The objective of this paper is to show how recycling functions or operates in literature through the interference of media and illustrate it with the example of Cathleen Ni Houlihan. Two methodologies are used: new historicism and orature.
New historicism gives equal weight to literary and non-literary texts and considers that they constantly inform each other. Orature is a theory which advocates that oral literature and written literature are not opposed but are complementary. It shows concern with this interface between orality and print. The combination of these two theories leads us to the idea of recycling in literature as what is often called written literature previously existed in the oral form, and, with time, this written literature becomes orally appropriated, brought back to oral literature, and the cycle continues. Yeats‘ play, Cathleen Ni Houlihan, is an interesting example in these considerations.

orality print orature recycling literature historicism