The Reception of W. B. Yeats in Europe

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The intellectual and cultural impact of British and Irish writers cannot be assessed without reference to their reception in European countries. These essays, prepared by an international team of scholars, critics and translators, record the ways in which W. B. Yeats has been translated, evaluated and emulated in different national and linguistic areas of continental Europe. There is a remarkable split between the often politicized reception in Eastern European countries but also Spain on the one hand, and the more sober scholarly response in Western Europe on the other. Yeats's Irishness and the pre-eminence of his lyrical work have posed continuous challenges. Three further essays describe the widely divergent reactions to Yeats in his native Ireland, during his lifetime and up to the most recent years.

Reviews

"...an erudite and analytical work....re-asserts Yeats's unique but secure place as a prominent European voice." - Elisabeth Muller, tudes Irlandaises
"The three chapters on the reception in Ireland concern a subject of interest to those interested in Yeats. Eamonn Cantwell, Klaus Peter Jochum, Nicholas Allen, and Jonathan Allison, the authors of these sections, have all done really first-rate work before; it was sensible to select them for this particular job. But their efforts are hobbled to a degree by the guidelines to give a comprehensive survey and to work with collaborators." - Adrian Frazier, English Literature in Transition 1880-1920, 2008
"This valuable addition to the Athlone Critical Traditions Series: The Reception of British and Irish Authors in Europe reveals more clearly than ever how continental Europe has reciprocated Yeats's ambivalence toward it...the chapters are comprehensive and lucid while offering few critical judgments, which make them wonderful sources of information...Scholars working on Yeats and translation will find the volume essential." - Russell McDonald, Comparative Literature Studies, 2008 -- Russell McDonald
"...one factual error requires correction: In his chapter on Yeats's French reception, Bonafous-Murat quotes from an August 1896 review by Yeats's first French translator, Henry-D. Davray, and then purports to find echoes of the review in Yeats's short story Rose Alchemica,' which he says was published by Yeats in 1897, one year after Davray's review.'...'Rosa Alchemica' first appeared not in 1897 but in April 1896 in Arthur Symon's magazine The Savoy, making it impossible for Davray's review to have influenced Yeats. This correction further supports the book's larger argument that writers in continental Europe had little impact on Yeats's thinkinga disappointing revelation for some scholars, but an important one nonetheless that does nothing to detract from the merits of this useful volume." - Russell McDonald, Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 45 No. 3, 2008
"...this volume is surely a valuable research tool for Yeatsian scholars (not least because of its useful timeline and bibliographies)." Modern Language Review 104:4 (Oct 2009)
"Useful, fact-filled book ... For experts and nonexperts alike [these essays] offer concise, accurate, highly informative summaries." David Holdeman, Modern Philology, 2010.

Author Bio

Klaus Peter Jochum is Professor Emeritus of English Literature at the University of Bamberg.