Irish Literature from (1890-1921) and Themes

Introduction

The Irish have always used their adoptive language differently from English speakers. It is the originality with which they handle and their rich cultural heritage that led to the emergence of writers and world-renowned novelists, including four Nobel Prize for Literature: Shaw, Yeats, Beckett, and Heaney (Clyde, 33). Irish literature dates back to the beginning of the evangelization of the island at the time or Celtic legends, such as the saga of Cuchulainn were written. But the Gaelic literature disappears after the expropriation of the nobility in the seventeenth century who was the sponsors. This paper will be discussing the Irish literature history and how Irish Literature utilizes the dominant theme of nature throughout novels, poetry, plays. Majority of the author in Ireland used the theme of nature in order to express their feelings to the society.

Discussion

Anglo-Irish literature experienced its first period of development in the late 17th century and 18th century. Disappointed in his ambitions as a priest and writer, Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) returned to Ireland where his disillusionment inspires him satire of British society, including the famous novel Gulliver's Travels (1726). In the eighteenth century authors such as Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Brinsley Sheridan give their pedigree in Irish theater (Hoch, 980). But only from the end of the century, with the novelist Maria Edgeworth the plot finally unfolds in Ireland. In the nineteenth century, the focus is the name of Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), whose plays The Importance of Being Earnest and Lady Windermere's Fan has been a huge success on the London stage. But it is also very famous for his fantasy novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) studied Anglo-Irish dilemma in his newspaper articles and in his play “The other island” of John Bull. It explores the contradictions of English society in Pygmalion (Niall, 12).

Most Irish novels since World War II reveal their authors' preoccupation with political themes and the isolation and powerlessness felt by the country's inhabitants. The country's neutrality during the war often is blamed for the worldwide indifference to its literature following the war, which resulted in Irish writers producing what many critics perceive to be insular and parochial fiction. Many of these works contain stylistic similarities to the works of Irish novelist and short story writer James Joyce in their use of interior monologues and stream-of-consciousness narrative style. Among the most critically appreciated novelists are Benedict Kiely, John Banville, John McGahern, and Brian Moore. Irish poetry since the death of Yeats in 1939 was initially dominated by Louis MacNeice and, later, John Montague, Patrick Kavanagh, and Thomas Kinsella. In the 1960s poets from Northern Ireland, including Derek Mahon, Paul Muldoon, and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, ignited another renaissance in Irish literature (Beebe, 176).

But the great figure of this period is William Butler Yeats (1856-1939). Influenced by the old myths and legends of Ireland, he established himself as a renowned poet and playwright and is one of the founders of the Abbey Theatre (Abbey ...