예이츠는 보는 이에 따라 여러 견해를 가질 수 있는 작가이다. 다양한 평가는 그의 작품 안에 탈식민주의 문학의 여러 가지 측면이 존재함을 나타내는데, 탈식민적이고 포스트모던한 면을 초․중․후기시를 통해서 논의하고자 한다. 이를 통해서 그는 일생동안 아일랜드의 고유한 역사와 신화, 전설을 자국민들에게 상기시키면서, 문학과 예술을 고취시킨다. 식민지배자인 영국의 시 형식을 비틀고 시어를 변화시키면서 탈식민성을 지향하고, 아일랜드인에게 민족주체성을 되찾게 하고 영국의 지배로부터 벗어난 해방적인 측면을 드러낸다. 마침내 포스트모던한 아일랜드에서 파편화 된 자신을 노정시키면서 새 출발을 다짐한다.

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.