Irish Catholicism in poetries of Yeats and Heaney

Hong, Sungsook 한국예이츠학회 2006 한국예이츠 저널 Vol.25 No.-

Republic of Ireland is called a 'saint's country' since more than 90% of population believe in Catholicism. The Irish Catholicism had a great influence on the Irish society and culture by offering the hierarchical order to Irish people's way of life. And also, Catholicism had been a symbol of nationalism and played the role to confirm a sense of national identity. It is also true that since Free State Ireland, Catholicism with the word 'Gaelic' has contributed to making the national identity or 'racy Irish atmosphere'. However, the Irish Church of the 20th century was dedicated neither to spirituality nor the intellectual enhancement of the faith, but to material and social advantage. At the first stage of his writing, Yeats tries to consider Irish Catholicism as holy, combining it with mysticism of theosophy. And also he uses it to strengthen nationalism. However, Catholicism of that time, unlike what Yeats thought, sticks to the practical line, which makes Yeats criticize its materialistic ends. Meanwhile, talking about Heaney, although he accepts its values of contributing to the communal union and he himself is a serious devotee to pilgrimage going to Lough Derg or Station Ireland. Heaney feels at ease because of Catholic's fanaticism and oppression imposed on individuals. The final conclusion of this paper is that although these two poets, Yeats and Heaney, accept that Irish Catholicism has contributed to inspiration of the national patriotism and promoted the modernization of independent Ireland, they criticizes that Irish Catholicism is lacking its artistic spirituality and that it is a trap from which artists are to escape.

W.B. Yeats As an Anglo-Irish

Sung Sook Hong 한국예이츠학회 2004 한국예이츠 저널 Vol.22 No.-

However hard a poet may cry out 'art for art's sake', art works are likely to be evaluated by the political surroundings: a poet is very likely to represent the class he belongs to and to react to the political situation through his own works. A poet who suffers from the turmoil of the transitional period can be a victim of the period in the sense that he can be evaluated irrespective of the real value of his works. This paper is motivated by our current social phenomena that the fanatical nationalism to evacuate the past is also applied to the work of reevaluating writers of the past as well as of the present; interestingly, the same situation happened to Yeats. This paper starts with some hypothesis that the primary reason for the lower reevaluation of Yeats since the birth of Free State until its rebirth as a member of E.U. is that he belonged to the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy. And then this paper investigates identity and contribution of the Anglo-Irish to Irish history. And finally this paper tries to find out how Yeats reacted to the radical change of hegemony especially after Responsibilities. The investigation into his poems leads us to the conviction that in his first stage, he wanted to surrender his half-blooded Englishness to his another half-blooded Irishness. This explains why he tried to dig up the ancient Gaelic culture and to advocate the Gaelic Catholic in his first stage. However we can witness his changing attitude after the Easter Rising: some threat from the majority Catholic fanaticism awakened Yeats's self-recognition as an Anglo-Irish, advocating their class and culture in his poems since Responsibilities. It follows that although Yeats wanted to be an artist for art as such, he could not but seek for reconciliation of two aspects of Ireland, -that is, its religion and ethnicity. Yeats's poetry reflects the shift in the political hegemony and the definition of the Irish identity. My conclusion is as follows. The main reason Yeats's evaluation was going down during the period Ireland was being established as a republic country is that he belonged to the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, the past power group. Through Yeats's poems we can witness the decline and agony of the Anglo-Irish during the birth of Republic of Ireland. Therefore the historical contribution of the Anglo-Irish is to be reevaluated; Yeats's Literary Revival is also referred to as a cracked mirror of the servant. By reading again Yeats's poems from the new perspective towards Yeats as an Anglo-Irish, we can see that Yeats's advocacy of the Anglo-Irish was made only after he was threatened by the fanatical Catholic nationalism and that he adhered to the reconciliation of the divided Ireland throughout his life. Meanwhile, this study leads to another question: Is it possible that the art is free from the political pressure or turmoil? In my opinion, although art is not free from that situation, it can only survive when it shines in the filthy tide, searching for the independence and freedom. I think W.B. Yeats is an example.

아일랜드 역사 : 근대 아일랜드 교육에서 민족과 종교, 1830-1850년대

한명숙 ( Myung Sook Han ) 영국사학회 2005 영국연구 Vol.13 No.-

This paper is an attempt to trace out relations between the concept of nation and religion in modern Irish education. After the abolitions of Penal Laws and Catholic Emancipation(1829), it eventually came to be discussed about a problem of modern educational system in Ireland. The organization of education in Ireland has been far from being merely the matter of learning. It has been a hot spot of how society should be developed in Ireland. It has been the arena in which two different views of Irish nation were fought out. In the course of the debates, a matter of denomination acts as a critical factor. Liberal Catholics and Protestants who see religion as a personal matter wished to create a social structure which include all the people throughout the religion and racial difference. On the other hand, Ultramontanist nationalists considered Irish nation to a Catholic block. They were afraid that the government`s educational policy, which was based on a principle of Mixed Education regardless of religious beliefs, might destroy Catholicism in Ireland. When the National School in primary education was introduced, the initial reactions of the national leaders and Catholic clergy were, in general, welcoming and eager to accept it because they expected a lot of benefits from English government. Chapter II deals with this. But as the Irish College Bill was introduced to the Parliament in 1845, the conflicts of the two parts grew more aggravated as investigated in Chapter III. The Bill planned three new non-denominational Colleges, which were to be endowed public expense. Neither religious teaching nor religious test was permitted to the staffs or students in those colleges. But these provisions were heavily criticised on religious grounds. At the Repeal Association, Daniel O`Connell denounced the Bill as "Godless". He demanded the colleges should provide not mixed but separated education on account of the dangerousness of Catholicism. And he appealed Catholic clergies to cooperate with him. However, the leaders of Young Ireland Party, whose chief spokesman was Thomas Davis, welcomed the Bill since they believed that the mixed education of young men of different beliefs would promote national unity. Finally, the Repeal Association was divided; therefore it has become impossible to encounter with educational policy of British government systematically. While the trials of Irish nationalists of obtaining more benefits from British government failed, the combination of nation with Catholicism in education became more clearly and saliently in the late nineteenth century. That combination firmly continued in Irish Free State. And the allegiance to Republic of Ireland has become identified with that of Catholicism. Thus it is obvious that Daniel O`Connell played an important role in these results.

두 문명 간의 충돌

최병갑(Byeong-Kap Choi) 한국영미어문학회 2013 영미어문학 Vol.- No.109

This article aims at analyzing the conflicting forces between various classes in the Irish society during the first few decades of the 20th century. Joyce makes through his main works the succinct and implicit statements about the contemporary political events and diagnoses this situation a state of paralysis as in Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Ulysses. Joyce reveals the true cause of the paralysis in Ireland and explains that it is attributed to the British imperial control over Ireland. Joyce identifies there are two conflicting groups the Irish people and society; the English and the Irish and the Irish and the Anglo-hish Joyce believes that the English and the Anglo-hish prevails the Irish society. Therefore, Joyce recognizes that the clash between different groups in Ireland is indispensable and has always existed In his opinion, splits between groups lead to oppositions and antagonisms, accentuating and deepening social disintegration in the critical periods of Irish history which must have the opportunity to achieve Home Rule or independence from the English government. However, Joyce censures both sides in that the Catholic Irish excessively resort to the physical forces and the Anglo-Irish overtly conforms to or supports the imperial politics. In fact, there were so many revolutionary violences and counter-violences and innocent Irish people were imprisoned and sentenced to death. Joyce draws a conclusion that the opposite identities-the Irishness and the Englishness or the Anglo- Irishness-bring about a series of incessant conflicts which procrastinate Home Rule and independence for a long time, thereby resulting in the whole Ireland trapped in the state of imperialistic oppression.

‘크레이지 제인 시편’에 재현된 저항성과 탈식민성

조정명 한국예이츠학회 2010 한국예이츠 저널 Vol.34 No.-

This paper aims at exploring the postcolonial aspects of William Butler Yeats’s poetry, especially the ‘Crazy Jane Poems’ written approximately from 1929 to 193l. The term ‘postcolonial’ means ‘anti-colonial.’ In Ireland, during the colonial state and the partially postcolonial state, Yeats’s involvement with Irish politics had never been static, straightforward, or comfortable. Whereas most critics see these poems from the feminist perspective, I regard them as the attempts to decolonialize Ireland from the British colonialists as well as the bitter critical insight on the rigid ethics of Irish Catholicism. 'Crazy Jane' resembles the Cailleach Bhearra, the goddess who serves not only as historian of the land and teacher of the farmers but also as bearer of sovereignty. Therefore her challenge to the colonial legacy is identified with the newly formed Irish state. What are the most abject of British stereotypes of Ireland - recklessness, vagrancy, violence and so on - ironically transform themselves through 'Crazy Jane' into the antithetical values of passion, earthiness, and exuberance. Overthrowing the preconditions of British and Church authorities, she criticizes both the Irish Catholic Church and the British authority which has appropriated Ireland. In addition, by using the ballad form, Yeats consolidates the nationalist intent of these poems. Therefore, 'Crazy Jane' may be identified with Yeats' alter ego, the personality that represents Yeats' various ideological positions. Subverting the British colonialists on the same stereotypes that British colonialists used to exploit the Irish people, she denounces both the stiff ethics of Irish Catholicism and the prevailing Irish patriarchy. Therefore, we can conclude that 'Crazy Jane' resembles a cubist icon that superimposes the double aspects of the Irish postcolonial state.

익숙한 더블린을 넘어 아일랜드성 재발견하기―로디 도일의 『커미트먼트』

김은혜 ( Eunhey Kim ) 21세기영어영문학회 2021 영어영문학21 Vol.34 No.4

Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments deals with the lives of the Dublin working-class in the late 1980s. It shows the changing Irishness of the late 20th century, which has not been fully discussed. Until the mid-20th century, it had been considered that nationalism, Catholicism and rural areas represented Irishness. However, Irish society has been affected by globalization since the 1960s. In an urbanized, industrialized, and globalized society, urban workers, not farmers, most suitably represent Irishness. The process of Jimmy and his friends organizing and operating a soul music band describes not only the struggles of the working-class but Irish identity, which is different from patriarchal nationalism. Unlike nationalists, these young men are sensitive to changing trends and use ideology and politics to pursue their practical interests. In addition, Doyle’s narrative techniques show Ireland is breaking away from patriarchal authority.

An Ireland in Bloom: the Mythical Ireland Surviving in Ulysses

( Kil Hye-ryoung ) 대한영어영문학회 2007 영어영문학연구 Vol.33 No.3

An Irish reading of Ulysses discovers a structural parallel to the early Irish history and mythology that is well known to the Irish public in Joyce’s time. The three main characters, Bloom, Stephen, and Molly, all represent Irish mythic figures: the invader king of Ireland, the heir to the king, and the goddess queen of Ireland. In the Homeric parallel of the novel, Molly embodies the helpless queen who faithfully waits for the king; yet in the Irish mythic structure, Molly acts as the self-surviving queen who willingly goes to bed with the English and the Roman conquerors. By transforming the virtuous but suffering woman image of the Catholic British Ireland into the adulterous but sovereign goddess of the mythical Ireland that embraces strangers, Joyce creates a free sovereign Ireland that has survived and integrated the lengthy history of the English-Roman colonization. (Yeungnam University)

제임스 조이스의 『더블린 사람들』에 나타난 아일랜드 가톨릭교와 신부들의 이미지

박윤기 한국문학과종교학회 2018 문학과종교 Vol.23 No.3

『더블린 사람들』에서 제임스 조이스는 아일랜드 가톨릭교 신부들을 이득을 위해 자신들의 영혼을 팔아 아일랜드 국민들을 배반한 유다와 같은 존재로 묘사한다. 작품의 각 중단편의 에피소드를 통해 조이스는 가톨릭교회에 대해 부정적인 시선을 던진다. 그는 아일랜드 가톨릭교회가 맹목적인 순종과 그 권력에 절대 복종하도록 강요한다고 생각했다. 그렇지만 작품에 묘사되고 있는 신부들의 모습은 대체로 무능하며 성직자로서의 역할도 제대로 하지 못한다. 이런 이유로 그는 거짓된 권위와 물질주의에 집착하는 가톨릭교를 거부하게 된다. 그럼에도 불구하고 가톨릭교회를 바라보는 그의 마음은 복잡한데, 그것은 그가 가톨릭교회를 거부하긴 했지만 그 제도나 형식을 거부하지는 않았다. 실제로 그는 예수회재단 가톨릭교회의 제도나 교리 등을 작품창작에 적극 활용했다. 그러나 그는 근본적으로는 가톨릭교회나 신부들이 과거의 잘못에서 벗어나 변화되고 새롭게 태어나야 한다고 주장한다. In Dubliners, James Joyce portrayed the Irish Catholic priests as simoniacal Judas who sold out their spirituality and betrayed the Irish people. Throughout his short stories in Dubliners, Joyce depicted the Irish Catholic Church in an extremely unfavorable light. He thought that the Church demanded absolute obedience and total subjection to its powers. However, the priests depicted in Dubliners are invariably incompetent and usually unable to communicate with their people in any meaningful way. Therefore, he renounced catholicism because of its false authoritarianism and materialism. Nevertheless, Joyce’s catholic life in Ireland was complicated. Although he rejected the church, he never rejected its forms. Actually, he applied them to his art and used them for his art. Joyce suggested, however, the church and its priests should repent of what they had done wrong and be changed and reborn.

브라이언 프리엘의 『루나사 축제의 춤』: 아일랜드 여성 서발턴의 젠더/섹슈얼리티와 미완의 혁명

심미현(Shim Mi-Hyun) 새한영어영문학회 2009 새한영어영문학 Vol.51 No.1

Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa, set in the Irish Republic of the 1930s, focuses on Mundy sisters' performativity of gender roles, their subversive resistance, and their tragic failure. In this play, Friel exposes the social, political, religious mechanisms in Ballybeg which have constructed Irish female subalterns' gender role and constrained their life. In the patriarchal world of Friel's plays, the most subjected are the Irish female subalterns in terms of gender, sexuality, class, and situation. And, therefore, Irish women in Friel's plays lack their own voice. This study explores Mundy sisters' socially constructed gender roles and their sexuality in terms of Gayatri Spivak's concept of 'subaltern,' Michel Foucault's theory on the relationship between power and body/ subject-product, and Judith Butler's theory on gender and 'performativity.' In Dancing at Lughnasa, the narrator's or Michael's unavoidable male gaze perpetuates the typical male gaze that has oppressed women and engendered their gender roles and space. This paper also examines the subversive resistance of Mundy sisters' unruly body and the eruption of sexuality against the stifling patriarchal expectations. These Irish subalterns struggle to destabilize the mechanism through which social/state authority is performed on and through their bodies. The sisters, who become full-bodied, explode their suppressed sexuality in their defiant and desperate dance, defying the corporeal codes of respectable female behavior and the narrow confines of their kitchen lives. Mundy sisters' defiance is, however, at best a momentary rebellion. Their challenge to the constitutional and cultural restrictions cannot get over the mechanisms of their society. The mechanism of power which tames these women is everywhere, in the rigid Irish Catholic notion of moral rectitude, in the economic policies of the new State, in family structures, and in the legislative paternalism. As a result, they live out their lives in wretched circumstances. Their tragic failure gives a punishing message to women about the consequences of deviation. In Dancing at Lughnasa, Friel critiques the postcolonial Ireland as a society stifled by the reified patriarchal authority and the male-centered economic, class, and gender systems. In this sense, Dancing at Lughnasa can echo a meaningful message even to the twenty-first century Irish women exploring the unkept promises of the Irish revolution.

제임스 조이스, 가톨릭교, 성, 그리고 출판

박윤기 ( Yun Ki Park ) 한국현대영어영문학회 2009 현대영어영문학 Vol.53 No.4

When Ulysses was published in 1922, Joyce had been widely considered as to derive inspiration from popular literary forms like the newspaper, the sentimental romance and pornography. I dare say that`s true. It, however, does not mean that he is a pornographic writer. On 6 December 1933 Judge Woolsey announced that Ulysses was not legally obscene and could, therefore, be admitted to the United States. As Woolsey had observed, although he had a lively interest in "pornographic writing," Joyce himself had no intention of stirring the sexual impulses or leading to sexually impure and lustful thoughts. Joyce`s early religiosity, along with the sexual repression that pervaded Irish society, left him with a deeply ambivalent relationship to his own sexuality. He was at the same time highly sexed and highly repressed owing to his repressive Irish Catholic education by Jesuits. Joyce, however, had a belief that sexual desire was a natural thing of human being and a pivotal experience to become a complete artist. The aesthetics of obscenity in Joyce`s works, therefore, has much to do with his writing technique. (Pai Chai University)