Monday 21 February 2011

Martha Vandrei on 'Buddug' / 'Boudica'


Monday, 21 February 2011 at 4.00 pm
Conference Room (B03), Basement Floor, Callaghan Building

Martha Vandrei (King's College London)
‘“Buddug”: Reimagining Boudica in Victorian Wales'

ABSTRACT
The ancient British heroine Boudica has been forgotten, remembered, praised, and vilified throughout her long posthumous history. Her reputation as a national heroine did not cement until the nineteenth century, when a combination of factors, most importantly Victoria's long reign and the concomitant heyday of hero-worship, worked together to bring Boudica in from the ancient cold. The latter years of the century saw many commemorative activities associated with Boudica, such as the excavation of her supposed burial place on Hampstead Heath in 1894, as well as the erection of Thomas Thornycroft's iconic statue on Westminster Bridge. The expansion of British (or specifically English) power abroad has also been pointed to as the impetus behind Boudica's nineteenth-century resurrection, leading some to say, for example, that Thornycroft's 'Boadicea' was as much a commemoration of the South African wars as it was of the ancient British past.

This paper demonstrates that there was another side to the Boudica story. Imperial associations may have played a part in English reinterpretations of Boudica in the nineteenth century, but her Welsh supporters were inclined to see her very differently. This paper argues that Boudica's place in Welsh history was unique to a Celtic retelling of the ancient past. Elements of Celtic culture that set it apart from the dominant Anglo-Saxon centre freed Boudica from troublesome moral judgment about her pagan or barbarian practices. Instead, her identity as an ancient Briton was morphed into that of a modern Welshwoman by nationalists. Far from an attempt to distance themselves from the English, this rewritten version of Boudica's story was a demonstration of Welsh loyalty to Victoria. It was also a retelling of ancient British history that put Wales, rather than England, at its centre and claimed the origin of British greatness could be found in the heart of ancient Wales.


COLEG Y CELFYDDYDAU A’R DYNIAETHAU
SEMINAR YMCHWIL

Dydd Llun, 21 Chwefror 2011 am 4.00 pm
Ystafell Gynadledda (B03), Llawr Isaf, Adeilad Callaghan

Martha Vandrei (Coleg y Brenin Llundain)
‘“Buddug”: Reimagining Boudica in Victorian Wales'

CRYNODEB
Mae Buddug, arwres hen Brydain wedi cael ei hanghofio, ei chofio, ei chanmol a’i difenwi trwy gydol ei hanes hir ar ôl ei marwolaeth. Ni chadarnhawyd ei hanes fel arwres genedlaethol tan y bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg, pan weithiodd cyfuniad o ffactorau, teyrnasiad hir Fictoria ac anterth y cyfnod dilynol o ganmol arwyr yn bennaf, gyda’i gilydd i atgyfodi Buddug o gysgodion yr henfyd. Yn ystod blynyddoedd diwethaf y ganrif, cafwyd nifer o weithgareddau coffaol a oedd yn gysylltiedig â Buddug, megis cloddio’r lle y credir y cafodd Buddug ei chladdu ar Hampstead Heath yn 1894, yn ogystal â chodi cerflun eiconig Thomas Thornycroft ar Bont Westminster. Cyfeiriwyd hefyd at ehangu pŵer Prydain (neu’n fwy penodol Lloegr) dramor fel yr hwb y tu ôl i atgyfodiad Buddug yn y bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg, gan achosi rhai i ddweud, er enghraifft, bod 'Boadicea' Thornycroft gymaint yn goffâd o ryfeloedd De Affrica ag yr oedd yn goffâd o orffennol hen Brydain.

Mae’r papur hwn yn dangos bod ochr arall i hanes Buddug. Er i gysylltiadau ymerodraethol chwarae rhan yn y modd y mae Buddug wedi’i hailddehongli yn Lloegr yn y bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg, roedd ei chefnogwyr yng Nghymru yn tueddu ei hystyried mewn modd gwahanol iawn. Mae’r papur hwn yn dadlau bod lle Buddug yn hanes Cymru yn ailadroddiad Celtaidd unigryw o’r gorffennol hynafol. Gwnaeth elfennau o ddiwylliant Celtaidd a’i wahanodd o ddiwylliant dominyddol yr Eingl-Sacsoniaid ryddhau Buddug o feirniadaeth foesol drafferthus am ei harferion paganaidd neu farbaraidd. Yn lle hynny, newidiodd ei hunaniaeth fel Prydeinwraig hynafol i fod yn Gymraes fodern gan genedlaetholwyr. Yn bell o fod yn ymgais i bellhau eu hun o’r Saeson, roedd y fersiwn newydd hon o stori Buddug yn arddangosiad o ffyddlondeb y Cymry i Fictoria. Mae hefyd yn ailadroddiad o hanes hynafol Prydain a roddodd Gymru, yn hytrach na Lloegr, yn y canol ac a honnodd fod mawredd Prydain yn tarddu o galon hen Gymru.

Andrew Webb on Edward Thomas and Pascale Casanova

Kieron Smith writes: CREW’s postgraduate discussion group series for 2011 kicked off this week. On Wednesday 2nd February, Swansea University lecturer Dr Andrew Webb generated a stimulating discussion with an overview of his work on the poet Edward Thomas within the burgeoning critical field of World Literature.

Using Pascale Casanova’s ambitious study of literary globalisation The World Republic of Letters, Andrew highlighted the way critics of varying national allegiances have moulded Thomas’s work to fit conflicting narratives of English, Welsh and British culture. His talk raised some fascinating and wide-ranging questions concerning national literature, global literary culture and the nature of national-cultural dominance. All of these were fuelled by the tasty baking of CREW’s in-house chef, Dr Sarah Morse, and later the refreshing beverages of some of Swansea’s finest bars.

Many thanks to Andrew for sharing his work with us.
CREW’s postgraduate seminars take place in the CREW ‘green’ room on Wednesday afternoons at 3pm. Watch this space for more information. All welcome.

Two Conferences

Two Conferences have recently published their programme of lectures.


The Association for Welsh Writing in English is proud to be collaborating with the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies in organizing its annual conference in 2011 on the subject of ‘Wales and Revolution’.
http://www.swan.ac.uk/CREW/AWWE/AnnualConference/


The Celts in the Americas conference will be held 29 June – 2 July, 2011 at Saint Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, hosted by the Celtic Studies Department of St FX and the Centre for Cape Breton Studies at Cape Breton University. The Celts in the Americas conference will offer a unique opportunity to share scholarship about the history, culture, and literature of Celtic-speaking peoples in North and South America: it will be the first academic conference devoted to this theme, with presentations about aspects of the experiences and literatures of the communities speaking Breton, Cornish, Irish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, or Welsh in the Americas. One day of the conference will be devoted to examining the interactions between Celtic peoples and non-Celtic peoples in the Americas, with a special emphasis on indigenous peoples and peoples of African descent. CREW’s director Daniel Williams will be giving a keynote lecture at the conference, made possible by a British Academy Overseas Conference Award.

The programme is here:
http://www.mystfx.ca/academic/celtic-studies/AllAboutConference.pdf

Global Wales / Cymru'r Byd : Richard Burton Centre Series

Canolfan Astudiaethau Cymreig Richard Burton Centre for Welsh Studies
Cyfres Ddarlithoedd 2010 – 2011 Lecture Series

GLOBAL WALES / CYMRU’R BYD

Unless otherwise stated the seminars take place at 4pm in the Arts and Humanities Conference Room (B03), James Callaghan Building.
Oni noder yn wahanol bydd y seminarau yn cymryd lle yn Ystafell Gynadledda’r Celfyddydau a’r Dyniaethau (B03), Adeilad James Callaghan

SEMESTER 2

January 31 Ionawr
Elin Royles, International Politics / Gwleidyddiaeth Ryngwladol, Prifysgol Aberystwyth
A Small Nation and the World Stage: Wales and Sub-State Diplomacy

February 14 Chwefror
Paul O’Leary, Department of History / Adran Hanes, Prifysgol Aberystwyth
Wales, the Irish Question and the British State, 1850 - 1914

February 28 Chwefror
Andre Webb, CREW, Swansea University / Prifysgol Aberatwe
Wales and World Literature

March 14 Mawrth
Cynfael Lake, Academi Hywel Teifi , Prifysgol Abertawe / Swansea University
O’r Bala i Bensylfania, ac yn ôl: Rhai agweddau ar y Faled Gymraeg yn y Ddeunawfed Ganrif
[With translation: From Bala to Pennsylvania: Welsh Ballads of the Eighteenth Century]

March 28 Mawrth
7.30. Faraday Lecture Theatre / Darlithfa Faraday
First Minister / Y Prif Weinidog Carwyn Jones
Welsh Assembly Government / Llywodraeth y Cynulliad
Global Wales

May 9 Mai
Jane Aaron, English Department / Adran Saesneg, Prifysgol Morgannwg / University of Glamorgan
Welsh Women Missionaries and Travel Writers in the Empire during the Nineteenth Century

May (dates to be announced) / Mis Mai ( dyddiadau i’w cadarnhau)
Postgraduate Conference on New Directions in Welsh Studies. Details to follow.
Cynhadledd Ôl-raddedig ar Gyfeiriadau Newydd mewn Astudiaethau Cymreig.
Manylion i ddilyn.

Comparative American Studies 8:4

Issue 8:4, Winter 2010, of the journal Comparative American Studies contains a series of responses to issue 8:2 on 'The Celtic Nations and the African Americas' edited by Daniel Williams.

Professor Werner Sollors of Harvard University, Professor Charlotte Williams of Keele University and the renowned African American novelist Ishmael Reed engage with and respond to some of the research areas opened up and debated in the special issue.

Articles can be accessed or purchased here:
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/cas

In the Frame

CREW’s Raymond Williams Research Chair in Cultural History at Swansea University, Professor Dai Smith, marked the launch of his newest work In the Frame, Memory in Society 1910 – 2010 with a reading in Swansea on Thursday, 11 November 2010.
In the Frame is a powerful alternative history of twentieth-century South Wales. The book pieces together, without sympathy or sentimentality, the consciousness of a community that searched for fame and fortune while struggling for rights and recognition.

The story, which is based on intensive research and critical study, is interwoven with personal viewpoints, experiences and memories. It takes the reader into a territory formed by the influence of writers and painters, boxers and historians, friends and relatives, rioters and correspondents, critics and photographers. Professor Dai Smith, Chair in Cultural History at Swansea University and the Series Editor of the Welsh Assembly Government’s Library of Wales, explained: "I felt compelled to write In the Frame to show the deep relevance of our history to the understanding of contemporary issues."

We were delighted that the Welsh Assembly Government’s Minister for Children, Education and Life-Long Learning, Leighton Andrews, joined us to mark teh event and gave a spirited speech. The speech given by Leighton Andrews AM can be read in full here: http://www.swansea.ac.uk/CREW/Staff/ProfessorDaiSmith/intheframe/#d.en.54893

R. S. Thomas Conference and In the Shadow of the Pulpit Launch

The R. S. Thomas anniversary conference, held at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea on Saturday, November 6th, proved a great success. As the programme indicated, the morning was dedicated to new critical readings of Thomas’s writings, while the afternoon explored Thomas’s influence on the art and culture of Wales more broadly. The day ended with a fascinating discussion between Tony Brown and Gwydion Thomas.

CREW was also delighted to launch the latest volume by Professor M. Wynn Thomas at the conference. A very large number of friends and admirers gathered at 6pm for the launch at which Professor Jane Aaron of Glamorgan University and Daniel Williams spoke. The following is taken from Daniel’s speech.

Like some of Wynn’s other writings In the Shadow of the Pulpit draws on familial and autobiographical resources, but these are brought more to the foreground here and give the study as a whole a kind of intense personal charge which is very difficult to communicate in the language of criticism. That charge has something to do with the book’s subject matter of course, for the close connections between language, identity and religion are so closely meshed for those brought up in a Welsh chapel culture. This book brings that culture vividly to life, while also tracing its demise. It also establishes its remarkable continuing influence even in its absence. It a book about absent presences.

As in many of his books, Wynn offers new beginnings. Not J O Francis as in Internal Difference this time, but a body of English language texts written in the nineteenth century about Nonconformity. He creates a whole new background against which we should now understand the works of Caradoc Evans and J. O. Francis anew. It proves a particularly fruitful context to think about Dylan Thomas too, in one of the more challenging chapters in this study. Wynn also characteristically ends by suggesting further areas of study. Having read a book of this length, erudition and depth on Nonconformism and Literature in Wales you’d think that the subject would have been covered. But Wynn is always laying foundation stones, always looking ahead at where these ideas might take him, his students, us – which is of course what has made him such an inspiring teacher for so many. I can only encourage you all to buy and read this latest, magnificent and moving sermon.