From Motley To Green: The Influence Of Yeats And Joyce On Irish National Identity

This essay takes a historical approach on the works of William Butler Yeats and James Joyce. By exploring the history of Ireland, including the 1798 Rebellion in comparison to the Easter 1916 Rising, the literature takes on new meaning as a force for social change. Whereas Yeats focuses on the history of Ireland as a precedent for the future, Joyce seeks to bring Ireland into the modern era by rejecting the institutions and norms that have kept Ireland from evolving. These approaches to the past, as conflicting as they may be, incorporate Irish history into literature, thus creating a collective identity based on a shared history and interaction between the past and present.