302 pages

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University of Wales Press - Diane Green

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302 pages

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Description

This book explores in detail the novels written by Emyr Humphreys during a timespan of over fifty years, from his first, A Little Kingdom, published in 1946, to The Gift of a Daughter, published in 1998. An early chapter comprises a literary biography with the following chapters devoted to: the early novels including A Toy Epic; a separate examination of Outside the House of Baal, considered by many to be his finest achievement; his use of Celtic myth as a patterning device; similarly his use of Welsh history is covered in 2 chapters; and finally his use of various postcolonial strategies. It also contains an extensive bibliography of work by and about Emyr Humphreys.

Sujets

Literary Criticism

Idioma inglés

Irish

English

European

Welsh

Scottish

Anglais

Informations

Publié par	University of Wales Press
Date de parution	01 juillet 2009
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780708322598
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0824€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Emyr Humphreys

Writing Wales in English

CREWseries of Critical and Scholarly Studies General Editor: Professor M. Wynn Thomas (CREW, Swansea University)

ThisCREWseries is dedicated to Emyr Humphreys, a major figure in the literary culture of modern Wales, a founding patron of theCentre for Research into the English Literature and Language of Wales, and, along with Gillian Clarke and Seamus Heaney, one ofCREW’s Honorary Associates.

Other titles in the series Stephen Knight,A Hundred Years of Fiction(978-0-7083-1846-1) Barbara Prys-Williams,Twentieth-Century Autobiography(978-0-7083-1891-1) Kirsti Bohata,Postcolonialism Revisited(978-0-7083-1892-8) Linden Peach,Contemporary Irish and Welsh Women’s Fiction(978-0-7083-1998-7) Chris Wiggington,Modernism from the Margins(978-0-7083-1927-7) Sarah Prescott,Eighteenth-Century Writing from Wales(978-0-7083-2053-2) Hywel Dix,After Raymond Williams: Cultural Materialism and the Break-Up of Britain(978-0-7083-2153-9) Matthew Jarvis,Welsh Environments in Contemporary Poetry(978-0-7083-2152-2) Harri Roberts,Embodying Identity: Representations of the Body in Welsh Literature(978-0-7083-2169-0)

Emyr Humphreys A Postcolonial Novelist?

Writing Wales in English

DIANE GREEN

UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS CARDIFF 2009

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London, EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to The University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff, CF10 4UP. www.uwp.co.uk

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-7083-2217-8 e-ISBN 978-0-7083-2259-8

The right of Diane Green to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77, 78 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The publishers wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales in the publication of this book.

Printed in Wales by Dinefwr Press, Llandybïe

CONTENTS

General Editor’s Preface 1 Postcolonialism and Wales: the Effects of Cultural Imperialism 2 ‘A serious Welsh novelist’: Redressing the Balance 3 The Emergence of Humphreys as a Postcolonial Writer 4 The Consolidation of Strategies inOutside the House of Baal 5 Strategies of Resistance: the Use of Indigenous Myth 6 Strategies of Resistance: the Use of Indigenous History in ‘The Land of the Living’ Sequence 7 Strategies of Resistance: the Use of History in the Independent Novels of the 1980s and 1990s 8 Monstering and Disabling: Paradigms and Tropes of Dispossession 9 Postscript: Speaking Welsh in English – a Postcolonial Purpose Notes A Selected Bibliography of Emyr Humphreys’s Fiction and Essays A Selected Bibliography of Writing on Emyr Humphreys’s Works Bibliography Index

vii

1 12 46

77 101

128

154

187

216 219

247

254 262 285

GENERALEDITOR’SPREFACE

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 liter-ature 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) neces-sary for this kind of advanced, informed study.

M. Wynn Thomas CREW(Centre for Research into the English Literature of Wales) Swansea University

Postcolonialism and Wales: the Effects of Cultural Imperialism

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National consciousness,which is not nationalism, is the only thing that will 1 give us an international dimension.

A discussion of Emyr Humphreys as a postcolonial author involves a number of issues alongside an examination of his work, including whether postcolonial theories are in fact relevant in the study of Welsh literature. However, it is clear from international events in the early years of the twenty-first century that concepts of nation and national identity merit careful examination and are still a motivating force engendering significant repercussions. Throughout the twentieth century a variety of commentators from myriad backgrounds took part in the public discussion of what exactly Welsh identity comprises, alongside literary discussions concerning Welsh literature and its relationship with texts written in English. This text will concentrate on the fiction of Emyr Humphreys, who has lived (for the most part in Wales) throughout most of the twentieth century and who is, in the twenty-first century, still writing. The major events of the twentieth century have necessarily impinged upon this novelist’s life and work: even the First World War, occurring immediately before his birth in 1919, dramatically affected the world into which he was born, most personally in its debilitating effect upon his father. Simultaneously, Wales’s particular history has influenced the writer and his work. The importance to Humphreys of the Penyberth bombing campaign (1936), for example, cannot be overemphasized.