Modernity in Yeats's Theatre: towards a "Poetic Monodrama" Model

Yeats's dramatic writings, from the early plays onwards, appear to follow classical rules, but this impression is misleading. On the one hand, dialogues stricto sensu are replaced with multiple types of dialogisms integrated within poetical speeches. They are often presented in monologues or in choral forms, frequently chanted. Additionally, Yeats builds a theatre of images, inspired by the model of Noh drama, thanks to a subtle association of lyrical or narrative speeches, and visions made of pantomime, mask, music and dance: in an overt cross-disciplinary intention, he includes musicians and dancers in his cast. In other words, the poet catches up with the dramatist; the dramatist encompasses the poet. In that context, Yeats's theatrical works signify an audacious evolution and paradigmatic change, projecting the poet into modernity and revealing numerous contemporary concerns regarding drama and the arts.