@article{ART003111440},
author={Ji Hyea Hwang},
title={The Queen’s Ecstatic Moment: Eugenic Concerns in William Butler Yeats’s A Full Moon in March},
journal={Journal of Modern English Drama},
issn={1226-3397},
year={2024},
volume={37},
number={2},
pages={409-433}
TY - JOUR
AU - Ji Hyea Hwang
TI - The Queen’s Ecstatic Moment: Eugenic Concerns in William Butler Yeats’s A Full Moon in March
JO - Journal of Modern English Drama
PY - 2024
VL - 37
IS - 2
PB - 한국현대영미드라마학회
SP - 409
EP - 433
SN - 1226-3397
AB - This article examines William Butler Yeats’s eugenicist concerns in his play A Full Moon in March (1935) alongside his essays, primarily “If I were Four-and-Twenty” (1919) and “To-morrow’s Revolution” (1938). This comparative study reveals how Yeats uses the interaction between the Queen and the Swineherd to warn against what he perceived as the reasons for the degeneration of Irish culture and society. The play’s climactic dance, or the Queen’s “ecstatic moment,” serves as a dramatic embodiment of Yeats’s growing belief in the crucial role of elite women’s sexual choice in determining the future of Irish society. Drawing on Yeats’s concept of “mother-wit” as well as his concerns about the population decrease of the “better stocks,” the study demonstrates how A Full Moon in March reflects Yeats’s preoccupation with eugenics and the continuity of upper-class family lineage in relation to societal progress and Irish cultural regeneration. This analysis offers a new interpretation of A Full Moon in March, highlighting the intricate connections between Yeats’s aesthetic, political, and eugenicist concerns in his later career, complementing existing studies which highlight the Japanese Noh-inspired aesthetics of the play.
KW - William Butler Yeats;A Full Moon in March;On the Boiler;“If I were Four-and-Twenty;” “To-morrow’s Revolution;” Eugenics;Sexual Choice
DO -
UR -
ER -
Ji Hyea Hwang. (2024). The Queen’s Ecstatic Moment: Eugenic Concerns in William Butler Yeats’s A Full Moon in March. Journal of Modern English Drama, 37(2), 409-433.
Ji Hyea Hwang. 2024, "The Queen’s Ecstatic Moment: Eugenic Concerns in William Butler Yeats’s A Full Moon in March", Journal of Modern English Drama, vol.37, no.2 pp.409-433.
Ji Hyea Hwang "The Queen’s Ecstatic Moment: Eugenic Concerns in William Butler Yeats’s A Full Moon in March" Journal of Modern English Drama 37.2 pp.409-433 (2024) : 409.
Ji Hyea Hwang. The Queen’s Ecstatic Moment: Eugenic Concerns in William Butler Yeats’s A Full Moon in March. 2024; 37(2), 409-433.
Ji Hyea Hwang. "The Queen’s Ecstatic Moment: Eugenic Concerns in William Butler Yeats’s A Full Moon in March" Journal of Modern English Drama 37, no.2 (2024) : 409-433.
Ji Hyea Hwang. The Queen’s Ecstatic Moment: Eugenic Concerns in William Butler Yeats’s A Full Moon in March. Journal of Modern English Drama, 37(2), 409-433.
Ji Hyea Hwang. The Queen’s Ecstatic Moment: Eugenic Concerns in William Butler Yeats’s A Full Moon in March. Journal of Modern English Drama. 2024; 37(2) 409-433.
Ji Hyea Hwang. The Queen’s Ecstatic Moment: Eugenic Concerns in William Butler Yeats’s A Full Moon in March. 2024; 37(2), 409-433.
Ji Hyea Hwang. "The Queen’s Ecstatic Moment: Eugenic Concerns in William Butler Yeats’s A Full Moon in March" Journal of Modern English Drama 37, no.2 (2024) : 409-433.
