Welsh Environments in Contemporary Poetry

Matthew Jarvis

Description

Welsh Environments in Contemporary Poetry’ examines the question of how recent English-language poetry from Wales has responded to the diverse physical environments of Wales. The first volume to offer a sustained assessment of Welsh poetry in English within the context of recent developments in environmental literary criticism, this book also draws on aspects of human geography to explore the rich contemporary poetics of Welsh space and place. Opening with an examination of poets from the 1960s as well as the early work of R.S. Thomas, ‘Welsh Environments in Contemporary Poetry’ subsequently concentrates on the poetry of writers who have come to prominence since the 1970s: Gillian Clarke, Ruth Bidgood, Robert Minhinnick, Mike Jenkins, Christine Evans, and Ian Davidson.Close reading of key texts reveals the way in which these writers variously create Welsh places, landscapes, and environments – fashioning rural and urban spaces into poetic geographies that are both abundantly physical and inescapably cultural. Far from reducing Wales to mere scenery, the poetry that emerges from this book engages with the environments of Wales, not just for their own sake, but as a crucial way of exploring key issues in Welsh culture – from the negotiation of female identity in a land of masculine myths to the exploration of Welsh space in a global context.

Sujets

• Literary Criticism
• Idioma inglés
• Idioma galés
• English
• Poetry
• Welsh
• Anglais

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 15 mars 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786837318
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Welsh Environments in Contemporary Poetry

Writing Wales in English

CREW General Editor:

series of Critical and Scholarly Studies 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 As- sociates. Grateful thanks are extended to Richard Dynevor for making this series possible.

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)

Welsh Environments in Contemporary Poetry

Writing Wales in English

MATTHEW JARVIS

UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS CARDIFF 008

©MatthewJarvis,2008

Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproduced,storedina retrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic, mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise,withoutclearance fromtheUniversityofUniversity of Wales Press, University Registry, King Edward VII Avenue, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NS. www.uwp.co.uk

BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.

ISBN

978-0-7083-2152-2

TherightofMatthewJarvistobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhas beenassertedbyhiminaccordancewithsections77and78ofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsActs1988.

Recommended text

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

To Kate, Danny, and Ethan and in memory of Anthony Dyson

1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9

C ONTENTS

General Editor’s Preface Acknowledgements

I: Starting with Trees Conifers A Digression on Writing and Environment The 1960s Generation and R. S. Thomas to 1968

II: Welsh Environments in Contemporary Poetry Gillian Clarke: Beyond an Environment of the Senses Ruth Bidgood: Reinhabiting Mid Wales Robert Minhinnick: From Pen-y-fai to Iraq Mike Jenkins: Locating the Depredations of Power Christine Evans: Creating Sacred Space Ian Davidson: ‘the form and function of the world’

10 Afterword: ‘a landscape with everything in it’ Notes Bibliography Index

ix xi

3 6 15

35 54 73 88 107 125

140 144 177 187

G ENERAL E DITOR ’ S P REFACE

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 signifi- cance, viewed not only as an expression of Welsh culture but also as an instance of modern literatures in English worldwide. 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) Swansea University