A collection of critical essays by renowned scholars dealing with various aspects of literature, both poetry and prose, written in English in Wales during the 20th century.

Casgliad o draethodau beirniadol gan ysgolheigion cydnabyddedig yn ymwneud ag amryfal agweddau ar lenyddiaeth, yn farddoniaeth a rhyddiaith Saesneg, a ysgrifennwyd yng Nghymru yn ystod yr 20fed ganrif.

The discussion and analysis of Welsh Writing in English depends on a small number of mainly academic critics who are professionally involved with it whether as teachers or postgraduate students. For the most part they produce a body of critical writing that is informed, balanced and sympathetic towards the sources and peculiar circumstances from which this literature springs. If this sometimes makes for a degree of cosiness it is no more than what exists in other cultures such as those of Ireland, Scotland and especially England, where the Thames Valley still holds sway over what is said and written about writing in that country.

The intelligentsia of Wales is seen at its best in the main literary magazines such as New Welsh Review and in the Yearbook, now in its eighth year and under the able editorship of Dr Tony Brown of the English Department at the University of Bangor, assisted by Professors Jane Aaron of the University of Glamorgan and M. Wynn Thomas of the University of Swansea.

This year we are marking the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Dylan Thomas, so it is fitting that the Yearbook should carry, besides a nice picture of the poet on the cover that has never before been seen in Wales, three articles on his work. Victor N. Paanamen, Emeritus Professor of English at Michigan State University and an authority on Marxist criticism, writes not altogether convincingly about ‘The Social Vision of Dylan Thomas’. Victor Golightly, Lecturer in English at Trinity College, Carmarthen, also examines the case for regarding Thomas as having been affected by Marxist theory, mainly on the grounds that he was closely associated with the Communist grocer Bert Trick, attended a Peace Conference in Prague in 1949 and was always ready to lend his name, even in the USA, to left-wing petitions and conferences. James A. Davies, Honorary Fellow at the Centre for Research into the English Language and Literature of Wales at Swansea, has a rather more orthodox view of Thomas as author of Deaths and Entrances.

Among other writers featured here are T.J. Llewelyn Prichard, author of ‘the first Welsh novel in English’, though Andrew Davies has reservations about calling The Adventures and Vagaries of Twm Shon Catti (1828) that; Lewis Jones, whose novel Cwmardy (1937) is examined by Emma Davies; Vernon Watkins, who is discussed by Rowan Williams, now Archbishop of Canterbury; R.S. Thomas, whose work is compared with that of William Carlos Williams by David Lloyd; and Alun Lewis who is tussled over, most unedifyingly, by John Pikoulis in dispute with Tony Brown and M. Wynn Thomas over what they never said in a paper in Nations and Relations (2000). Jeremy Hooker gives an overview of Welsh poetry in English since the Second World War and Claire Powell contributes a useful, though not comprehensive, bibliography of critical writings published in 2000 and 2001.

This book is strongly recommended as essential reading for all who work in the field. They may not be many but they can be glad that Welsh Writing in English attracts such capable critics year after year. It may be true that, in the whole of Europe, there are few monuments to critics, but every country’s literature needs them nonetheless. After all, where would the French Romantic poets have been without Sainte-Beuve?

Meic Stephens

It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgement should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.

Gellir defnyddio’r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatâd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.