Description
Book SynopsisThis book explores the representation of Wales and ‘Welshness’ in texts by French- (including Breton) and German-speaking travellers from 1780 to the present day. Since the emergence of the travel narrative as a popular source of information and entertainment in the mid-18th century, writing about Wales has often been embedded and hidden in accounts of travel to ‘England’. This book locates and presents these largely forgotten texts and broadens perspectives to encompass European perceptions. Works uncovered for the first time include travelogues, private correspondences, travel diaries, articles and blogs which have Wales or Welsh culture as their focus. The ‘travellers’ analysed in this volume include those travelling for the purpose of leisure, scholarship or commerce as well as exiles and refugees. By focusing on Wales, a minoritized nation at the geographical periphery of Europe, the authors are able to problematize notions of hegemony and identity, relating to both the places encountered (the ‘travellee’ culture) and the places of origin (the travellers’ cultures). This book thereby makes an original contribution to studies in travel writing and provides an important case study of a culture often minoritized in the field, but that nevertheless provides a telling illustration of the dynamics of intercultural relations and representation.
Trade Review‘This rich, readable book surveys almost 250 years of writing by European travellers to Wales, from private letters to conventionally published works to contemporary digital forms. It broaches a remarkable, original field of research, encompasses a wide historical, linguistic, and critical range, and presents an impressive array of materials previously invisible to scholarship.’
Mererid Puw Davies,
Modern Language Review‘This is an innovative book that combines cross-cultural dialogue with the “tourist gaze” in order to explain the gap between fabricated expectations and real destinations. Drawing on a wide literature and on neglected – sometimes anonymous – texts in French, German and Breton that the authors took great effort to uncover and recover, Hidden Texts, Hidden Nation is a substantial book that should be enjoyed not only by cultural historians of the period in question, but also by students, university teaching staff, translators, specialists in travel literature as well as anyone interested in the topic.’ Elena Butoescu, CompLit
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements
Chapter 1: Introduction: Hidden Texts, Hidden Nation
Chapter 2: Landscape, Industry, Piety: Wales as a Site of Inspiration in Travel Writing in French from 1780 to 1905
Chapter 3: Patriotism, Pan-Celticism and the Welsh Cultural Paradigm in Travel Writing in French from 1830 to 1900
Chapter 4: Periphery, Modernity and the Discovery of Wales in Travel Writing in German from 1790 to 1850
Chapter 5: Identity, Celtomania and the Narrative of Wales in Travel Writing in German from 1850 to 1905
Chapter 6: Safe Haven, Literary Paradise and Present-Day Adventureland: Wales in Travel writing in Breton, French and German from 1945 to 2018
Chapter 7: Conclusion: The Narrative of Wales: From Blind Spot to Blank Canvas
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