This accessible and thought-provoking Companion is designed to help students experience the pleasures and challenges offered by one of the twentieth century's greatest poets. A team of international contributors examine Yeats's poetry, drama and prose in their historical and national contexts. The essays explain and synthesise major aspects and themes of his life and work: his lifelong engagement with Ireland, his complicated relationship to the English literary tradition, his literary, social, and political criticism and the evolution of his complex spiritual and religious sense. First-time readers of Yeats as well as more advanced scholars will welcome this comprehensive account of Yeats's career with its useful chronological outline and survey of the most important trends in Yeats scholarship. Taken as a whole, this Companion comprises an essential introduction for students and teachers of Yeats.
Chronology; 1. Introduction Marjorie Howes; 2. Yeats and Romanticism George Bornstein; 3. Yeats, Victorianism and the 1890s George Watson; 4. Yeats and Modernism Daniel Albright; 5. The later poetry Helen Vendler; 6. Yeats and the drama Bernard O'Donoghue; 7. Yeats and criticism Declan Kiberd; 8. Yeats, folklore and Irish legend James Pethica; 9. Yeats and the occult Margaret Mills Harper; 10. Yeats and gender Elizabeth Butler Cullingford; 11. Yeats and politics Jonathan Allison; 12. Yeats and the postcolonial Marjorie Howes; Guide to further reading.
