There is also a chronology of the history of Wales, and an appendix listing the winners of the main literary prizes at the National Eisteddfod since 1861, together with the festival's annual location."--BOOK JACKET.
For a small land, Wales has produced an extraordinarily large and accomplished body of literature. The Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales provides an excellent guide to Welsh literary heritage, ranging from the Druids and the days of King Arthur to the present-day flowering of Welsh national consciousness. In a little less than 3,000 entries, it captures the complexities of Welsh poetic art, the lives and achievements of its greatest writers, the myths, legends and colorful folktales, and the events and movements that have informed its history. A wealth of detailed information, the Companion is indispensable for anyone interested in the literature and culture of Wales.
THE WILEY BLACKWELL COMPANION TO CONTEMPORARY BRITISH AND IRISH LITERATURE An insightful guide to the exploration of modern British and Irish literature The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Literature is a must-have guide for anyone hoping to navigate the world of new British and Irish writing. Including modern authors and poets from the 1960s through to the 21st century, the Companion provides a thorough overview of contemporary poetry, fiction, and drama by some of the most prominent and noteworthy writers. Seventy-three comprehensive chapters focus on individual authors as well as such topics as Englishness and identity, contemporary Science Fiction, Black writing in Britain, crime fiction, and the influence of globalization on British and Irish Literature. Written in four parts, The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Literature includes comprehensive examinations of individual authors, as well as a variety of themes that have come to define the contemporary period: ethnicity, gender, nationality, and more. A thorough guide to the main figures and concepts in contemporary literature from Britain and Ireland, this two-volume set: Includes studies of notable figures such as Seamus Heaney and Angela Carter, as well as more recently influential writers such as Zadie Smith and Sarah Waters. Covers topics such as LGBT fiction, androgyny in contemporary British Literature, and post-Troubles Northern Irish Fiction Features a broad range of writers and topics covered by distinguished academics Includes an analysis of the interplay between individual authors and the major themes of the day, and whether an examination of the latter enables us to appreciate the former. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Literature provides essential reading for students as well as academics seeking to learn more about the history and future direction of contemporary British and Irish Literature.
Discovering Dylan Thomas is a companion to Dylan Thomas’s published and notebook poems. It includes hitherto-unseen material contained in the recently-discovered fifth notebook, alongside poems, drafts and critical material including summaries of the critical reception of individual poems. The introductory essay considers the task of editing and annotating Thomas, the reception of the Collected Poems and the state of the Dylan Thomas industry, and the nature of Thomas’s reading, ‘influences’, allusions and intertextuality. It is followed by supplementary poems, including juvenilia and the notebook poems ‘The Woman Speaks’, original versions of ‘Grief thief of time’ and ‘I fellowed sleep’, and ‘Jack of Christ’, all of which were omitted from the Collected Poems. These are followed by annotations beginning with a discussion of Thomas’s juvenilia, and the relationship between plagiarism and parody in his work; poem-by-poem entries offer glosses, new material from the fifth notebook, critical histories for each poem, and variants of poems such as ‘Holy Spring’ and ‘On a Wedding Anniversary’ (including a magnificent, previously unpublished first draft of ‘A Refusal to Mourn’). The closing appendices deal with text and publication details for the collections Thomas published in his lifetime, the provenance and contents of the fifth notebook, and errata for the hardback edition of the Collected Poems.
"Tales of giants and heroes, of beautiful maidens, of the Emperor of Rome and the Emperor Arthur, of legendary history and historical legend, all told with the skill of long-trained storytellers and sensitive touch of polished writers. Such are the four tales translated here: How Culhwch got Olwen, perhaps the oldest but certainly, by far, the most exuberant of Arthurian tales, the finely crafted Dream of Maxen Wledig, Emperor of Rome, who fell in love in his sleep, the folkloric triad of The Story of Lludd and Llefelys, with its link to the legends of Merlin, and the exceedingly colourful Dream of Rhonabwy.'" This is how John K. Bollard introduces his new translation of those four native Welsh tales found in the same two medieval manuscripts as the great classic The Mabinogi. The text is beautifully illustrated by Anthony Griffiths's photographs of the locations and landscapes evoked by and specifically named in the text, reminding us of the timelessness and beauty of the stories and land they inhabit.
Invisible, marginal, expected - these words trace the path of recognition for American Indian literature written in English since the late eighteenth century. This Companion chronicles and celebrates that trajectory by defining relevant institutional, historical, cultural, and gender contexts, by outlining the variety of genres written since the 1770s, and also by focusing on significant authors who established a place for Native literature in literary canons in the 1970s (Momaday, Silko, Welch, Ortiz, Vizenor), achieved international recognition in the 1980s (Erdrich), and performance-celebrity status in the 1990s (Harjo and Alexie). In addition to the seventeen chapters written by respected experts - Native and non-Native; American, British and European scholars - the Companion includes bio-bibliographies of forty authors, maps, suggestions for further reading, and a timeline which details major works of Native American literature and mainstream American literature, as well as significant social, cultural and historical events. An essential overview of this powerful literature.
This Companion offers a chronological sweep of the canon of Arthurian literature - from its earliest beginnings to the contemporary manifestations of Arthur found in film and electronic media. Part of the popular series, Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture, this expansive volume enables a fundamental understanding of Arthurian literature and explores why it is still integral to contemporary culture. Offers a comprehensive survey from the earliest to the most recent works Features an impressive range of well-known international contributors Examines contemporary additions to the Arthurian canon, including film and computer games Underscores an understanding of Arthurian literature as fundamental to western literary tradition
The diverse and controversial world of contemporary Milton studies is brought alive in this stimulating Companion. Winner of the Milton Society of America's Irene Samuels Book Award in 2002. Invites readers to explore and enjoy Milton's rich and fascinating work. Comprises 29 fresh and powerful readings of Milton's texts and the contexts in which they were created, each written by a leading scholar. Looks at literary production and cultural ideologies, issues of politics, gender and religion, individual Milton texts, other relevant contemporary texts and responses to Milton over time. Devotes a whole chapter to each major poem, and four to Paradise Lost. Conveys the excitement of recent developments in the field.