Irish Identity and the Literary Revival: Synge, Yeats, Joyce and O'Casey.

Irish Identity and the Literary Revival: Synge, Yeats, Joyce and O'Casey. In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that modern Irishliterature Irish literature:see Gaelic literature. is in many ways a paradigm case of post-colonial (or, as Iprefer, post-colonization) literature. It shares a range of politicalthemes and literary devices with the literatures of India, Africa, andthe Caribbean, and it is involved with these literatures in relations ofinfluence which define a sort of loose post-colonization tradition. Forexample, Irish writers were among the first to use"indigenous" forms of English toward aesthetic ends. Writerssuch as Synge reacted against the colonialist derogation The partial repeal of a law, usually by a subsequent act that in some way diminishes its Original Intent or scope.Derogation is distinguishable from abrogation, which is the total Annulment of a law. DEROGATION, civil law. of Irishdialect - a derogation particularly prominent in the "stageIrishman" - and showed the beauty and gravity of Hiberno-Englishspeech patterns. This focus on "the cadence and idiom of indigenousspeech subsequently became centrally important to such Indian writers asRao, such African authors as Tutuola, Achebe, and Soyinka, and suchCaribbean writers as Selvon, Lovelace, and Bennett.As to narrative content, structure, and object, Douglas Hyde, W. B.Yeats, Lady Gregory, James Gregory, James,1638–75, Scottish mathematician. He invented a reflecting telescope (1661), which he described in his Optica promota (1663). In 1668 he became professor of mathematics at the Univ. of St. Stephens, James Stephens, James,1882–1950, Irish poet and fiction writer, b. Dublin. One of the leading figures of the Irish literary renaissance, Stephens is best known for his fanciful and highly colored prose writings—The Crock of Gold (1912), The Demi Joyce, Flann O'Brien,and, later, Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (IPA: /ˈʃeɪməs ˈhiːni/) (born 13 April 1939) is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. He currently lives in Dublin. revived characters and tales and modes ofstorytelling from the Irish epics of the past and the oral traditions ofthe present. This approach is pervasive in other post-colonizationwriting too, from Tagore to Rushdie and Karnad, from Tutuola to Amadi,Soyinka, and Okri. Paired with the focus on myth and folklore, writerssuch as O'Casey, Joyce, O'Connor, Kavanagh, Behan, and others,sought to present a realistic portrait of the Irish as full, humanindividuals in a society suffering under colonialism and, at the sametime, to criticize the all too frequent narrowness, religious animosity,and provincialism pro��vin��cial��ism?n.1. A regional word, phrase, pronunciation, or usage.2. The condition of being provincial; lack of sophistication or perspective. Also called provinciality.3. of Irish society The Irish Society may refer to: The Honourable The Irish Society The Society of the United Irishmen Benevolent Irish Society . This too is nearly ubiquitous, asinstanced in such writers as Markandaya, Emecheta, Naipaul, Ngugi, AttiaHosain Attia Hosain is a writer, feminist and broadcaster. She was born in 1913 in Lucknow of a privileged background. She moved to Britain in 1947. BiographyAttia was born in Lucknow and went to the local La Martiniere Girls' College. , and many of those already mentioned.One deep concern of writers in all these different traditions - and,indeed, one deep concern of writers from all denigrated groups - iscultural identity. An oppressor OPPRESSOR. One who having public authority uses it unlawfully to tyrannize over another; as, if he keep him in prison until he shall do something which he is not lawfully bound to do. 2. To charge a magistrate with being an oppressor, is therefore actionable. stands with his/her foot on my throat,and repeats, "You are nothing; you are dirt beneath my shoes."First of all, I struggle to free myself. But when the insult has beenrepeated over and over, the imagery of nothingness and dirt sinks in andleads me to ask, "What am I really? I cannot be nothing."Brief brutality leads us to question the identity of the oppressor("Who is he to judge me?"). Enduring brutality leads us toquestion our own identity. There are differences, of course, across thecontinents. To the African, the oppressor says, "You have noculture; you are an animal." To the Indian, he/she says, "Youhave no culture now; you are a decrepit de��crep��it?adj.Weakened, worn out, impaired, or broken down by old age, illness, or hard use. See Synonyms at weak.[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin d old fool." To the Irish,he/she says, "You have no culture; you are almost an animal - butat least you are not an African." This sets one group againstanother, fosters a sort of sub-racism among the oppressed. Nonetheless,it leaves them all asking the same question, seeking the same sense ofcultural self.Following the pattern of all concern with identity (even the bare andbasic identity of material objects), Irish, Indian, African, Caribbeanwriters tried to think their cultural identity in terms of distinctnessand continuity; they sought a causal sequence extending back throughhistory to a time before colonialism, a tradition whose origins areseparate from those of the colonizer, and a tradition which stillpervades the self-conception and ordinary activity of the colonizedgroup. Indeed, the thread which links the colonized people with theirpast, and thus defines their cultural identity, is not only differentfrom, but opposed to the thread defining the oppressor. It is not merelythat Irish or Indian or African or Caribbean continuity isdistinguishable from English continuity. The two must share noproperties; they must be colored differently, spun from differentmaterials, and they must not intertwine or overlap. All cultures arevastly more similar than different. One central lesson of the continuingChomskyan revolution in linguistics is that language differences aremerely the changeable surface glittering above a vast sea of humancommunality. But colonialism renders that surface still more salient,and the underlying ocean more obscure. It is, in effect, all surface.Nationalist identity necessarily follows the colonial lead in thisstress on difference and superficies SUPERFICIES. A Latin word used among civilians. It signifies in the edict of the praetor whatever has been erected on the soil, quidquid solo inoedificdtum est. Vide Dig. 43, tit. 18, 1. 1 and 2. .Watson and Roche take up these and related issues, fitting Irishliterature within the larger category of post-colonization literature,in effect if not in intent. Watson's book is a second edition, withonly very slight changes, of a volume originally published in 1979. Itwas and is a work of great value. Indeed, it is a work of more obviousvalue today than formerly, given the interest in cultural identity whichhas been spurred by post-colonial studies. Interestingly, Watson seemsentirely unaware of this link. Indeed, in his new preface, he seeks toexplain why it is valuable to study the issue of identity, assuming thathe is alone in this putatively outmoded enterprise. Of course, Watson isright that there is much debate today over the value of speaking aboutidentity, affirming a Black, or African, or Indian, or Woman's - orIrish - identity. But Watson is not affirming an Irish identity. Rather,he is exploring the ways in which it was affirmed - and imagined, anddebated, and denied, and revised, and contested. Indeed, far from beingdevoted to a marginal topic, this work seems to me to treat the verycentral issues in post-colonization study today.There is one way in which Watson's worries about intellectualfashion may be well founded. Many readers will be disappointed thatWatson does not embrace recent trends in literary theory. However, to mymind, this is in no way lamentable la��men��ta��ble?adj.Inspiring or deserving of lament or regret; deplorable or pitiable. See Synonyms at pathetic.lamen��ta��bly adv. . Methodologically, the book combineshistorical scholarship with close textual analysis. Watson is a carefulscholar and a careful reader. In consequence, his analyses are, mostoften, lucid and insightful. Moreover, Watson says what he means. Hetries to communicate his points clearly and he seeks to present evidencefor his conclusions. If Watson thinks that Yeats was ambivalent aboutthe peasantry, that Yeats often held stereotypical views about thepeasantry, and that such ambivalence and stereotypes showed up inYeats's plays, then that is what Watson says; he does not rephrase re��phrase?tr.v. re��phrased, re��phras��ing, re��phras��esTo phrase again, especially to state in a new, clearer, or different way. his point in search of Delphic obscurantism.On the other hand, I do feel that there is one significantmethodological weakness in the book - the relative absence of attentionto material conditions. The history discussed by Watson is primarilycultural and intellectual history. The relative absence of economicanalysis, attention to class relations, to the relations of ownership,production, and distribution in the rural Ireland of Yeats and Synge orthe urban Ireland of Joyce and O'Casey, sometimes leads tosuperficial analyses. The point can be illustrated with a briefquotation from the new preface: "in 1994, people are still beingkilled over the issue of Irish identity" (5). Certainly, it wouldbe wrong to adopt a vulgar materialist view that the only conflict inNorthern Ireland is a class conflict. But it is, I think, far more wrongto adopt the idealist view that it is entirely or even primarily anideological conflict about identity. The fragmentation of the NorthernIrish working class along religious lines is a real fragmentation withreal economic conditions and consequences. It is not simply determinedby relations of ownership, production, and distribution, but it is farfrom a mere matter of chauvinistic identification and group narcissism narcissism(närsĭs`ĭzəm), Freudian term, drawn from the Greek myth of Narcissus, indicating an exclusive self-absorption. In psychoanalysis, narcissism is considered a normal stage in the development of children. .The ideologies of Northern Ireland are thoroughly intermeshed Adj. 1. intermeshed - caught as if in a mesh; "enmeshed in financial difficulties"enmeshedtangled - in a confused mass; "pushed back her tangled hair"; "the tangled ropes"2. with theeconomics of the region; one cannot be separated from the other withoutdistortion.The opening chapter of Irish Identity provides a clear and usefuloverview of the colonial denigration den��i��grate?tr.v. den��i��grat��ed, den��i��grat��ing, den��i��grates1. To attack the character or reputation of; speak ill of; defame.2. of the Irish and the consequentconcern of Irish nationalist writers with the theme of nationalidentity. Watson stresses the cultural colonialism of the Englisheducation system (a recurrent theme in India, Africa, and the Caribbeanas well), and the sense of discontinuity with Irish tradition that thiscreates. This sense of discontinuity, Watson tells us, leads somewriters to try to re-establish continuity, usually in an idealized form.But it leads other writers to "come to tolerant terms with afractured [more fashionable writers might say 'hybrid']culture" (21).Watson first considers the idealizing strain. He gives some importantbackground from political nationalists, but concentrates on theAnglo-Irish literary figures who participated in this idealization idealization/ide��al��iza��tion/ (i-de?il-i-za��shun) a conscious or unconscious mental mechanism in which the individual overestimates an admired aspect or attribute of another person. ofthe Irish peasant. Watson carefully plots out the problems ofAnglo-Irish identity, the sense shared by Yeats, Synge, Bowen, andothers, that they were neither completely English nor completely Irish.He stresses that "the Anglo-Irish felt themselves isolated, evenaliens, in their own land" (29). As a result of this sense ofalienation, and as a result of the widespread prejudices which markedmembers of their class, these writers always maintained a lingeringsense of cultural, and sometimes even racial superiority: "Even inYeats and Synge, who were in many ways unusual Anglo-Irishmen, theimpulse to denigrate den��i��grate?tr.v. den��i��grat��ed, den��i��grat��ing, den��i��grates1. To attack the character or reputation of; speak ill of; defame.2. the natives is sometimes present and at war withthe impulse to identity with them" (28). Indeed, their idealizationof the peasant was in many ways a reaction against precisely thislingering sense of difference and superiority. In psychoanalytic terms,it was a sort of reaction formation: "Yeats and Synge clearly beginby trying to reject their 'English' aspects, attempting tobreak with the strict affiliations of their Anglo-Irish status. Forthem, then, the 'real Ireland,' initially at any rate, is the'native,' peasant Ireland" (32).Watson explores these ideas in depth in the excellent second andthird chapters, on Synge and Yeats respectively. Watson begins byexploring the very personal roots of Synge's reaction againstAnglo-Irish chauvinism chauvinism(shō`vənĭzəm), word derived from the name of Nicolas Chauvin, a soldier of the First French Empire. Used first for a passionate admiration of Napoleon, it now expresses exaggerated and aggressive nationalism. , primarily his family's involvement in theoppression of the Irish peasantry: "In 1875 [Synge's uncle]Edward was evicting tenants in Cavan, Mayo and Wicklow," and thiscontinued "in 1887 at the height of Parnellism and the LandWar" (35). He details Synge's "romantic primitivistviewpoint" (44), which arose from this and which included a virtualcelebration of Irish poverty as, in Synge's words, the source of"colour and attractiveness [in] Irish life" (41).Watson carefully documents the ambivalence of this primitivism primitivism,in art, the style of works of self-trained artists who develop their talents in a fanciful and fresh manner, as in the paintings of Henri Rousseau and Grandma Moses. , theway in which it was continuous with the English and Anglo-Irish racismagainst which it was a reaction and the degree to which it involved a"residue of quasi-aristocratic contempt for 'the natives'which Synge derived from his background and which he was never able toexpunge To destroy; blot out; obliterate; erase; efface designedly; strike out wholly. The act of physically destroying information—including criminal records—in files, computers, or other depositories. totally" (38). In connection with this, he quotesSynge's reference to the peasant Irishman as akin to "the wildanimal" (44), Synge's statement that he "cannottalk" to ordinary Irish people, any "more than to the dog thatwhines beside me in a mountain fog" (42), and Synge's admiringreference to the Irish peasant's "healthy animal blood"(46).This examination of Synge's ideological ambivalence toward the"natives" leads Watson to a fine analysis of the Irishreaction to Synge's Playboy of the Western World. As is well known,the play inspired anger and denunciation DENUNCIATION, crim. law. This term is used by the civilians to signify the act by which au individual informs a public officer, whose duty it is to prosecute offenders, that a crime has been committed. It differs from a complaint. (q.v.) Vide 1 Bro. C. L. 447; 2 Id. 389; Ayl. Parer. from many Irish people. This isusually put down to Irish provincialism. But Watson rightly points outthat it was not at all a matter of Hibernian atavism atavism(ăt`əvizəm), the appearance in an individual of a characteristic not apparent in the preceding generation. At one time it was believed that such a phenomenon was thought to be a reversion of "throwback" to a hypothetical ancestral . Rather,"Inevitably, because what the Anglo-Irishman chooses to celebrate -'wildness,' 'savagery' - is so close to what theEnglishman had for centuries chosen as the major denigratory a. 1. same as denigrating.Adj. 1. denigratory - (used of statements) harmful and often untrue; tending to discredit or maligncalumniatory, calumnious, defamatory, denigrating, denigrative, libellous, libelous, slanderous feature inhis image of the Irish . . . the Irish could only feel that . . .Synge's Playboy would confirm the pejorative pejorativeMedtalk Bad…real bad Englishstereotype" (71-72). According to the Dublin papers, the riotersshouted, aptly in this view, "Take your miserable effort toEngland" (72).Watson's treatment of the similar reaction to Yeats's TheCountess Cathleen is equally perceptive. Here, too, the standard accountis little better than a racist caricature - bog-trodding Paddy checkedhis pig at the door, and then entered the theatre with his blackthorn blackthornor sloe,low, spreading, thorny bush or small tree (Prunus spinosa) of the plum genus of the family Rosaceae (rose family), having black bark, white flowers, and deep blue fruits, usually rather acrid and not much larger than shillelagh, ready to brain any bloody sassenach who had a hard word forthe bishop or insulted the delicate flower of Irish womanhood. But, asWatson points out, the play is thick with the self-serving ideology ofthe Ango-Irish Ascendency. However noble Yeats's intent, heportrayed the peasantry as "cringing and servile ser��vile?adj.1. Abjectly submissive; slavish.2. a. Of or suitable to a slave or servant.b. Of or relating to servitude or forced labor. " (66), aswell as duplicitous. More significantly, Yeats assigned wildly unequalmonetary values to the different souls, peasant souls selling for 100crowns, while the countess's soul fetched 500,000 - a notinconsequential difference in godly god��ly?adj. god��li��er, god��li��est1. Having great reverence for God; pious.2. Divine.god worth, and profoundly demeaning ofthe bargain-basement Catholics and farmers. Finally, Yeats'sportrayal of the beneficent be��nef��i��cent?adj.1. Characterized by or performing acts of kindness or charity.2. Producing benefit; beneficial.[Probably from beneficenceon the model of such pairs as land owner and the unprincipled peasants wasboth cruel and wildly out of keeping with reality.The treatments of Synge and Yeats are, in my view, by far the bestpart of the book. The fourth chapter, on Joyce, has nice moments, and isplausible on the whole. But it does not really advance the overall themeof Irish identity. Nor does it elaborate a broadly significantinterpretation of Joyce in other terms. Watson does begin with the themeof identity and he is, I think, entirely correct in seeing Joyce'swork as, in many ways, a response to an Irish sense of culturalinferiority. But, after he lays out this claim, he hardly develops it.He spends a good deal of time discussing Joyce's relation to Ibsen,but he virtually ignores the criticism on this topic - most obviously,Tysdahl's important Joyce and Ibsen. He nicely brings out the realhuman empathy in Dubliners, too often ignored by critics fixated onJoyce's famous statement about the book's "scrupulousmeanness." And he rightly stresses the humanity of Stephen inUlysses, in opposition to the dominant "Stephen-Hating School"of Joyce criticism. But all of this has little to do with the theme ofIrish identity. Moreover, after his incisive criticisms of Synge andYeats, one might have expected a more critical attitude toward Joyce -who, after all, peoples Dublin with drunkards, cheats, and idlers and isin some ways just as stereotypical in his portraits as are hisAnglo-Irish precursors.Watson's analysis of O'Casey goes to the opposite extremefrom his treatment of Joyce and is certainly the least successful partof the book. Watson criticized, but forgave for��gave?v.Past tense of forgive.forgaveVerbthe past tense of forgiveforgaveforgive , Synge and Yeats, and he wasentirely uncritical of Joyce. But he savages O'Casey. His harshcriticism seems unfair and inconsistent in context. For example, havingtaken pains to detail a reading of Eveline and Stephen that was deeplyempathic em��path��ic?adj.Of, relating to, or characterized by empathy.Adj. 1. empathic - showing empathy or ready comprehension of others' states; "a sensitive and empathetic school counselor"empathetic , he dismisses Johnny (of Juno and the Paycock) for "theemptiness of his sloganising" and "his cowering timidity"(263) - this about a boy who, in Juno's words, "in Easter Week. . . got hit in the hip; and his arm was blew off in the fight inO'Connell Street" (qtd. Watson 262-63).Despite this weak final chapter, Irish Identity is an informative,insightful book which should be genuinely valuable not only for scholarsin Irish literature, but for a range of critics interested inpost-colonization literatures.Anthony Roche's Contemporary Irish Drama in some ways takes upwhere Watson leaves off, beginning in the 1950's and extending upto the present. Roche is clearly aware of the relation between Irishliterature and other post-colonization literatures, and he frequentlyuses the terms and idioms of post-colonial theory. Despite this, I donot feel that this book has a great deal to offer critics ofpost-colonization Indian, African, or Caribbean literatures. Roche doesnot seem to me to deal with broad post-colonization issues in aparticularly clear or insightful way. Moreover, contemporary Irishliterature is much less focussed on colonialism than was the literatureof the Irish Renaissance.On the other hand, excepting Beckett, Roche deals with authors notwidely read in this country, and not widely analyzed in print. His bookprovides a helpful introduction to such dramatists as Tom Murphy andThomas Kilroy and usefully treats Brendan Behan and Brian Friel, whocertainly have some general following but are hardly as familiar asYeats and Joyce. Moreover, Roche's treatment of Beckett is valuablefor the way in which it situates Beckett's work in an Irishtradition, rather than in the more usual context of European modernism.In the Introduction, Roche provides valuable background informationon Dublin theatre after the Renaissance. He discusses the politics ofdifferent theatre companies, the differences between theatre directors,and other matters that had a great deal of bearing on the development ofthe new generation of playwrights. Unfortunately, right from thebeginning, Roche has a tendency to make implausible, post-structuralistpronouncements about the nature of Irish literature. Only a few pagesinto the book, he asserts that "Irish playwrights" share"a rejection of naturalism and the linear plot . . . asinappropriate to a post-colonial society" (6). Statements such asthis are problematic on several counts. First of all, Roche presents noevidence whatsoever that Irish drama is any less naturalistic or linearthan any other contemporary literature - or, for that matter, modernistliterature written before the demise of British colonialism. Secondly,and more importantly, neither he nor anyone else has presented theslightest evidence that naturalism and linear plot per se arecolonialist, and that anti-naturalism and plotlessness per se areanti-colonialist. In fact, this view, though so commonplace as to countas received wisdom, seems wildly implausible.Fortunately, this sort of claim is not characteristic of the bulk ofRoche's book. The first chapter presents a fine discussion of therelation between Yeats and Beckett. Roche argues, quite rightly, thatBeckett was deeply influenced by Yeats's drama - an influence thathas been largely ignored. I had the privilege of meeting and speakingwith Beckett on a few occasions. Once, I asked him about Yeats. Heexpressed great admiration for Yeats's drama. Indeed, at one point,he went so far as to say, "I've always held Yeats before me asa model" - though, in context, it was hard to tell whether Beckettwas referring to the specifics of Yeats's drama or to Yeats'scontinual honing of his craft throughout his entire life (in the sameconversation, Beckett also told me, "I've always said tomyself, 'Old age, that will be your time'"). But, in anycase, one does not need this authorial license. The links are clear fromthe plays themselves.The second chapter, on Beckett and Brendan Behan, provides moreuseful theatre history. But it is not terribly convincing onBehan's debt to Beckett, nor in its more general claims.Roche's main argument here, and an important motif in subsequentchapters, is that there is a particularly Irish/post-colonial use of"double lead" characters - not a single, central figure, buttwo figures, such as Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot Waiting for Godottramps consider hanging themselves because Godot has failed to arrive to set things straight. [Anglo-French Drama: Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot in Magill III, 1113]See : DespairWaiting for Godot . Thesedouble leads, Roche maintains, serve to disrupt hierarchies establishedin single-lead dramas. This, of course, does not really fit Becketthimself, who had a decided fondness for monologue. Nor is it clear thatthe double lead predominates in Irish drama or that it is more common inIrish or post-colonial drama than elsewhere. The claim that this isparticularly Irish becomes even more implausible when Roche identifies"Captain" Boyle and Joxer Daly as an instance of this sort ofdouble lead. The "Captain" and Joxer are a standard hero (orfalse hero) plus sidekick pair, and that sort of coupling is to be foundeverywhere from Hollywood westerns to Sanskrit tragi-comedies.The sixth chapter is perhaps the most valuable in the book. Itprovides an introduction to Northern Irish drama - a body of work whichis very significant, but largely ignored outside of Irish studies.Roche's discussions of such writers as Stewart Parker and ChristinaReid are helpful and should lead more people to pay attention to theseauthors. His discussion of the Field Day Theatre Company is particularlyworthwhile, primarily for bringing home its importance - not only forIrish drama, but for any drama concerned with the condition ofpost-colonial countries. As Roche puts it, "Overall, the tenyears' plus achievement of Field Day returned Irish theatre to oneof its greatest strengths, the impact of live drama as a means ofconsidering, political issues which were hopelessly polarised in theofficial sphere" (244). His discussion of the work of Field Day,its plays, its pamphlets, its three-volume anthology of Irish writing,argues effectively that its literary energy and import far exceed thelimits of its brief existence or geographical location; this is also thepoint in the book where the links between Irish and otherpost-colonization literatures appear most clearly.Irish Identity and the Literary Revival and Contemporary Irish Dramaare both flawed books (what books aren't?), but they are both wellworth reading. Indeed, Irish Identity - and, to a lesser extent, IrishDrama - should find an audience beyond those interested in Irish studiesor in such important modernist figures as Yeats, Joyce, and Beckett.For, once again, modern Irish literature is a post-colonizationliterature, directly comparable to the anglophone literatures of Africa,India, and the Caribbean. While ideas developed in relation to one ofthese literatures cannot be applied unreflectively and unqualifiedly tothe others, they are nonetheless likely to be of immediate value anddirect relevance. General issues surrounding cultural identity andliterary tradition, and narrower concerns, such as the politicalengagement of live theatre, are important and consequential for anyoppressed group. Thus any book which has something worthwhile to say onthese issues is consequential as well. And both of these books havesomething worthwhile to say on these important and timely issues.Hogan is a professor of English and Comparative Literature at theUniversity of Connecticut The University of Connecticut is the State of Connecticut's land-grant university. It was founded in 1881 and serves more than 27,000 students on its six campuses, including more than 9,000 graduate students in multiple programs.UConn's main campus is in Storrs, Connecticut. . He is the author of The Politics ofInterpretation, Joyce, Milton and the Theory of Influence, and OnInterpretation: Meaning and Inference in Law, Psychoanalysis andLiterature.