Yeats and European Drama

Examines how Yeats's plays reflected developments that occurred in European theatre during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Michael McAteer (Author)

9780521769112, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 August 2010

236 pages, 3 b/w illus.
23.5 x 16 x 2 cm, 0.52 kg

'It is a long time since there was a critical work on Yeats's theatre and even longer since there was one as impressive and intellectually commanding as Michael McAteer's Yeats and European Drama.' Anthony Roche, Irish University Review

Michael McAteer examines the plays of W. B. Yeats, considering their place in European theatre during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This original study considers the relationship Yeats's work bore with those of the foremost dramatists of the period, drawing comparisons with Henrik Ibsen, Maurice Maeterlinck, August Strindberg, Luigi Pirandello and Ernst Toller. It also shows how his plays addressed developments in theatre at the time, with regard to the Naturalist, Symbolist, Surrealist and Expressionist movements, and how symbolism identified Yeats's ideas concerning labour, commerce and social alienation. This book is invaluable to graduates and academics studying Yeats but also provides a fascinating account for those in Irish studies and in the wider field of drama.

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
List of illustrations
Introduction
Part I. Early Plays: 1. Revolutionary revelation: The Land of Heart's Desire, The Countess Cathleen, Cathleen ni Houlihan
2. Space, language, power: The King's Threshold and Deirdre
Part II. The Cuchulain Cycle: 3. 'I'll Not Be Bound': On Baile's Strand and The Green Helmet
4. The turn to Noh: At the Hawk's Well and The Only Jealous of Emer
5. 'Everything Sublunary Must Change': The Death of Cuchulain
Part III. Later Plays: 6. 'The Heart of a Phantom is Beating': The Dreaming of the Bones and Calvary
7. 'O Self-Born Mockers': The Player Queen, The Words Upon the Window-pane, The Herne's Egg
8. History inside out: Purgatory
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: plays & playwrights [DSG], Literary studies: general [DSB], Literary theory [DSA], Plays, playscripts [DD], Literature & literary studies [D], Theatre studies [AN]