Proceedings of The 5th International Conference on Research in Humanities and Social Sciences
Year: 2021
DOI:
Cathleen, Celticism, and Cosmos: The Prototype of W. B Yeats’s Vision in Cathleen ni Houlihan
Zheng FANG
ABSTRACT:
Cathleen ni Houlihan is one of William Butler Yeats’s plays that has been the subject of considerable critics for its evident nationalist theme. To broaden Yeats’s envision of Ireland, the research, instead of focusing on nationalism, approaches with Yeats’s employment of Celtic esoteric elements, as well as his cyclic historicism to explore the prototype of his philosophical system in this early stage work. To be specific, through textual analysis of three dynamic images that the mythical character Cathleen expresses, as well as the interaction between allegorical meanings of Cathleen and Yeats’s cyclic philosophical system, the article will present a microcosmic sight of Yeats’s vision of mythological transcendence of Ireland.
keywords: Cathleen ni Houlihan; Celtic myth; Cyclicality.