Short Fiction by Women from Wales: a Neglected Tradition
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1 Short Fiction by Women from Wales: A Neglected Tradition Michelle Deininger B.A. (Hons), M.A. (Cardiff University) A Thesis Submitted in Candidature for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Cardiff University 2013 2 DECLARATION This work has not been submitted in substance for any other degree or award at this or any other university or place of learning, nor is being submitted concurrently in candidature for any degree or other award. Signed …M J Deininger (candidate) Date…30/09/2013 STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. The views expressed are my own. Signed … M J Deininger (candidate) Date …30/09/2013 STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed … M J Deininger (candidate) Date …30/09/2013 STATEMENT 4: PREVIOUSLY APPROVED BAR ON ACCESS I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loans after expiry of a bar on access previously approved by the Academic Standards & Quality Committee. Signed … M J Deininger (candidate) Date …30/09/2013 3 Summary This thesis traces the emergence of a distinct literary tradition of female-authored short fiction in Wales. It knits together a range of theoretical frameworks, including travel writing theories, ethnography and auto-ethnography, and ecofeminism, in order to adequately describe, elucidate and critique the evolution of the form from the late 1830s to the present day. The Introduction looks at the history of the theory of short fiction, especially the work of Frank O’Connor and Clare Hanson, as well as European models. Chapter One explores the interrelations between an emergent short fiction form, the sketch and travel literature, through the lenses of imperial travel writing theories, home tour writing, the sketch and Sandra A. Zagarell’s ‘narrative of community’. Chapter Two looks at writers from the 1920s to 1950, examining the ways in which discourses of anthropology, specifically ethnography and auto- ethnography, combined with further elements of Zagarell’s theories, can shed light on narrative techniques and recurrent tropes. Chapter Three examines the politically volatile period of the 1960s and 1970s, focusing particularly on the ways in which short fiction is caught up in debates surrounding ecofeminism, the environment and women’s bodies. The final chapter looks at current trends in contemporary short fiction, especially language loss, devolution and a sense of belonging. This chapter also considers how recent prestigious competitions are shaping trends in short fiction, as well as uncovering recurring metaphors which tie into movements in wider feminist theory, such as Adrienne Rich’s work on salvage and recovery. The conclusion looks ahead to new directions in both theoretical stances and the form itself, such as electronic publishing and further avenues for recovering material. 4 Acknowledgements My deepest gratitude must go to my supervisor, Professor Katie Gramich, for her guidance, support and invaluable critique. Taking her undergraduate modules in postcolonial literature and Welsh writing in English changed the direction of my studies in ways I could hardly have imagined when I first moved from Oxford in 2005. Undoubtedly, this research would have been impossible without the generous support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, as well as additional financial support from Cardiff University’s School of English, Communication and Philosophy. I would like to thank all the staff at Cardiff, both past and present, who have motivated and supported me throughout my studies, especially Heather Worthington, Claire Connolly, Becky Munford, Tom Owen, Carl Plasa and Martin Coyle. ENCAP’s administrators, particularly Haley Miles, Nicola Bassett, Anna Birt and Rhian Rattray, have been a vital source of assistance, advice and humour. In the years before I came to Cardiff, Dr Anna Beer and Dr David Grylls, of Kellogg College, Oxford, played an integral part in helping me to reach my full potential and I will always be grateful for the excellent teaching and support I received from them through Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education. Amongst my fellow postgraduates, I am especially grateful to Rachel Jones, Catherine Phelps and, more recently, Laura Foster for their compassion, honesty and friendship. During the difficult times, my students have been an unexpected source of both kindness and inspiration, including Rachel Gibby and Anisa Khan, and especially my former Tuesday Morning Crew: Livi Haines, Sarah Lough, Cath Owen, Eve Goodman, Lottie Simpson and Fran Brown. Long may the Costa sessions continue. During the final weeks of writing up, my colleagues at St David’s Catholic College have looked after me tirelessly, even when I have left my glasses in peculiar places and turned up to the wrong classes. Thank you to the A- Team: Katie Lawrence, Emma Beynon, Saira Malik, Cheryl Gravell, Lucy Smith, Erin Symons, and Jodie Davies. It goes without saying that without the support of my parents, Hazel and Brian Deininger, I would never have come to Cardiff in the first place and I owe them a huge debt of gratitude, not least in babysitting services and excellent coffees. My Dad taught me that it is never too late to return to the classroom and that, with hard work and determination, anything is possible. My sister, Laura, taught me that even when it seems as if there is no point in continuing, there is always hope. The challenges she overcame in her own studies inform my teaching and research on a daily basis. Coming from a place like Blackbird Leys (and those who know me best will understand that these acknowledgements would be incomplete without this) either breaks you or makes you aim that little bit higher. I dedicate this to my boys – Josh, Rowan, Charlie and Adam – in the hope that, in the future, they can begin to understand and appreciate that the work that goes into fulfilling your dreams is worth the difficulties along the way. My most heartfelt thanks are to Joanne Meek. While the supply of pastries, hot dinners and red wine were undoubtedly responsible for keeping me going, it was your unconditional belief which made the hard times bearable. I would not have been able to do this without you. 5 Contents Introduction: Models of Short Fiction ..................................................................................... 6 Chapter One: Defining a Nation: Wales and the Welsh in Travel Writing, Sketches and Short Fiction............................................................................................................................. 33 Chapter Two: ‘Store-Houses of the Past’: Auto-ethnography and Welsh Women’s Short Fiction, 1920-1950 ................................................................................................................... 93 Chapter Three: Women, the Self, and the Environment: Transforming Wales in 1960s and 1970s Short Fiction ................................................................................................................ 149 Chapter Four: Place, Language and Belonging: Contemporary Short Fiction by Women from Wales ............................................................................................................................. 189 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................... 224 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 233 6 Introduction: Models of Short Fiction Until very recently, the literary histories of Welsh women writers have been, like the literary histories of women more generally, unjustly overlooked. While there are now accounts, however, of some aspects of Welsh women writers’ contribution to the nation’s literary history, especially in texts such as Jane Aaron’s Nineteenth-Century Women’s Writing in Wales: Nation, Gender and Identity (2007) and Katie Gramich’s Twentieth-Century Women’s Writing in Wales: Land, Gender, Belonging (2007), there has been no sustained examination of their contribution to the genre of short fiction. This thesis takes the category of short fiction in its broadest sense, encompassing the sketch, life writing and elements of travel literature, in order to shift attention towards a more inclusive sense of the form than the rules laid out by famous practitioners and theorists such as Edgar Allan Poe, including the importance of ‘unity of effect or impression’.1 This thesis offers a critique of the ways in which Welsh women writers have adapted the short story form and created a distinct tradition of their own. It is also, in many ways, part of a wider project of recuperation which is currently on-going in the field of Welsh writing in English. One of the main aims of this thesis is to recover and re-evaluate women’s voices that have been lost, overlooked or simply forgotten, often for no valid reason other than the gender of the author. Virginia Woolf famously wrote, in A Room of One’s Own (1929), that one of the problems facing women writers was the perception that they ‘had no tradition behind them, or one so short and partial that it was of little help’.2 For Woolf this perception is caused by living in a patriarchy.