The Literary Tradition of the Neath and Afan Valleys and Tir Iarll (Maesteg and Porthcawl)

_________________________________________________________________________Swansea University E-Theses The literary tradition of the Neath and Afan Valleys and Tir Iarll (Maesteg and Porthcawl). Jones, Sally Roberts How to cite: _________________________________________________________________________ Jones, Sally Roberts (2009) The literary tradition of the Neath and Afan Valleys and Tir Iarll (Maesteg and Porthcawl).. thesis, Swansea University. http://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42483 Use policy: _________________________________________________________________________ This item is brought to you by Swansea University. Any person downloading material is agreeing to abide by the terms of the repository licence: copies of full text items may be used or reproduced in any format or medium, without prior permission for personal research or study, educational or non-commercial purposes only. The copyright for any work remains with the original author unless otherwise specified. The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder. Permission for multiple reproductions should be obtained from the original author. Authors are personally responsible for adhering to copyright and publisher restrictions when uploading content to the repository. Please link to the metadata record in the Swansea University repository, Cronfa (link given in the citation reference above.) http://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/researchsupport/ris-support/ THE LITERARY TRADITION OF THE NEATH AND AFAN VALLEYS AND TIR IARLL (MAESTEG AND PORTHCAWL) Sally Roberts Jones Submitted to the University of Wales in fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Master of Philosophy Swansea University 2007 ProQuest Number: 10801713 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10801713 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 S/Tp r < i LIBRARY SUMMARY The aim of this thesis was to test what has been the standard view of English-language writing in Wales - that it is a very recent growth, beginning in 1915, and a phenomenon largely confined to the anglicised industrial valleys of South Wales. The research also looked at the possible relationship between writing in the two languages, Welsh and English. In order to investigate these questions one geographical area - Neddafan, the Neath and Afan Valleys, Maesteg and Porthcawl - was selected and the history of the English language in this area was considered, together with the growth of an audience for English language literature. The role of the Welsh language and of Welsh-language writers in the area was also considered. The study then took three specific examples: bilingualism and the translation of Welsh-language writing and culture for the English-speaking audience; local historians and historical novelists; and women writers, and looked at similarities in subject matter, approach and style between these writers, both in their categories and more generally. Finally the thesis looked at the writers of the twentieth century and their contribution to the literary culture of the area in that century. The conclusions reached are that English-language writing in Neddafan dates back to well before 1915; that much of it follows and/or adapts Welsh language traditions like that of the bardd gwlad (household poet); that its audience is most often the wider community, not an elite readership; and that the oral tradition and a sense of place are important factors in what is written and the forms it takes. 2 DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently subnitted in candidature for any degree. Signed P. .............................................. (candidate) D ate................ STATEMENT 1 This thesis is the result of my own investigations except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. A bibliography is appended. Signed J jjf. t.............. t (.J.k........................................................(candidate) Dated........... IS..’.... r?..:... rrkQlf?... STATEMENT 2 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be made available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed ............................................ Dated................1 ‘ .<2..'... .Or. f? I/?.................................................... 3 CONTENTS Page 1. Introduction 7 Definitions 9 Format 10 Part 1: Chapter 1. The Cultural Background 13 Chapter 2. Welsh Language Literature in Neddafan 37 Part 2: Chapter 1. History and Fiction 49 Chapter 2. A Bilingual Tradition 83 Chapter 3. Women Writers of Neddafan 112 Chapter 4. Writers of the Later Twentieth Century 171 Chapter 5. A Tradition of Otherness 195 Conclusion 212 Bibliography 215 4 I would like to acknowledge the very considerable support that I received from Professor M.Wynn Thomas and the whole of the English Department at Swansea, who made me welcome, as a non-academic, and enabled me to put fifty years of research into a useful shape. 5 Abbreviations Companion The New Companion to the Literature o f Wales HLV History of the Llynfi Valley HVN History o f the Vale o f Neath MADHS Trans Transactions o f the Aberafan and Mar gam District Historical Society PTHS Trans Transactions of the Port Talbot Historical Society 6 INTRODUCTION For many people the standard view of Welsh writing in English has been that laid down by Professor Gwyn Jones inThe First Forty Years (1957) and in the anthologies he edited from 1942 onwards. According to this, Anglo-Welsh literature began in 1915 with the publication of My People by Caradoc Evans; although there had been English language writers in Wales before 1915, these were either the occasional country parson-poet or so-called sentimental romantic novelists like Allen Raine.1 Even among Gwyn Jones's contemporaries, he tended to highlight those who were part of his own literary circle, so that interesting, but in many ways marginally Welsh, writers like Margiad Evans were included, where Eiluned Lewis or Cledwyn Hughes were not. (Not entirely surprisingly, Professor Jones saw the passing of his own literary generation as the sunset of Anglo-Welsh literature - which, of course, it has been. Welsh writing in English is a much broader and more complex category than Anglo-Welsh literature as defined by Professor Jones.) To a considerable extent Jones's definition of Anglo-Welsh writing, which still tends to dominate critical histories of the subject,2 stems, often unconsciously, from the assumption that the English language has been a very late arrival in Wales, and hence only the anglicised industrial valleys of South(east) Wales, adulterated by immigration, have been able to produce a large enough English-reading and writing population to create and sustain a Wales-based English language literature.3 However, recent years have seen a vast increase in critical studies of writers outside the largely white male socialist dominated tradition of The First Forty Years. Initially there were studies of some of the women novelists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who lived in and/or used Wales as a setting.4 This new interest was further encouraged by the setting up of the New Welsh Review and the annual volumes of 7 Welsh Writing in English that stemmed from this, something which has now been still further enlarged by the work of M. Wynn Thomas, Jane Aaron, Katie Gramich, Stephen Knight, Kirsti Bohata, Barbara Prys Williams and others, who have explored the literary background and/or applied literary theory to the work of relevant authors.5 Welsh-language writing has also become more accessible, both in translation and through critics who, for example, discuss Welsh women writers as a whole, not Welsh-language or English-language women writers separately.6 On the other hand, this wider focus does present a particular problem. Welsh-language books, with a necessarily limited readership, have tended to have short runs and to go out of print fairly rapidly, but the various schemes set up to promote Welsh-language writing and publishing have meant that even if the books are not available to purchase, most public libraries and similar institutions will have a reasonably comprehensive set of titles that can be borrowed or at least consulted. Welsh writing in English, however, has never had that kind of support; the occasional enthusiast may have built up a personal collection, and many public libraries include local authors in their local history collections, but it has been no-one's duty to identify and collect English-language writing of Welsh relevance as an entire subject area. Inevitably, therefore, attention has tended to focus on those writers highlighted by Gwyn Jones, or those who are or were available as part of the English literary scene - writers like Dylan Thomas, Alun Lewis, Rhys Davies, David Jones, Arthur Machen, Henry Vaughan,

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