Yeats and genetic criticism: rethinking the book

Chris Morash discusses Yeats and genetic criticism and asks us to rethink the book, as part of the Trinity Centre for the Book seminar series. “I said, ‘A line will take us hours maybe;/  Yet if it does not seem a moment’s thought, /   Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.”  So wrote W.B. Yeats in the poem “Adam’s Curse”, in some respects capturing the challenges and possibilities that genetic criticism offers to the study of his work.  On one hand, for much of his life Yeats’s aim was to write in ways that appeared spontaneous and natural; at the same time, we know from his literary manuscripts that those appearances were often only achieved through laborious drafting and redrafting.  By moving our focus from a “definitive” text, to the wider mass of manuscripts considered as an iterative process, the relationship of Yeats’s work to the book becomes more complex and his work as a whole begins to appear in a fresh light. Please indicate if you have any access requirements, such as ISL/English interpreting, so that we can facilitate you in attending this event. Contact: mmasters@tcd.ie