Yeats and Kipling : Similarities and Differences in their View of Asia

Research Project

Project/Area Number	07610468
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	英語・英米文学
Research Institution	Hyogo University of Teacher Education
Principal Investigator	YAMASAKI Hiroyuki Hyogo University of Teacher Education, School Education, Professor, 学校教育学部, 教授 (50131678)
Project Period (FY)	1995 – 1996
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1996)
Budget Amount *help	¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000) Fiscal Year 1996: ¥600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000) Fiscal Year 1995: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
Keywords	Kipling / Yeats / View of Asia / Understanding Other Cultures / Cultural Value / Religion / Orientalism / Culture and Literature / イェイツ / 反復 / 文学テクスト
Research Abstract	The aim of the present research project is to clarify similarities and differences in views of Asian religions between an Anglo-Irish writer W.B.Yeats (1865-1939) and an Anglo-Indian writer Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). We have chiefly examined how the two writers use the terms God, Gods and gods in their poems and fictions, and reached the following conclusions : (1) Kipling for the most part refers to the divinities of Hinduism not as gods, but as Gods, whereas he refers to the divinity of Christianity either as God or Gods. The former fact suggests that he pays his deep respect to Hinduism, one of the Asian religions. The latter fact suggests that he consciously or unconsciously satirizes the historical conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism which can be interpreted to have picked and chosen their own God from among Gods and have worshiped it in their own manner. These facts ultimately reflect his relativistic sense that both Christianity as monotheism and Asian religions as polytheism are equal to each other in terms of cultural value. (2) Unlike Kipling, Yeats consistently refers to Christian divinity as God, and to Asian ones as gods. In this sense, his naming of divinities is traditional. Also, unlike Kipling, he is quite critical both of Christianity and Asian religions because he thinks that they all compel worshipers to abandon their own self to their God or gods. (3) In comparison with Kipling, Yeats, who sticks stubbornly to his own self, lack a sympathy to Asian religions. Yeats is more Europe-oriented (or classical Greek-oriented) than Kipling.