The nature of the beast: Yeats and the shadow

Yeats’s ‘rough beast’ in “The Second Coming" emerges not only 'out of Spiritus Mundi, but out of an era that was especially attracted to various encodings of the unconscious, a trope, so to speak, made famous by Freud and Jung. I argue that certain psychological discourses are inherent in...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: N. Meihuizen
Format: Article
Language:Afrikaans
Published: AOSIS 1994-05-01
Series:Literator
Online Access:https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/670
_version_ 1819204884550909952
author N. Meihuizen
author_facet N. Meihuizen
author_sort N. Meihuizen
collection DOAJ
description Yeats’s ‘rough beast’ in “The Second Coming" emerges not only 'out of Spiritus Mundi, but out of an era that was especially attracted to various encodings of the unconscious, a trope, so to speak, made famous by Freud and Jung. I argue that certain psychological discourses are inherent in an era sceptical of foundationalism, that Yeats's poem is a manifestation of the machinery of this scepticism, and that, ultimately, aspects of the poem foreshadow Postmodernist interrogations of received ‘truth’.
first_indexed 2024-12-23T04:42:54Z
format Article
id doaj.art-331930348fd5409db21d180d15a2ad8a
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 0258-2279
2219-8237
language Afrikaans
last_indexed 2024-12-23T04:42:54Z
publishDate 1994-05-01
publisher AOSIS
record_format Article
series Literator
spelling doaj.art-331930348fd5409db21d180d15a2ad8a2022-12-21T17:59:44ZafrAOSISLiterator0258-22792219-82371994-05-0115218319310.4102/lit.v15i2.670609The nature of the beast: Yeats and the shadowN. Meihuizen0University of ZululandYeats’s ‘rough beast’ in “The Second Coming" emerges not only 'out of Spiritus Mundi, but out of an era that was especially attracted to various encodings of the unconscious, a trope, so to speak, made famous by Freud and Jung. I argue that certain psychological discourses are inherent in an era sceptical of foundationalism, that Yeats's poem is a manifestation of the machinery of this scepticism, and that, ultimately, aspects of the poem foreshadow Postmodernist interrogations of received ‘truth’.https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/670
spellingShingle N. Meihuizen
The nature of the beast: Yeats and the shadow
Literator
title The nature of the beast: Yeats and the shadow
title_full The nature of the beast: Yeats and the shadow
title_fullStr The nature of the beast: Yeats and the shadow
title_full_unstemmed The nature of the beast: Yeats and the shadow
title_short The nature of the beast: Yeats and the shadow
title_sort nature of the beast yeats and the shadow
url https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/670
work_keys_str_mv AT nmeihuizen thenatureofthebeastyeatsandtheshadow
AT nmeihuizen natureofthebeastyeatsandtheshadow