Important nonsense: Yeats and symbolism
This essay shows how the practice of symbolism needs to be interpreted within a broader intellectual history. The metaphysical content of this history might encourage us to abandon it, but it provides the conditions of intelligibility, nonetheless, for key literary concepts–at least if one assumes t...
| Yazar: | |
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| Materyal Türü: | Journal article |
| Dil: | English |
| Baskı/Yayın Bilgisi: |
Johns Hopkins University Press
2019
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| _version_ | 1826309391924592640 |
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| author | Dwan, D |
| author_facet | Dwan, D |
| author_sort | Dwan, D |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | This essay shows how the practice of symbolism needs to be interpreted within a broader intellectual history. The metaphysical content of this history might encourage us to abandon it, but it provides the conditions of intelligibility, nonetheless, for key literary concepts–at least if one assumes that the historical operation of these concepts have some bearing on their current use. I make the case with Yeats. His symbolic practice, I argue, is unintelligible without reference to two metaphysical traditions in which he was deeply invested 1) an idealism that is pledged to a super-reality that exceeds time and space 2) a radical subjectivism in which the private ego is the source and ground of meaning in the world. The friction between these two outlooks partly explains why the symbol becomes such a "troubled mirror" in Yeats's writing. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:33:29Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:7e53a90d-9e0b-48e2-bcba-e0d56b27b47a |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:33:29Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | Johns Hopkins University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:7e53a90d-9e0b-48e2-bcba-e0d56b27b47a2023-02-16T11:01:21ZImportant nonsense: Yeats and symbolismJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:7e53a90d-9e0b-48e2-bcba-e0d56b27b47aEnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordJohns Hopkins University Press2019Dwan, DThis essay shows how the practice of symbolism needs to be interpreted within a broader intellectual history. The metaphysical content of this history might encourage us to abandon it, but it provides the conditions of intelligibility, nonetheless, for key literary concepts–at least if one assumes that the historical operation of these concepts have some bearing on their current use. I make the case with Yeats. His symbolic practice, I argue, is unintelligible without reference to two metaphysical traditions in which he was deeply invested 1) an idealism that is pledged to a super-reality that exceeds time and space 2) a radical subjectivism in which the private ego is the source and ground of meaning in the world. The friction between these two outlooks partly explains why the symbol becomes such a "troubled mirror" in Yeats's writing. |
| spellingShingle | Dwan, D Important nonsense: Yeats and symbolism |
| title | Important nonsense: Yeats and symbolism |
| title_full | Important nonsense: Yeats and symbolism |
| title_fullStr | Important nonsense: Yeats and symbolism |
| title_full_unstemmed | Important nonsense: Yeats and symbolism |
| title_short | Important nonsense: Yeats and symbolism |
| title_sort | important nonsense yeats and symbolism |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dwand importantnonsenseyeatsandsymbolism |