Acceso usuarios
James Heaney
This essay presents a comparative analysis of writings by Antonio Machado (1875–1939) and W. B. Yeats (1865–1939). It contends that Athenian republicanism illuminates key aspects of both writers’ political thinking. The essay’s opening sections highlight the importance of language in Aristotle’s concept of man as a political animal. Machado’s and Yeats’ writings are then analysed under three headings: freedom, equality and fraternity. The essay concludes that the dialogical model of selfhood which finds expression in Machado’s and Yeats’ writings, parallels the republican concept of the polis as a community of interdependent citizens who search for the ‘good life’ together.
