W.B. Yeats's autobiographies in the context of other Irish autobiographical writings

Abstract

The thesis discusses an area of Anglo Irish literature that has received little critical attention in the past: the autobiography. The opening chapter introduces the subject of literary criticism of the autobiographical genre together with its development in recent years, and it stresses the importance of autobiography in Ireland especially as part of the Irish Literary Revival. It ends with a synopsis of critical commentary on Yeats' Autobiographies up to the present time. Taking into account this body of criticism, the next five chapters present a detailed study of Autobiographies often relating aspects of Yeats' work to other examples of autobiography, especially, but not exclusively, those written by Irish writers. The thesis recognizes that, despite the increased amount of discussion in recent years about the nature of autobiography and how best it should be studied, there has been little agreement on these matters. As a result it employs a variety of critical approaches in an attempt to avoid the rather restricted approaches made by previous critics of the work. This multiform method is appropriate to an autobiography written at various intervals, in various ways, over many years by a writer who presented a number of different selves to the world during his career. The final two chapters survey a selection of Anglo-Irish autobiographies. These works illustrate how styles and methods of writing memoirs have changed since the nineteenth century, how writers use different autobiographical strategies to achieve their separate purposes (not all of the works mentioned are by literary figures) and how, in many cases, the development of the self is described in tandem with the development of the new Irish nation. It is hoped that the thesis will introduce new aspects in criticism of Yeats' Autobiographies, of Anglo-Irish autobiography and of the autobiographical form in general.