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Dec. 7th, 2018
Look Silke Stroh. Look I get what you're saying Sharp spewed a lot of racist nonsense that ultimately comes over as colonialist despite his being pro-celtic and writing celtic narratives. sure, calling the scottish people of the highlands as dreamy and irrational isn't on
but. buuut. a lot of the things Sharp says about the celtic "race" in Green Fire are things he both idolises and takes for himself, as aspects of his own personality and personhood.
He's constantly, consistently, crying out for a Celtic identity of his own and yes! when he takes or talks about that identity, he does it in a way that shows his rhetoric up as being very colonialism-infused
but. but. a) his work is clearly compatible with nationalist thought because he was big pals with Yeats and if you were an Irish nationalist would you stay friends with a colonial apologist and be an admirer of said apologist's work in which he does the apologising? no. or at least you'd publically acknowledge its complexity
b) sometimes people raised or existing in certain atmospheres do express themselves in the language of the coloniser because that's the only language they have access to
c) sometimes people cling to certain ideas about a quality in their heritage because it makes them feel connected and grounded as an individual
d) sometimes people use rhetoric they dislike or have a nationalist objection to because that's the only way that the English market will listen (see lots of Welsh literature)
Stroh says things about how it's unsurprising, given that Sharp and others (inc Matthew Arnold) go on about the Celtic People being feminine, that when Sharp takes on a lasting pseudonym it's female, but tbh I think that's the wrong way around
I think Sharp collected the parts of his self that he had to repress - his Scottishness, his genderqueerness, his patriotism - and shoved them into the identity of Fiona Macleod (this assumes that FM is a pseudonymous identity rather than an alter, but I think WS could have had an alter that found expression in FM /and also/ be a partly pseudonymous identity*).
Therefore I think Sharp leant into the Celt = feminine Thing because both of those were repressed parts, or at least difficult parts of his identity, and he sandwiched them together in a lot of his work because for him they were, perhaps subconsciously, sandwiched together.
To suggest as Stroh does that Sharp is a) expressing colonialist thought and reproducing colonialist rhetoric in a patronising and dismissive way and b) creating a female pseudonym in order to carry on doing that more conveniently, to quote the horse and his boy, in my opinion elides the vast and complex issues at play just in Sharp, let alone in the Celtic Twilight as a movement.
ETA: * For instance, Macleod was from the Highlands where Sharp was Lowlands. I can easily see a situation wherein Macleod (presuming she was an alter and thus an individual) recreated aspects of herself in order to separate and stabilise her identity
but. buuut. a lot of the things Sharp says about the celtic "race" in Green Fire are things he both idolises and takes for himself, as aspects of his own personality and personhood.
He's constantly, consistently, crying out for a Celtic identity of his own and yes! when he takes or talks about that identity, he does it in a way that shows his rhetoric up as being very colonialism-infused
but. but. a) his work is clearly compatible with nationalist thought because he was big pals with Yeats and if you were an Irish nationalist would you stay friends with a colonial apologist and be an admirer of said apologist's work in which he does the apologising? no. or at least you'd publically acknowledge its complexity
b) sometimes people raised or existing in certain atmospheres do express themselves in the language of the coloniser because that's the only language they have access to
c) sometimes people cling to certain ideas about a quality in their heritage because it makes them feel connected and grounded as an individual
d) sometimes people use rhetoric they dislike or have a nationalist objection to because that's the only way that the English market will listen (see lots of Welsh literature)
Stroh says things about how it's unsurprising, given that Sharp and others (inc Matthew Arnold) go on about the Celtic People being feminine, that when Sharp takes on a lasting pseudonym it's female, but tbh I think that's the wrong way around
I think Sharp collected the parts of his self that he had to repress - his Scottishness, his genderqueerness, his patriotism - and shoved them into the identity of Fiona Macleod (this assumes that FM is a pseudonymous identity rather than an alter, but I think WS could have had an alter that found expression in FM /and also/ be a partly pseudonymous identity*).
Therefore I think Sharp leant into the Celt = feminine Thing because both of those were repressed parts, or at least difficult parts of his identity, and he sandwiched them together in a lot of his work because for him they were, perhaps subconsciously, sandwiched together.
To suggest as Stroh does that Sharp is a) expressing colonialist thought and reproducing colonialist rhetoric in a patronising and dismissive way and b) creating a female pseudonym in order to carry on doing that more conveniently, to quote the horse and his boy, in my opinion elides the vast and complex issues at play just in Sharp, let alone in the Celtic Twilight as a movement.
ETA: * For instance, Macleod was from the Highlands where Sharp was Lowlands. I can easily see a situation wherein Macleod (presuming she was an alter and thus an individual) recreated aspects of herself in order to separate and stabilise her identity