Reframing Yeats, the first critical study of its kind, uses a focus on genre and allusion to engage with a broad range of W. B. Yeats's writings, examining instances of his poetry, autobiographical writings, criticism, and drama. Identifying a schism in recent Yeatsian criticism between biographical and formalist methodologies, Armstrong's study combines an historicist perspective with close attention to literary form. The result is a flexible approach that casts new light on how Yeats's texts interact with their interpretative frameworks. Cognizant of both literary and political history, this book presents new interpretations of Yeats's work. Not only does it provide fresh readings of texts such as "The Municipal Gallery Re-visited," "Among School Children" and "The Resurrection", but it also raises important new questions concerning Yeats's relationship to Modernism and literary genre.

Series Preface Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations 1. Introduction 'Ancient Salt' 2. Yeats at Breakfast 3. Patterns of Biography 4. Autobiographical Reverie 5. Ancient Frames in A Vision 6. Disputing The Resurrection 7. Tragic Modulations 8. Vox Populi 9. Ekphrasis and Excess 10. Shakespeare, Sonnets and Sonnetic Monstrosities 11. Coda: Yeats and the Transcendence of Genre Notes Bibliography Index