Modernism and W B Yeats

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Discuss some of the ways in which work by one of the writers studied in the first weeks of the module engages – and/or doesn’t engage - with ‘the modern world’. Your essay should at some point focus on one or two particular poems, episodes, themes or issues, while showing relevant knowledge of others. Ruth Wilson In order to discuss the ways in which any literary work engages, or does not engage, with 'the modern world' it is first necessary to define what is meant by the 'the modern world'. I intend to do this by commenting upon what the modern world means in the context of this module, as well as what the modern world means today. I will argue that the word modern, both in terms of its common usage and within literary criticism is, perhaps, limiting and unhelpful. Further by undertaking close readings of works by W B Yeats I will reveal how his work engaged with his modern world and continues to engage with the modern world of today. Further I will suggest that Yeats' work engages with today's modern world in surprising and startling ways. In historical terms the 'modern world' refers to a time of progress and a time of change. Historians might suggest that the modern world is all that is post-mediaeval however, for the purposes of this essay, the modern world refers to the time at the beginning of the twentieth century; a time of enormous change for the whole world. The influences of political activism and of world war prompted a response from artists, musicians and writers which could only be expressed in what appeared to be chaotic and unstructured ways. However, their work was merely mirroring the confusion and uncertainty of the time. Some writers were using unfamiliar forms to those which had gone before. For many this resulted in apparently obscure references and the experimental literature which has become synonymous with
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