关键词: 爱尔兰文学; 历史; 对话; 权力; 含纳; 文本性

Abstract: Yeats’ realistic poetry is often imprinted with the mark of its era. By means of the poetic language, Yeats expressed his profound reflection on the historic events of the time. In so doing, a dialogue has comes into existence between literature and history. This paper attempts to consider in detail how the dialogue between literature and history operates in Yeats’ realistic poem “Easter, 1916,” as a case study, under the scrutiny of the new historicist approach. Through the textual analysis of this poetic work, this paper discusses the dialogic relationship of the poem and history by elaborating on how this poetic work becomes historicized and how this historic event becomes textualized. Within this dialogue, the reciprocal relation of this poem and the contemporary society is brought under further examination. This paper argues that this poem harbors subversive force which can be articulated by the poetic text in this dialogue between literature and history. However, this subversive force will be eventually contained by the British power structure that has pervaded and dominated the Irish society. By the uprising and revolution of the Irish people, Ireland would attain to the goal of political de-Anglicization by becoming a sovereign state and with the advent of this political independence Irish literature could also achieve an independent status. However, this paper concludes that Yeats has realized the suppressed beauty of this independence because Irish literature would still have to be composed in the English language which, however, remains to be the product of the British power structure.

Keywords: Irish literature; history; dialogue; power; containment; textuality