The Cambridge History of Welsh Literature

Description

The literature of Wales is one of the oldest continuous literary traditions in Europe. The earliest surviving poetry was forged in the battlefields of post-Roman Wales and the 'Old North' of Britain, and the Welsh-language poets of today still write within the same poetic tradition. In the early twentieth century, Welsh writers in English outnumbered writers in Welsh for the first time, generating new modes of writing and a crisis of national identity which began to resolve itself at the end of the twentieth century with the political devolution of Wales within the United Kingdom. By considering the two literatures side by side, this book argues that bilingualism is now a normative condition in Wales. Written by leading scholars, this book provides a comprehensive chronological guide to fifteen centuries of Welsh literature and Welsh writing in English against a backdrop of key historical and political events in Britain. Contents Maps Contributors Acknowledgements Abbreviations Glossary of Welsh Literary Terms Maps Introduction Part I. Britain, Wales, England 1 . Britain, Wales, England, c. 600 - 1450 2 . Britons and Saxons: The Earliest Writing in Welsh 3 . Magic and Marvels 4 . Commemorating the Past After 1066: Tales from The Mabinogion 5 . Court Poetry and Historiography Before 1282 6 . The Aftermath of 1282: Dafydd ap Gwilym and his Contemporaries 7 . Literary Networks and Patrons in Late Medieval Wales Part II. After the Acts of Union 8 . The Acts of Union: Culture and Religion in Wales, c. 1540 - 1700 9 . Welsh Humanism After 1536 10 . Drama and Performance in Medieval and Early Modern Wales 11 . Tudor London and the Origins of Welsh Writing in English 12 . Bibles and Bards in Tudor and Early Stuart Wales Part III. Revolution and Industry 13 . Revolution, Culture, and Industry, c. 1700 - 1850 14 . Antiquarianism and Enlightenment in the Eighteenth Century 15 . Romantic Wales and the Eisteddfod 16 . Popular Poetry, Methodism, and the Ascendancy of the Hymn 17 . Travel, Translation, and Temperance: The Origins of the Welsh Novel Part IV. The Transition to Modernity 18 . The Modern Age, c. 1850 - 1945 19 . T. Gwynn Jones and the Renaissance of Welsh Poetry 20 . Industrial Fiction 21 . From Nonconformist Nation to Proletarian Nation: Writing Wales, 1885 - 1930 22 . The Short Story in the Twentieth Century 23 . Welsh Modernist Writing in Wales and London 24 . The Poetry Revolution: Dylan Thomas and His Circle V. The Path to Nationhood in the Late Twentieth Century 25 . Debating Nationhood, c. 1945 - 2000 26 . The Legacy of Saunders Lewis 27 . R. S. Thomas, Emyr Humphreys, and the Possibility of a Bilingual Culture 28 . Inventing Welsh Writing in English 29 . Exile and Diaspora: Welsh Writing Outside Wales 30 . Literary Periodicals and the Publishing Industry 31 . ‘Beyond the Fields We Know’: Wales and Fantasy Literature 32 . Theatre, Film, and Television in Wales in the Twentieth Century VI. After Devolution 33 . The Dragon Finds a Tongue: Devolution and Government in Wales Since 1997 34 . ‘Amlhau Lleisiau’n Llên’: Birth and Rebirth in Welsh Language Literature, 1990 - 2014 35 . Writing the Size of Wales Afterword Bibliography Index