Lynette Roberts Conference

2009 is the centenary of the birth of Lynette Roberts (1909-1995), the modernist war poet who produced her most important work in West Wales.

Organized jointly by CREW and Patrick McGuinness of St Anne’s College, Oxford, the conference opens on Friday 30th with a showing of the recent BBC4 film about her, in the company of writer and presenter Owen Sheers, and ends on Saturday 31st with a poetry reading by poets from Wales and beyond.

Conference speakers will include Deryn Rees-Jones, Patrick McGuinness, Stella Halkyard, John Goodby, Charles Mundye, Zoe Skoulding and the poets will be Deryn Rees-Jones, Menna Elfyn and Nigel Jenkins. Angharad Rhys, Lynette's daughter, will talk about her mother's life, and there will be an exhibition of photographs, books and papers from the Lynette Roberts family archive.

The price is £15. £10 for students.

Full details here: http://www.swan.ac.uk/CREW/Conferences/LynetteRoberts/

More information is available from Professor Patrick McGuinness, St Anne's College, University of Oxford, OX26HS (patrick.mcguinness@st-annes.ox.ac.uk).
Registration is with the Dylan Thomas Centre on 01792 463980

Symposium Report: Raymond Williams, Wales and Japan

The symposium on Raymond Williams in Transit: Wales – Japan took place on Friday 16th October, and proved to be a very stimulating event. Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research at Swansea University, Noel Thompson, opened proceedings by evoking the cultural tradition within Marxist thought, with its roots in Marx's 1844 manuscripts and its most influential formulations appearing in the works of Ruskin and Morris, and later, Raymond Williams himself. Chris Williams offered a fascinating comparative account of Welsh and Japanese coalfield societies, with the main areas of difference being the relative absence of independent trade unionism in Japan, and the nature of post-industrial depopulation in the two nations. M. Wynn Thomas, who chaired the morning’s proceedings, suggested during the lively ensuing discussion that cultural factors seemed to be the determining elements in the form taken by industrialisation in different contexts. Shintaro Kono’s paper centred on an illuminating comparison between Raymond Williams and the Japanese novelist Soseki Natsume. Drawing on Williams’s theorisation of the relationship between the country and the city, Shintaro explored the impact of modernity on Japan, and the forms of cultural inferiority and resistance that the ‘Westernising’ process of modernity had on Japanese society. Williams’s notion of the ‘double vision’ that resulted from the movement from the country to the city offered a highly productive model for comparative literary study.

Takashi Onuki’s paper on the process of translating Raymond Williams, concentred refreshingly on Williams’s writings on drama, particularly his early Drama in Performance, and minor masterpiece, Modern Tragedy. Takashi explored the multiple meanings of the word ‘action’ in Japanese, and used that exploration as a basis for discussing the many uses of ‘action’ in Williams’s own criticism, while drawing for comparison on the works of Brecht and Hannah Arendt. Gwenno Ffrancon explored the role of Wales in the imaging of industrial society in contemporary Japanese animator Miayzaki’s film ‘Laputa: Castle in the Sky’. Miayzaki’s visit to Wales during the 1984-5 miner’s strike influenced his own political orientation, and was used by Gwenno as a basis for comparing the animation industries in Wales and Japan.

It was a delight and privilege to have welcomed Shintaro Kono and Takashi Onuki to Swansea, and it is confidently hoped that further collaborations will develop from this event.

Shintaro Kono's account of the visit in Japanese (with pictures) can be accessed here:

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/shintak/

The State of Welsh Writing in English

YouTube viewers of the discussion between Slavoj Zizek, Alain Badiou and Cornel West, would have enjoyed the session on ‘The State of Anglophone Literature’ which took place on Monday October 12th and featured M. Wynn Thomas, John Goodby and Daniel Williams. Wynn discussed the publishing scene in Wales in the years after devolution and focused on the role of the Welsh Books Council. While there is much to celebrate in relation to the publishing scene in Wales today, the economic crisis will have an effect in coming years and the absence of Welsh writing in English in our schools continues to be a major area of concern. Wynn lamented our apparent inability to develop a discourse sufficient to argue the case for liberal arts in an age dominated by the language of business and economics. Daniel Williams looked at some contemporary trends in literary criticism, and while welcoming comparative, transnational approaches, suggested that the danger is that we overlook cultural distinctiveness. He suggested that the challenge for critics of Welsh writing in English is to resist the tendency to apply theories from above, but to develop theories that allow us to explore the burden, the privilege, and specificities of biculturalism.
John Goodby argued that the process of canonising Welsh Writing in English in recent years had functioned to exclude the most valuable poetic tradition of all – that of experimental poetry with its roots in the modernism of David Jones, Lynette Roberts and Dylan Thomas, and which continues today in the works of writers such as Peter Finch, John James, Wendy Mulford and Childe Roland. Several of John’s most recent initiatives are aimed to bring this tradition from the margin to the centre of our field of study.

The session, chaired by Kirsti Bohata, was the first of ‘The State of the Nation’ series, arranged by Jonathan Bradbury for the Richard Burton Centre. The next session will be on October 26th when Professor Kevin Morgan of Cardiff University will explore ‘Devolution’s Dividends’.

CREW goes Digital

CREW recently co-organised the annual Digital Resources in the Humanities and Arts (DRHA) conference along with Queen's University, Belfast and the Digital Humanities Observatory (DHO), Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. CREW was also working in partnership with the National Library of Wales (NLW) which provided generous financial support.

DRHA 2009 took place in September, in an unusually sunny Belfast. Because of the organisers' Welsh-Irish background there was a particularly strong 'Celtic' flavour to the conference. One of the keynote speakers was Andrew Green, the Librarian of the NLW. NLW was an early practitioner and advocate of digitisation and remains at the cutting edge of digital technology and policy. Appropriately enough, Andrew Green talked about the future of digitisation in a world post-google and speculating on the perhaps more sinister side of 'big digitisation' by commercial companies. The full text of his talk is available here.

Queen's Keith Lilley presented on Mapping Medieval Chester (a project led by Swansea's Catherine Clarke). Dafydd Johnston and Alexander Roberts gave a talk on the Dafydd ap Gwilym digital edition which was created at Swansea.

Not only did Lyn Lewis Dafydd (NLW) give a cutting-edge paper on metadata, he also treated a packed lecture hall to a performance of the 18th century ballad, 'Mochyn Du' - an unexpected and memorable way of presenting the Welsh Ballads project . Culturenet Cymru, Lampeter and Cardiff also contributed (a full programme is still up on the conference website).

The DHO emerged from the conference as the true, if financially endangered, heroes of the digital humanities scene under the formidable and inspiring leadership of Susan Schreibman. As Jane Ohlmeyer, our final keynote, passionately and persuasively argued: what we need in the Digital Humanities is a sustainable infrastructure supported by a national policy, delivering a trusted digital repository and ensuring digital content can be accessed and shared beyond individual digital silos.

Wales, with it's particular educational, cultural and political institutions, seems extremely well placed to develop such an infrastructure. Watch this space.

Some rather dark conference pictures: James Cummings and Hugh Denard; Susan Schreibman introducing Jane Ohlmeyer and Marie Wallace; Kirsti Bohata indulging in a well-earned drink; poster and drinks reception in the Great Hall, Queen's.

Raymond Williams, Wales and Japan / RW, Cymru a Siapan

On Friday October 16th, 2009, CREW with the support of the Richard Burton Centre for Welsh Studies and JSPS/MEXT Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research will host a one day symposium on Raymond Williams, Wales and Japan.

Following on from the success of the biography by Professor Dai Smith (Raymond Williams Research Chair at CREW), and last year’s conference celebrating 50 years of of ‘Culture and Society', this one day symposium draws on Williams’s work for comparative analyses of Wales and Japan from two eminent Welsh academics, and hears of Williams’s influence on contemporary Japanese cultural thought from two Japanese cultural critics associated with the leading journal Eigo Seinen (The Rising Generation).

The speakers are:

Shintaro Kono, Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Commerce and Management, Hitotsubashi University. Co-translator of Eqbal Ahmad's Confronting Empire, Fredric Jameson's Cultural Turn, Edward W. Said's Power, Politics, Culture and Culture and Resistance into Japanese.


Chris Williams, Director, Richard Burton Centre. Professor Williams is currently completing Portrait of a British Town: Newport Society in 1851, to be published by the University of Wales Press. He is also working on The Victorians and the Alps and a pocket-guide to the mountains of Wales, and is co-editor of two volumes of the Gwent County History.

Takashi Onuki, Associate Professor of Kushiro Public University of Economics. Has published articles on David Hare, David Edgar, Arnold Wesker, as well as Raymond Williams, and is co-translator of Eqbal Ahmad’s Confronting Empire and Edward W. Said’s Reflections on Exile and Other Essays.

Gwenno Ffrancon, Senior Lecturer in Media Studies, Swansea University Main research interests are imaging Wales, Scotland and Ireland on screen; film and television in Wales; the history of film in Britain and America during its Golden Age and the careers of some of Wales’ foremost actors including Emlyn Williams, Hugh Griffith, Rachel Thomas, Richard Burton, Rachel Roberts and Siân Phillips. Cyfaredd y Cysgodion, was nominated for the long short list of the Academi Book of the Year Competition for 2004–5. She is currently researching a biography of Swansea-born actress Rachel Thomas.

A programme can be downloaded from the CREW website:
http://www.swan.ac.uk/CREW/Conferences/

For further information contact the organiser, Dr. Daniel Williams: daniel.g.williams@swansea.ac.uk

Ar ddydd Gwener, Hydref 16eg, 2009, bydd CREW, gyda chefnogaeth Canolfan Richard Burton a ‘JSPS/MEXT Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research’, yn cynnal cynhadledd undydd ar Raymond Williams, Cymru a Siapan. Yn dilyn llwyddiant bywgraffiad yr Athro Dai Smith, a’r gynhadledd y llynedd fu’n dathlu hanner canmlwyddiant y gyfrol Culture and Society, bydd y gynhadledd undydd hon yn cynnwys cyfraniadau gan ddau o academyddion blaenllaw Cymru, yn ogystal â chlywed am ddylanwad Williams ar feirniadaeth ddiwylliannol gyfoes Siapan gan ddau academydd o'r wlad, sy’n gysylltiedig â’r cyfnodolyn Eigo Seinen (Y Genhedlaeth sy’n Codi).

Y siaradwyr fydd:
Shintaro Kono, Athro Cynorthwyol yn Ysgol Ol-Raddedig Masnach a Rheolaeth, Prifysgol Hitotsubashi. Cyd-gyfieithydd Eqbal Ahmad, Confronting Empire, Fredric Jameson, Cultural Turn a Edward W. Said Power, Politics, Culture a Culture and Resistance.

Chris Williams, Cyfarwyddwr Canolfan Richard Burton. Mae’r Athro Williams wrthi’n cwblhau Portrait of a British Town: Newport Society in 1851, a fydd yn cael ei gyhoeddi gan Wasg Prifysgol Cymru. Mae e hefyd yn gweithio ar The Victorians and the Alps a chyfrol boced ar fynyddoedd Cymru, ac mae’n gyd-olygydd dwy gyfrol o Hanes Gwent.

Takashi Onuki, Athro Cysylltiol â Phrifysgol Gyhoeddus Economeg Kushiro. Mae e wedi cyhoeddi erthyglau ar David Hare, David Edgar, Arnold Wesker, yn ogystal â Raymond Williams, ac mae’n gyd-gyfeithydd Eqbal Ahmad, Confronting Empire a Edward W. Said, Reflections on Exile and Other Essays.

Gwenno Ffrancon, Uwch ddarlithydd yn yr adran cyfathrebu a chyfyngau, Prifysgol Abertawe. Ei phrif feysydd ymchwil yw delweddu Cymru, yr Alban ac Iwerddon ar sgrin, ffilm a theledu yng Nghymru; hanes ffilm ym Mhrydain ac America yn ystod ei Hoes Aur a gyrfaoedd rhai o actorion mwyaf blaenllaw Cymru gan gynnwys Emlyn Williams, Hugh Griffith, Rachel Thomas, Richard Burton, Rachel Roberts a Siân Phillips. Cafodd Cyfaredd y Cysgodion, ei enwebu ar gyfer rhestr hir Cystadleuaeth Llyfr y Flwyddyn yr Academi 2004-5. Ar hyn o bryd mae hi’n ymchwilio bywgraffiad o’r actors o Abertawe Rachel Thomas.

Gellir lawrlwytho rhaglen o wefan CREW: http://www.swan.ac.uk/CREW/Conferences/
Am wybodaeth bellach cysylltwch â’r trefnydd, Dr. Daniel Williams: daniel.g.williams@abertawe.ac.uk

The Meaning of Pictures

The latest publication to emerge from CREW is Peter Lord’s handsome volume The Meaning of Pictures (University of Wales Press).

Over the last twenty years, Peter Lord has revolutionised understanding of the visual art of Wales by drawing attention to the rich tradition of ‘artisanal art’ (usually mistakenly termed ‘folk art’). This is the remarkable body of nineteenth-century work produced by the usually itinerant artists, lacking formal academic training, who produced images of the rural minor gentry and bourgeoisie, in the process creating a composite image of ‘Nonconformist Wales.’ As Peter Lord emphasises in this new study, American paintings in this genre came to be very highly valued in the United States during the twentieth century. A museum of folk art containing images and artefacts in this artisanal tradition now stands next to MOMA at the very heart of New York, and any new paintings that appear in the salesrooms are likely to command astonishing prices. However, Wales had almost completely ignored this heritage under Peter Lord began to unearth it, and his resultant claims for its cultural importance generated a huge controversy in establishment fine art circles that continues to resonate to the present day.

Peter Lord includes in this new volume a gripping account of his epic struggles to ensure a fair ‘viewing’ for Welsh artisanal art in Wales, and in the process reflects ironically on the recent example of a Welsh artisanal painting sold in New York for an astonishing sum. But the book also includes many important additions to Peter’s imposing corpus of studies of individual artisanal images and figures, thus deepening our appreciation of Wales’ visual heritage.

Polish Translation of M. Wynn Thomas's Work

A forthcoming issue of the prestigious Polish journal, Literatura na Swiecie, will be dedicated to contemporary Welsh writing. The first major presentation of contemporary English-language Welsh literature in Poland will include excerpts from Gwyneth Lewis, Gillian Clarke, R.S.Thomas, Robert Minhinnick, John Sam Jones, Niall Griffths, and others.

It will also feature two essays of literary criticism by M. Wynn Thomas: "Hidden Attachments" (from his book Corresponding Cultures) and, co-authored with Jane Aaron, "Pulling You Through Changes. Welsh Writing in English Before Between and After Two Referenda" from Welsh Writing in English which Thomas also edited.

http://www.literaturanaswiecie.art.pl/english.htm