Overview

 The Literature of Wales provides a concise and informative guide to Welsh literature from the earliest surviving poetry of Taliesin and Aneirin in the sixth century—the oldest attested vernacular literature in Europe.   The book traces the flowering of medieval Welsh literature and the developments of the Renaissance period in Wales up to the Welsh literary revival of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which also saw the rapid burgeoning of 'Anglo-Welsh' writing - literature in English written out of a Welsh background. It concludes by surveying the contemporary situation in the literatures of both languages.  Dafydd Johnston here gives a balanced critical assessment relating the literature to its historical background. Numerous extracts translated from Welsh and quotations in English give the general reader a taste of the richness of Welsh literature.

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9781786830210

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Reviews

'This authoritative introductory volume condenses fifteen hundred years of rich literary achievement - from Aneurin and the Dylan of the Mabinogion, to the Dylan of the twentieth century - into a couple of hundred highly readable pages. It opens a window for us on to one of Europe's best-kept cultural secrets.' - Professor M. Wynn Thomas, Swansea University; 'A model of its kind, Dafydd Johnston's compact yet extraordinarily comprehensive and highly readable Literature of Wales has, since 1994, introduced a generation of students and general readers to Wales's rich literary history in both of its languages. Now, with this revised edition, the author brings the work up to date with two admirably concise yet detailed chapters on contemporary post-devolution Welsh writing.' - Professor Jane Aaron, University of South Wales

Author Information

Professor Dafydd Johnston is Director of the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, Aberystwyth.

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