Writing Wales in English
Twentieth Century Autobiography
Barbara Prys-Williams
pp xii188 216x138mm paperback0-7083-1891-6
•Contents
•General Editor’s Preface
The writing of good autobiography requires an encounter with oneself that can involve the need to wrestle with potent elements from one’s past. In this pioneering work on twentieth-century Welsh autobiography in English, Barbara Prys-Williams traces the fascinating psychological influences which have shaped the consciousness and world views of seven authors, all by birth, or by adoption, Welsh. The study throws intriguing new light on the personalities as well as the work of many figures who occupy a prominent place in the Welsh imagination, including several who may be described as icons of their respective cultures. The comic exuberance of Rhondda-born humorist Gwyn Thomas is shown to have bleak origins: his work is powered by pain. Rhys Davies takes detachment to narcissistic levels, manipulating his own history to cover his tracks. Award-winning feminist Lorna Sage comments with acerbic wit on her northern border upbringing, showing herself to have been deprived of secure psychological boundaries. Miner-writers Ron Berry and B. L. Coombes allow powerful personal drives to shape their stories, one openly, one covertly. Margiad Evans, who loved the southern border country, writes movingly of different phases of life from turbulent adolescence to the process of dying. Poet-priest R. S. Thomas, deeply committed to the ancient heartlands of Wales, uses a virtuoso obliquity in his searingly honest search for self in his poetic autobiography.
Barbara Prys-Williams is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Research into the English Literature and Language of Wales, at the University of Wales Swansea where she gained a Ph.D. in English. She taught for some twenty years in schools in Britain and abroad. She has published widely on Welsh autobiography in English.
Contents
General Editor’s Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. Hare or Houdini?: Rhys Davies (1901–1978)
3. Writing it Out: Margiad Evans (1909–1958)
4. Miners into Writers: B. L. Coombes (1893–1974) and Ron Berry (1920–1997)
5. You’ve got to Laugh: Gwyn Thomas (1913–1981)
6. Buried to be Dug Up: R. S. Thomas (1913–2000)
7. Hacking her way out: Lorna Sage (1943–2001)
8. Conclusion
Index
General Editor’s Preface
The aim of this series is to produce a body of scholarly and critical work that reflects the richness and variety of the English-language literature of modern Wales. Drawing upon the expertise both of established specialists and of younger scholars, it will seek to take advantage of the concepts, models and discourses current in the best contemporary studies to promote a better understanding of the literature’s significance, viewed not only as an expression of Welsh culture but also as an instance of modern literatures in English world-wide. In addition, it will seek to make available the scholarly materials (such as bibliographies) necessary for this kind of advanced, informed study.
M. Wynn Thomas,
Director, CREW (Centre for Research into the English Language and Literature of Wales)
University of Wales Swansea