A Guide to Welsh Literature: Welsh Writing in English v.7: Welsh Writing in English

(Paperback)

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Although it is often thought that English language writing from Wales dates only from the twentieth century, it has an older tradition than many other national literatures. Welsh Writing in English is the first authoritative critical survey of this body of writing in its entirety, from the Middle Ages to the present day. The work of leading scholars, critics and writers in the field, it explores the many different and complex ways in which Wales has been written into existence, considering in detail writers from Henry Vaughan and John Dyer to Gillian Clarke and Christopher Meredith. Opening with a broad survey of the historical background that helped give the Anglophone literature of Wales its distinctive characteristics, Welsh Writing in English offers new readings of familiar, major writers (Dylan Thomas, R. S. Thomas, Raymond Williams, Emyr Humphreys), setting them in the context of their times and their contemporaries. It also discusses the industrial fictions of Wales, as well as reconsidering significant neglected figures, from Rhys Davies, Lynette Roberts and Geraint Goodwin to Brenda Chamberlain and John Ormond. Welsh Writing in English is a pioneering re-evaluation of a literature that appears to many to begin with Dylan Thomas and end with How Green Was My Valley. It demonstrates that Welsh identity is experienced as constantly changing, depending on how - and from where - it is viewed, and that Wales has produced a highly-varied and internationally important literature in English.

Reviews

' ... this is an essential purchase for anyone interested in the Welsh contribution to the English language as it provides a reference point for many important, but previously unheralded books.' (South Wales Argus) 'Long-awaited, this seventh and final volume of the critically acclaimed A Guide to Welsh Literature turns out to be the jewel in the crown. Editor M. Wynn Thomas of the Centre for Research into the English Literature and Language of Wales, University of Wales Swansea, has a magic touch, charming, splendid and exciting scholarship from his ten fellow essayists...Professor M. Wynn Thomas and his learned colleagues deserve our sincere thanks for having crafted such an engrossing compendium for dynamic scholarship, exploring new insights, and new understanding of highly varied and internationally important literature in English. This is a book for all libraries and for anyone with any interest in and curiosity about literature and about Wales ancient and modern. It stirs the grey cells - and the emotions. With its earlier companion six volumes, it will be the point of reference for sober research and pleasurable browsing for many years to come.' Languages and Literature.

Author Bio

M. Wynn Thomas is Professor of English and Director of the Centre for Research into the English Literature and Language of Wales, University of Wales Swansea. He is a Fellow of both the British Academy and the Welsh Academy, and his most recent books include James Kitchener Davies: Detholiad o'i Waith (2002) (co-edited with Manon Rhys) and James Kitchener Davies (2002).