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Celticism

Daniel Williams Orcid Logo

Twenty-First Century Approaches to Literature: Late Victorian into Modern 1880 - 1920

Swansea University Author: Daniel Williams Orcid Logo

Abstract

This chapter argus that any convincing account of late Victorian Celticism must register its diversity. From one perspective Celticism is a product of English epistemological mastery and political domination, an internal form of Orientalism in which the feminine, superstitious and poetic Celt could...

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Published in: Twenty-First Century Approaches to Literature: Late Victorian into Modern 1880 - 1920
Published: Oxford Oxford University Press 2016
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa25484
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Abstract: This chapter argus that any convincing account of late Victorian Celticism must register its diversity. From one perspective Celticism is a product of English epistemological mastery and political domination, an internal form of Orientalism in which the feminine, superstitious and poetic Celt could be easily accommodated as a junior partner in the British Imperial adventure. From another, Celticism offers a radical reconceptualisation of national identities within the British Isles, fostering new avenues of dialogue and artistic and political collaboration. Adopting a ‘four-nations’ approach to cultural history and drawing on a range of writers from Matthew Arnold to W. B. Yeats, Fiona McLeod to Edward Thomas, this chapter explores these tensions. It concludes by considering the implications of thinking about identity in linguistic as opposed to racial terms.
Keywords: Celticism, Identity, Internal Colonialism, Celtic Languages, Nationalism, Assimilation, Race, Language.
College: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences