Module Information

Module Identifier
WL35230
Module Title
The Rise of Welsh Writing in English
Academic Year
2013/2014
Co-ordinator
Professor Damian Walford Davies
Semester
Intended for use in future years

Course Delivery

Delivery Type Delivery length / details
Seminars / Tutorials 20 Hours. Seminar. (10 x 2 hour seminars)
 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Assessment Continuous Assessment: 2 x 3000 word essays  100%
Supplementary Assessment Resubmit or resit failed elements and/or make good any missing elements 

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the module, students will be able to:

1. locate and discuss Welsh Writing in English in its cultural and historical context;

2. assess the influence of linguistic, economic, social and political factors on literary texts;

3. examine the tensions inherent in the cultural programme of Welsh Writing in English;

4. examine the way in which these texts interrogate issues of class, gender and national/ linguistic identity;

5. write about literary texts in a critically-focused and well-structured manner.

Brief description

The module will be taught by means of weekly two-hour seminars. Students are expected to purchase the five texts - by Caradoc Evans, Dylan Thomas, Glyn Jones, Hilda Vaughan and Emyr Humphreys - for which editions are designated (by an *) in the following programme.

_Programme

_1. A Culture in Transition (3 seminars)

_i) Introduction: 'The Anglo-Welsh Ideology'
  • Texts: selected critical material
_ii) Rural Revolt
  • Text: Caradoc Evans, My People, ed John Harris (Seren, 1997)*
_iii) Industrial Revolt
  • Text: Idris Davies, Gwalia Deserta and The Angry Summer
_2. Imagined Communities (3 seminars)

_i) Myth and War
  • Texts: selections from Alun Lewis's writings
_ii) Green and Nogood Boyos
  • Text: Dylan Thomas, Selected Poems, ed. Walford Davies (Penguin, 2000)*
_iii) Community and Loss
  • Text: Glyn Jones, The Island of Apples, ed. Belinda Humfrey (University of Wales Press)*
_3. Nation and Gender (2 seminars)

_i) A Passive Resistance
  • Text: Hilda Vaughan, 'A Thing of Nought', in A View Across the Valley: Short Stories by Women from Wales 1800-1950 ed. Jane Aaron (Honno Press)*
_ii) Forging a Female Identity
  • Texts: selected short stories and poems by Dorothy Edwards, Margiad Evans, Lynette Roberts and Gillian Clarke
_4. Language Conflicts (2 seminars)

_i) Bilingual Identities
  • Text: Emyr Humphreys, A Toy Epic, ed. M. Wynn Thomas (Seren Press)*
_ii) 'Border Blues'
  • Texts by R S Thomas

Content

The module will be taught by means of weekly two-hour seminars. Students are expected to purchase the five texts - by Caradoc Evans, Dylan Thomas, Glyn Jones, Hilda Vaughan and Emyr Humphreys - for which editions are designated (by an *) in the following programme.

_Programme

_1. A Culture in Transition (3 seminars)

_i) Introduction: 'The Anglo-Welsh Ideology'
  • Texts: selected critical material
_ii) Rural Revolt
  • Text: Caradoc Evans, My People, ed John Harris (Seren, 1997)*
_iii) Industrial Revolt
  • Text: Idris Davies, Gwalia Deserta and The Angry Summer
_2. Imagined Communities (3 seminars)

_i) Myth and War
  • Texts: selections from Alun Lewis's writings
_ii) Green and Nogood Boyos
  • Text: Dylan Thomas, Selected Poems, ed. Walford Davies (Penguin, 2000)*
_iii) Community and Loss
  • Text: Glyn Jones, The Island of Apples, ed. Belinda Humfrey (University of Wales Press)*
_3. Nation and Gender (2 seminars)

_i) A Passive Resistance
  • Text: Hilda Vaughan, 'A Thing of Nought', in A View Across the Valley: Short Stories by Women from Wales 1800-1950 ed. Jane Aaron (Honno Press)*
_ii) Forging a Female Identity
  • Texts: selected short stories and poems by Dorothy Edwards, Margiad Evans, Lynette Roberts and Gillian Clarke
_4. Language Conflicts (2 seminars)

_i) Bilingual Identities
  • Text: Emyr Humphreys, A Toy Epic, ed. M. Wynn Thomas (Seren Press)*
_ii) 'Border Blues'
  • Texts by R S Thomas

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6