ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book looks at the ways in which Eliot's verse drama of the interwar period reflects his commitment to European unity in diversity. It argues that Yeatss verse drama after the Easter Rising begins with a tentative exploration of ritual as a means of revivifying modern life and evolves according to ritual imperatives toward tragedy and the ideal of sacrificial death. The book focuses on Lawrence's two primary bullfighting works. It also argues that the symbolic uses of the bullfight by British writers in 1930s Spain are so varied and complex as to transcend any simple and purely contemporary political associations. The chapter talks about the part-Welsh David Jones writes from a position straddling the kinds of oppositions that have emerged.
