Traditional Medicine in the Irish Literary Revival

The Works of W.B. Yeats, Augusta Gregory, and J. M. Synge

Holly May Walker-Dunseith

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9783031824586
• eBook ISBN: 9783031824593
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

This book explores representations of traditional medicine and healing practices in Irish Revival-era literature spanning from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Specifically, the book focuses on the work of William Butler Yeats, Lady Augusta Gregory, and John Millington Synge. The author examines folk medical practices and analyses how folk medicine appears in literature, bringing to light fresh contexts and materials including diaries, letters, folklore collections, and medical texts. By writing the first book to explore the place of traditional medicine in Irish literature, Walker-Dunseith sheds light on a distinctive area of Irish life and practice that gestures towards the possibility of a culture and nation in the act of healing itself and questioning nationalistic discourses. 

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction
• Part I. W. B. Yeats: The Search for the Land of the Young
• Part II. Augusta Gregory: From Colonies to Cough Medicines
• Part III. J. M. Synge: Wells, Wellness and Well-Being
• Back Matter