This paper aims at exploring the postcolonial aspects of William Butler Yeats’s poetry, especially the ‘Crazy Jane Poems’ written approximately from 1929 to 193l. The term ‘postcolonial’ means ‘anti-colonial.’ In Ireland, during the colonial state and the partially postcolonial state, Yeats’s involvement with Irish politics had never been static, straightforward, or comfortable. Whereas most critics see these poems from the feminist perspective, I regard them as the attempts to decolonialize Ireland from the British colonialists as well as the bitter critical insight on the rigid ethics of Irish Catholicism. 'Crazy Jane' resembles the Cailleach Bhearra, the goddess who serves not only as historian of the land and teacher of the farmers but also as bearer of sovereignty. Therefore her challenge to the colonial legacy is identified with the newly formed Irish state. What are the most abject of British stereotypes of Ireland － recklessness, vagrancy, violence and so on - ironically transform themselves through 'Crazy Jane' into the antithetical values of passion, earthiness, and exuberance. Overthrowing the preconditions of British and Church authorities, she criticizes both the Irish Catholic Church and the British authority which has appropriated Ireland. In addition, by using the ballad form, Yeats consolidates the nationalist intent of these poems. Therefore, 'Crazy Jane' may be identified with Yeats' alter ego, the personality that represents Yeats' various ideological positions. Subverting the British colonialists on the same stereotypes that British colonialists used to exploit the Irish people, she denounces both the stiff ethics of Irish Catholicism and the prevailing Irish patriarchy. Therefore, we can conclude that 'Crazy Jane' resembles a cubist icon that superimposes the double aspects of the Irish postcolonial state.

• 조정명(경북대학교) | Cho, Jung-Myu