Abstract:
‘When all is said and done, how do we not know but that our own unreason may be better than another’s truth?’ 
The acclaimed Anglo-Irish poet W.B. Yeats’ relationship with the occult is a well-established aspect of his biography and art. Even in his lifetime, Yeats was publicly associated with mysticism and eclectic spirituality, particularly in regard to developing notions of Celticism and his contributions to Irish cultural nationalism. This association has subsequently been explored by generations of literary scholars, Yeats biographers, and historians of the occult. In general, students of Yeats see his spirituality in the context of his artistic output –essentially showing how Yeats drew on mystical themes and magic to inspire his poetry with purpose, characters and images. This lecture approaches Yeats’ spiritual life through the lens of paganism, asking whether his engagement with supernatural, magical and esoteric knowledge and experience amounted to a ‘religion’. It employs historians’ methods, analysing Yeats’ letters, activities and his more autobiographical (rather than purely artistic) literary output, to assess the meaning of his relationship with the occult and the supernatural. Was Yeats merely using pre-Christian deities, faeries and myth as counter-cultural artistic motifs or did his absorption in this mystical other-world constitute an alternative worldview to mainstream Western Christianity?

Guest speaker:  Dr. Gerald Power
                                Anglo-American University, Prague
Biodata:
Dr. Gerald Power is chair of History and Philosophy at Anglo-American University, Prague. He holds a PhD in history from Galway University, Ireland, and has published widely on British and Irish history, particularly early modern Ireland, British imperial history, education, cultural diplomacy, and soft power. He is the author of the book A European Frontier Elite: The Nobility of the English Pale in Tudor Ireland, 1496–1566 (2012), and he co-edited with Ondřej Pilný Ireland and the Czech Lands: Connections and Comparisons in History and Culture (2014). His recent research extends into modern British foreign policy, including the reception of Margaret Thatcher in the Czech lands, British cultural diplomacy in the Middle East, and princely education as a diplomatic instrument in the late Empire and Cold War.
 
Date: 29 October 2026
Time: 11.45- 13.15
Room: N.2.35
Contact: Dr. Nursen Gömceli
Department of English in cooperation with the Klagenfurt Centre of Irish Studies
Der Beitrag Guest Lecture Series in Irish Studies: “Was W.B.Yeats a Pagan?” by Dr. Gerald Power erschien zuerst auf University of Klagenfurt.