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.

Geraint Evans grew up in a Welsh-speaking community in north Wales and studied at the University of London, Swansea University and the University of Cambridge. After teaching Celtic Studies at the University of Sydney, he returned to Wales where he is now Senior Lecturer in English at Swansea University and a member of the Centre for Research into the English Literature and Language of Wales (CREW). His research interests include modernism, Welsh writing in English, and the history of the book in Britain. Helen Fulton trained as a Celticist at the University of Oxford and did postdoctoral research in medieval Welsh poetry at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, University of Wales, Aberystwyth. She taught at the University of Sydney before returning to the UK where she held chairs of medieval literature at the universities of Swansea and York. She is now Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of Bristol. She has published in both Welsh and English and specializes in the politics of literary production in medieval Wales and England.

'As crammed with as many riches as a dragon's cave. Objective, superbly researched, it is the best book ever published about my homeland.' Roger Lewis, Daily Telegraph 'This is a book to welcome warmly - the first comprehensive treatment for a general English-speaking readership of a still vital and diverse literary world.' Rowan Williams, New Statesman '... [The] Cambridge History of Welsh Literature offers a reassuring sense of cultural continuity-of a once and future Wales perpetually being reconstructed and reinvented in the literary imagination.' Jose Lanters, Journal of British Studies 'An exceptional collection which, while spanning the entire vista of Welsh writing from the pre-medieval to the modern, remains lucid, readable and incisive.' Alex Diggins, Times Literary Supplement '... this is an attractive and well-produced book ... it is a well-written and generally well-organised volume ... The authors are leaders in their field, and the editors are to be congratulated on having skilfully brought together a complex and multifaceted subject area in a practical and valuable work, which sets a new standard for such treatment.' Sara Elin Roberts, Forum for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Ireland '... medieval literature is well served, the essays, citations, and bibliography offering a reliable and informative guide.' Jenny Rowland, Cambrian Mediaeval Celtic Studies