural movement concerning politics,language and literature.It also profoundly influenced Irish national psychology and literary style.Since the colonial experience had made Irish people suffer from the loss of national identity.Faced with increasing cultural crisis,the Irish Revival assumed the task of seeking political rights and rediscovering national tradition,particularly the lost "Irishness".Irish Literary Revival,as a reflection of Irish Revival into Irish literary circle,is double-sided at the outset:it was both a romantic return to the Celtic past and a fermented political fever.Irish Literary Theatre,the predecessor of the Abbey Theatre,proclaimed to make "a Celtic Irish Dramatic Literature" and became a prominent school of Irish Revivalist literature.Nevertheless,it could not eschew the fate of being intertwined with nationalist ethos before eventually disillusioned by the dire possibility of uniting Ireland though culture.The thesis therefore attempts to probe into the cause of writing Irishness and its various expressions at the Revi'val,the conflicts and collaboration between literary Irishness and nationalist ideology,the transmutation of the concept in literature and implications that can be drawn from Irish Literary Revival.Irishness is an everchanging concept by nature,doubled with both political and cultural discourse,which offers possibilities for negotiation and reinvention:In terms of seeking Irishness a proper literary expression,W.B.Yeats,J.M.Synge,Douglas Hyde and Lady Gregory had different literary practices through discovering resources from the Western Ireland,peasant figure,Hiberno-English and Celtic folklore.However,whether they treated Irishness fairly and faithfully in their works are open to questioning:their Ascendancy roots give them a different perspective in choosing the subject matter of Irish national literary;as professed Gaelic League supporters,they showed preference of English writing over Irish;Synge's "authentic" representation of Irish country life aroused riots as a result of many cultural confrontations.Controversies arose over the above issues.The debate between nationalists and revivalists as well as within the revivalists accelerated the transmutation of Irishness in late Revivalist literature,which is marked by skepticism and detachment:James Joyce's abandonment of parochialism;W.B.Yeats's renewed interest in Orientalism as well as Sean O'Casey's interrogation of militant nationalism.Their efforts to give Irishness a second explanation breathe new life into Irish Revivalist literature and inspired their successors to view Irishness in a wider scope as Ireland is now a republic embracing the whole world.