| Words Alone: Yeats and His Inheritances Contributor(s): Foster, R. F. (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 019964165X ISBN-13: 9780199641659 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA OUR PRICE: $18.99 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 2013 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh - Literary Criticism | Poetry - Literary Criticism | Drama |
| Dewey: 821.8 |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 5.1" W x 7.6" (0.60 lbs) 256 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - British Isles - Chronological Period - 19th Century - Cultural Region - Ireland |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: R. F. Foster's two-volume biography of Yeats was hailed in the New York Review of Books as a triumph of scholarship, thought, and empathy such as one would hardly have thought possible in this age of disillusion. Now, Foster turns his focus to the largely unacknowledged influences that shaped the young W. B. Yeats. So dramatic and revolutionary was Yeats' impact on Irish literature that the writers and traditions that preceded him are often overlooked, just as his successors are often overshadowed by his achievement. In Words Alone, Foster explores the Irish literary traditions that preceded Yeats, including romantic national tales in post-Union Ireland and Scotland, the nationalist poetry and polemic of the Young Ireland movement, the occult and supernatural fictions of Sheridan LeFanu, the peasant fictions of William Carleton, and the fairy-lore and folktale collections Yeats absorbed. As well as placing these nineteenth-century literary movements in a rich contemporary context of politics, polemic, and social tension, Foster discusses recent critical and interpretive approaches to these phenomena. But the unifying theme throughout the book is the self-conscious use Yeats made of his literary predecessors during his own apprenticeship, particularly in the construction of his path-breaking early work. |