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Literary Criticism - General & Miscellaneous, Irish Poetry - Literary Criticism, General & Miscellaneous Irish Fiction & Prose Literature - Literary Criticism, Femininity
Pressed Against Divinity by Janis Tedesco. Haswell β€” book cover

Pressed Against Divinity

by Janis Tedesco. Haswell
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Overview

Beginning with an analysis of Yeats's Mask theory and an examination of the script materials, Haswell demonstrates the development of feminine masks in the Cuchulain plays; the lyrics "Solomon to Sheba," "Solomon and the Witch," "Michael Robartes and the Dancer," and "Leda and the Swan"; and the sequences "A Man Young and Old," "A Woman Young and Old," and "Crazy Jane." Yeats's enactment of the "universal feminine," progressively complex and fluid, is recognizable ultimately as the complement to the "universal masculine." As Yeats speaks with the voice of his female daimon, he challenges bipolar categories of gender. He questions assumptions that the mind is single-sexed and that gendered voices are naturally monologic and essentialized. The ramifications of double-voiced verse reach beyond literary theory to gender and women's studies, philosophy, and psychology.

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Editorials

Booknews

Examines Yeats' theory of the creative self as bisexual<-->a theory that arose from his experiment in automatic writing with his wife. Beginning with an analysis of Yeats's Mask theory and an examination of the script materials, the author demonstrates how Yeats challenged bipolar categories of gender. She further suggests that although his vision is unique and complex, the act of masking and the exercise of gender are hardly his exclusive domain. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Book Details

Published
June 15, 2006
Publisher
DeKalb, Ill. : Northern Illinois University Press, c1997.
Pages
188
Format
Library Binding
ISBN
9780875802220

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