Search results for ""University of Wales Press""

A concise and authoritative survey of the Welsh- and English-language literatures of Wales from the earliest period up to the present day. This illustrated guide, containing extracts from original texts with English translations, is a revised version of Professor Dafydd Johnston’s volume in the University of Wales Press Pocket Guide series, and includes a new chapter on contemporary writing.

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TheWelshNotwas a wooden token given to children caught speakingWelshin nineteenth-century schools. It was often accompanied by corporal punishment and is widely thought to have been responsible for the decline of theWelshlanguage. Despite having an iconic status in popular understandings of Wales' history, there has never before been a study of where, when and why theWelshNotwas used. This book is an account of the different ways children were punished for speakingWelshin nineteenth-century schools and the consequences of this for children, communities and the linguistic future of Wales. It shows how the exclusion ofWelshwasnotonly traumatic for pupils but also hindered them in learning English, the very thing it was meant to achieve. Gradually,Welshcame to be used more and more in Victorian schools, making them more humane places but also more effective mechanisms in the anglicisation of Wales.

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To meet William Morgan is to encounter the eighteenth-century world of finance, science and politics. Born in Bridgend in 1750, his heritage was Welsh but his influence extended far beyond national borders, and the legacy of his work continues to shape life in the twenty-first century. Aged only twenty-five and with no formal training, Morgan became actuary at the Equitable, which was then a fledgling life assurance company. Known today as 'the father of actuarial science', his pioneering work earned him the Copley Medal, the Royal Society's most prestigious award. His interests covered a wider scientific field, and his papers on electrical experiments show that he unwittingly constructed the first X-ray tube. Politically radical, Morgan's outspoken views put him at risk of imprisonment during Pitt's Reign of Terror. Using unpublished family letters, this biography explores Morgan's turbulent private life, and cover his outstanding public achievements.

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The population of Wales is the product of successive waves of immigration. During the industrial revolution many diverse groups were attracted into Wales by the economic opportunities it offered – notably Irish people, black and minority ethnic sailors from many parts of the world, and people from continental Europe. More recently, there has been immigration from the New Commonwealth as well as refugees from wars and oppression in several parts of the world. This volume engages with this experience by offering perspectives from historians, sociologists, cultural analysts and social policy experts. It provides analyses of the changing patterns of immigration and their reception including hostile and violent acts. It also considers the way in which Welsh attitudes to minorities have been shaped in the past through the activity of missionaries in the British Empire, and how these have permeated literary perceptions of Wales. In the contemporary world, this diverse population has implications for social policy which are explored in a number of contexts, including in rural Wales. The achievements of minorities in sport and in building a multi-racial community in Butetown, for instance, which is now writing its own history, are recognised. The first edition of this book was widely welcomed as the essential work on the topic; over a decade later much has changed and the volume responds with several new chapters and extensive revisions that engage the impact of devolution on policy in Wales.

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Get your backstage pass to the world-famous Rockfield Recording Studios in Monmouth, Wales. Featuring frank and funny interviews with the artists who recorded there and studio staff, Rock Legends at Rockfield reveals the fascinating stories behind some of the world’s best-known and loved rock albums and records, including Oasis’s What’s the Story (Morning Glory), a number of Queen songs including Killer Queen and Bohemian Rhapsody, and Motörhead’s first recordings. This new edition will be fully revised and updated with new chapters on the artists who have recorded at Rockfield since 2007, including new interviews with bands such as Thunder, The Dirty Youth, Gun and YES; the Studios’ recent appearances in film and television such as the Oscar-winning Bohemian Rhapsody film and the Rockfield: the Studio on the Farm documentary; and a section on Rockfield’s neighbouring rehearsal studio, Monnow Valley, which later became a recording studio in its own right and has hosted bands such as Black Sabbath. A must-read for anyone interested in rock music and music history.

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Wales is a land with a vast wealth of ghost stories, including fantastical animals, flickering death omens and unseen things that go bump in the night. Whether these tales are based on true events, or are the creations of active imaginations, is known only to those who have experienced them – but what is certain is that their power to delight and scare us remains undimmed to this day. In The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts, renowned folklorists Delyth Badder and Mark Norman present an intriguing and comprehensive selection of ghostly accounts, illuminating key themes running through them, and giving insights into the history and culture of Wales’s varied regions and communities. With original Welsh texts, many translated into English for the first time, the authors present a wide panorama of stories and first-hand accounts that will be new to even the most seasoned folklore reader. Ranging from the distant past right up to the present day, this collection shines a spotlight on the unique qualities of folkloric ghost beliefs in Wales.

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Yn anaml iawn y daw ffynonellau newydd ar gyfer y Gymru ganoloesol gynnar i'r amlwg. Ond dyma a geir yn llawysgrif Yale, Llyfrgell Beinecke, Osborn fb229 llawysgrif modern cynnar sy'n drysorfa o destunau hagiograffaidd. Ei thrysor mwyaf yw ei fersiwn unigryw o Fuchedd Cybi, a all gynnwys elfennau mor gynnar â'r ddegfed neu'r unfed ganrif ar ddeg, gan gyflwyno tystiolaeth gwbl newydd am Gybi a'i gwlt canoloesol. Nid am ei chopi o Fuchedd Cybi yn unig y mae'r gyfrol hon yn arwyddocaol. Fe ddengys yn ogystal sut yr aethpwyd ati i addasu gweithiau megis Buchedd Beuno a Buchedd Collen yn yr Oesoedd Canol diweddar a'r cyfnod modern cynnar; tystia i weithgarwch rhwydweithiau Catholig ac unigolion megis Edward Morgan o Lys Bedydd, offeiriad Catholig a greodd y cyfieithiad unigryw o Fuchedd Gwenfrewy yn y llawysgrif hon, ac a ddienyddiwyd maes o law. Diogelwyd y testunau hyn oll gan ysgrifydd amryddawn y llyfr, Robert Davies o Wysanau, Sir y Fflint, a chawn gyflwyniad i'w fywyd, ei weithgarwch

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Mae’r gyfrol hon yn cynnig golwg newydd ar ddelweddau cyfarwydd y ffotograffydd John Thomas (1838–1905), wrth eu gosod yng nghyd-destun llenyddol a syniadol Cymru yn ystod ail hanner y bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg. Dyma’r astudiaeth fanylaf o waith John Thomas hyd yma, sy’n torri cwys newydd wrth ddadansoddi’r delweddau ochr yn ochr â llenyddiaeth Gymraeg ei gyfoedion. Mae’r gyfrol hefyd yn trafod perthynas Thomas ag O. M. Edwards, ac yn ystyried goblygiadau amwys y berthynas i’r modd y darllenir gwaith y ffotograffydd hyd heddiw; ac, mewn cyd-destun ehangach, cymherir gwaith Thomas â phrosiect y ffotograffydd Almaenig August Sander (1876–1964) i’r ugeinfed ganrif, gan gynnig dadansoddiad o weledigaeth greadigol ac arloesol y Cymro.

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The Christian religion figures prominently in the vast output, both discursive and imaginative, of Miguel de Unamuno. Unamuno studied nineteenth-century biblical scholarship closely, especially that of the Liberal Protestant school, but its influence did not dictate his direction. Without fully accepting the traditional Roman Catholic interpretation of the New Testament, what position vis-a-vis Jesus of Nazareth did Unamuno occupy himself? How did he see this figure from the Palestine of two thousand years ago, which has been so influential in western culture? What role does the Nazarene play in Unamuno’s work? What does the presence of Jesus tell us about the Basque writer’s idiosyncratic and combative religious views that drew the opprobrium of the Spanish Church hierarchy? This study focuses on the figure of Jesus of Nazareth as he appears in Unamuno’s writings – including The Tragic Sense of Life, The Christ of Velázquez, The Agony of Christianity, and San Manuel Bueno, mártir.

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The eighteenth-century bishops of the Church of England and its sister communions had immense status and authority in both secular society and the Church. They fully merit fresh examination in the light of recent scholarship, and in this volume leading experts offer a comprehensive survey and assessment of all things episcopal between the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688 and the early nineteenth-century. These were centuries when the Anglican Church enjoyed exclusive establishment privileges across the British Isles (apart from Scotland). The essays collected here consider the appointment and promotion of bishops, as well as their duties towards the monarch and in Parliament. All were expected to display administrative skills, some were scholarly, others were interested in the fine arts, most were married with families. All of these themes are discussed, and Wales, Ireland, Scotland and the American colonies receive specific examination.

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This is a comprehensive study of the impact of censorship on theatre in twentieth-century Spain. It draws on extensive archival evidence, vivid personal testimonies and in-depth analysis of legislation to document the different kinds of theatre censorship practised during the Second Republic (1931–6), the civil war (1936–9), the Franco dictatorship (1939–75) and the transition to democracy (1975–85). Changes in criteria, administrative structures and personnel from these periods are traced in relation to wider political, social and cultural developments, and the responses of playwrights, directors and companies are explored. With a focus on censorship, new light is cast on particular theatremakers and their work, the conditions in which all kinds of theatre were produced, the construction of genres and canons, as well as on broader cultural history and changing ideological climate – all of which are linked to reflections on the nature of censorship and the relationship between culture and the state.

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While the undisputed heyday of folk horror was Britain in the 1960s and 1970s, the genre has not only a rich cinematic and literary prehistory, but directors and novelists around the world have also been reinventing folk horror for the contemporary moment. This study sets out to rethink the assumptions that have guided critical writing on the genre in the face of such expansions, with chapters exploring a range of subjects from the fiction of E. F. Benson to Scooby-Doo, video games, and community engagement with the Lancashire witches. In looking beyond Britain, the essays collected here extend folk horror’s geographic terrain to map new conceptualisations of the genre now seen emerging from Italy, Ukraine, Thailand, Mexico and the Appalachian region of the US.

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This is the first general history of early modern Wales for more than a generation. The book assimilates new scholarship and deploys a wealth of original archival research to present a fresh picture of Wales under the Tudor and Stuart monarchs. It adopts novel perspectives on concepts of Welsh identity and allegiance to examine epochal events, such as the union of England and Wales under Henry VIII; the Reformation and the Break with Rome; and the British Civil Wars and Glorious Revolution. It argues that Welsh experiences during this period can best be captured through widespread attachments to a shared history and language, and to ideas of Britishness and monarchy. The volume looks beyond high politics to examine the rich tapestry of early modern Welsh life, considering concepts of gender and women's experiences; the role of language and cultural change; and expressions of Welsh identity beyond the principality’s borders.

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The great religious poetry of R. S. Thomas and the poetry of the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is rooted in a remarkable late-twentieth-century tradition of spiritual poetry in Wales that includes figures as different as Saunders Lewis and Vernon Watkins, Waldo Williams and Bobi Jones. Examining this body of work in detail, the present study demonstrates how the different theological outlooks of the poets was reflected in their choice of form, style and vocabulary, highlighting a literary culture that was highly unusual in its rejection of a prevailing secularisation in the UK, Western Europe and the USA.

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MYNEDIAD AGORED Dyma gyfrol atyniadol a chyfoes sy’n rhoi cyflwyniad hygyrch i ddisgyblaeth y Gymraeg. Mae’r llyfr yn cyflwyno cyfoeth, cyffro ac ehangder y Gymraeg fel disgyblaeth academaidd, a bydd yn ysgogi diddordeb a chwilfrydedd mewn meysydd cyfarwydd a newydd – megis iaith, llenyddiaeth, cymdeithaseg iaith, beirniadaeth lenyddol, diwylliant a threftadaeth ac ysgrifennu creadigol.

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The story of Frank Lloyd Wright’s life is no less astounding than his greatest architectural works. He enmeshed himself eagerly in myth and hearsay, and revelled in the extravagance of his creative persona. Throughout his long career, Wright strongly resisted the suggestion that his accomplishments owed anything to earthly influences. As much as he wanted his achievements to be recognised, he wanted them to be unaccountable – but they are not. This book reveals for the first time how his unbreakable self-belief and startling creative defiance both originated in the liberal religious and philosophical attitudes woven into his personality during his childhood – deliberately so by his mother and by his many aunts and uncles, to honour the fierce Welsh radicalism of their ancestors.

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Who has not, in a favored moment, 'stolen the limelight', whether inadvertently or by design? The implications of such an act of display - its illicitness, its verve, its vertiginous reversal of power, its subversiveness - are explored in this book. Narrative crafting and management of such scenarios are studied across canonical novels by Gide, Colette, Mauriac, and Duras, as well as by African Francophone writer Oyono and detective novelist Japrisot. As manipulated within narrative, acts of display position a viewer or reader from whom response (from veneration or desire to repugnance or horror) is solicited; but this study demonstrates that display can also work subversively, destabilising and displacing such a privileged spectator. As strategies of displacement, these scenarios ultimately neutralise and even occult the very subject they so energetically appear to solicit. Powered by gendered tensions, this dynamic of display as displacement works toward purposes of struggle, resistance or repression.

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Geoffrey Chaucer wrote at a turning point in the history of timekeeping, but many of his poems demonstrate a greater interest in the moral dimension of time than in the mechanics of the medieval clock. Chaucer and the Ethics of Time examines Chaucer's sensitivity to the insecurity of human experience amid the temporal circumstances of change and time-passage, as well as strategies for ethicising historical vision in several of his major works. While wasting time was sometimes viewed as a sin in the late Middle Ages, Chaucer resists conventional moral dichotomies and explores a complex and challenging relationship between the interior sense of time and the external pressures of linearism and cyclicality. Chaucer's diverse philosophical ideas about time unfold through the reciprocity between form and discourse, thus encouraging a new look at not only the characters' ruminations on time in the tradition of St Augustine and Boethius, but also manifold narrative sequences and structures, including anachronism.

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This volume consists of five papers selected from a corpus of material researched over the past quarter of a century. None has previously been published, and they represent the author's interest in church history, medical history and the visual arts. Three of the five papers are based on lectures given at conferences or public occasions; the other two derive from research conducted at the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History in 2010 and 2020.

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Gothic Metaphysics is a radical departure from Freudian-centred criticism of Gothic literature. It aims to explore our modern dilemma in the time of the Anthropocene, by bringing to light the role of Gothic since its inception in 1764 in holding space for a worldview familiar to certain mystical traditions - such as alchemy, which held to the view of a living cosmos yet later deemed 'uncanny' and anachronistic by Freud. In developing this idea, Gothic Metaphysics explores the influence of the Middle Ages on the emergence of Gothic, seeing it as an encrypted genre that serves as the site of a 'live burial' of 'animism', which has emerged in the notion of 'quantum entanglement' best described by Carl G. Jung and physicist Wolfgang Pauli in the theory of synchronicity linking alchemy with quantum mechanics. This relationship finds itself in dialogue with the Gothic's long-held concern for the 'sentience of space and place', as described by renowned Gothic scholar Fredrick Frank. The volume Gothic Metaphysics is multi-valent and explores how Gothic has sustained the view of a sentient world despite the disqualification of nature - not only in respect to the extirpation of animism as a worldview, but also with regard to an affirmation of consciousness beyond that of human exceptionalism.

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As well as outlining the shape of Welsh religious history generally, this second volume of Theologia Cambrensis describes the development of Calvinistic Methodist thought up to and beyond the secession from the Established Church in 1811, and the way in which the Evangelical Revival impacted the Older Dissent to create a vibrant popular Nonconformity. Along with analysing aspects of theology and doctrine, the narrative assesses the contribution of such key personalities as William Williams Pantycelyn, Thomas Charles of Bala and Thomas Jones of Denbigh, and the Nonconformists Titus Lewis, Joseph Harris ‘Gomer’, George Lewis, David Rees and Gwilym Hiraethog. Following the notorious ‘Treachery of the Blue Books’ of 1847 and the Religious Census of 1851, Anglicanism regained ground, and among the themes treated in the latter chapters of this volume are the influence of High Church Tractarianism and the Broad Church ‘Lampeter Theology’ in the parishes. The volume concludes by assessing the intellectual culture of evangelicalism personified by Lewis Edwards and Thomas Charles Edwards, and describes the challenges posed by Darwinism, philosophical Idealism and a more critical attitude to the biblical text.

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Lhwyd, the illegitimate son of a father ruined by the Civil War, had to make his own way in the world. A competent botanist before going up to Oxford as a student, he spent much time there at the Botanical Garden before being appointed to the newly established Ashmolean Museum, where he became its second Keeper. This biography traces the development of his research interests from botany to palaeontology – and then to antiquarian studies, which led to him studying the Celtic languages as a source of linguistic evidence in historical studies. Thus he became the founder of Celtic Studies. Lhwyd’s diverse research interests were underpinned by an evidence-led methodology – the collection (by personal observation where possible) of material, which would then be classified as a preliminary to drawing conclusions – and, as such, his is a valuable contribution to the history of science.

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Monstrous textuality emerges when Gothic narratives like Frankenstein reflect the monstrous in their narrative structure to create narratives of resistance, and allows writers to meta-narratively reflect their own poetics and textual production, and reclaim authority over their work under circumstances of systemic cultural oppression and Othering. This book traces the representation of other Others through Black feminist hauntology in Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987) and Love (2003); it explores fat freak embodiment as a feminist resistance strategy in Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus (1984) and Margaret Atwood's Lady Oracle (1976); and it reads Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy (2003-13) and Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl (1995) within a framework of critical posthumanist and cyborg theory. The result is a comprehensive argument about how these texts can be read within a framework of critical posthumanist questioning of knowledge production, and of epistemological exploration, beyond the exclusionary humanist paradigm.

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This is a time when the rule of law is seriously challenged, when governments threaten deliberately to break the law, and the independence of justice is jeopardised by unrelenting pressure from both the executive and the media. This book aims at contributing to restoring trust in judges as custodians of the law and justice, through a comparison between Civil and Common Law countries. It offers a rare opportunity to gather the expertise of eminent judges and legal authorities from five different countries, providing a unique insight into their work and the way they deliver justice based on their respective professional experience and practise of the law. Far from being a highly technical debate between experts, however, the book is accessible to students and the general public, and raises important contemporary legal issues that involve them both as citizens, with justice as a shared aspiration, and a common attachment to the rule of law.

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This book offers a study of Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and French crime fictions covering a fifty-year period from 1965 to the present, during which both Scandinavian and French societies have undergone significant transformations. Twelve literary case studies examine how crime fictions in the respective contexts have responded to shifting social realities, which have in turn played a part in transforming the generic codes and conventions of the crime novel. At the centre of the book's analysis is crime fiction's negotiation of the French model of Republican universalism and the Scandinavian welfare state, both of which were routinely characterised as being in a state of crisis at the end of the twentieth century. Adopting a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, the book investigates the interplay between contemporary Scandinavian and French crime narratives, considering their engagement with the relationship of the state and the citizen, and notably with identity issues (class, gender, sexuality and ethnicity in particular).

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This volume considers how, based on the examination of cases pertaining to transitional justice settings that resort to local interpretations of crimes against humanity jurisprudence, fragmentation of international law and circumscribed applications of universal jurisdiction are necessary aspects of the grand enterprise to overcome the impasse of the tainted legacy of international criminal law in the Global South. If we are to proceed with adjudication of the most egregious and heinous crimes involving state criminality without facing the charge of neo-colonialist plotting, then we must reckon with localised and domesticated interpretations of international criminal law, rather than pursuing strict forms of legislative dictation of international criminal law.

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Chaucerian scholarship has long been intrigued by the nature and consequences of Chaucer's exposure to Italian culture during his professional visits to Italy in the 1370s. In the eight chapters of Chaucer and Italian Culture, leading scholars take a new and more holistic view of Chaucer's engagement with Italian cultural practice, moving beyond the traditional 'sources and analogues' approach to reveal the varied strands of Italian literature, art, politics and intellectual life that permeate Chaucer's work. Each chapter examines, from a different angle, links between Chaucerian texts and Italian intellectual models, including poetics, chorography, visual art, classicism, diplomacy and prophecy. Echoes of Petrarch, Dante and Boccaccio reverberate throughout the book, across a rich and diverse landscape of Italian cultural legacies. Taken together, these eight chapters cover a wide range of theory and reference, while sharing a united understanding of the rich impact of Italian culture on Chaucer's narrative art.

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With the rapid development of the cognitive sciences and their importance to how we contemplate questions about the mind and society, recent research in the humanities has been characterised by a 'cognitive turn'. For their part, the humanities play an important role in forming popular ideas of the human mind and in analysing the way cognitive, psychological and emotional phenomena are experienced in time and space. This collection aims to inspire medievalists and other scholars within the humanities to engage with the tools and investigative methodologies deriving from cognitive sciences. Contributors explore topics including medieval and modern philosophy of mind, the psychology of religion, the history of psychological medicine and the re-emergence of the body in cognition. What is the value of mapping how neurons fire when engaging with literature and art? How can we understand psychological stress as a historically specific phenomenon? What can medieval mystics teach us about contemplation and cognition?

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This edited collection examines Gothic works written by women authors in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, with a specific focus on the novels and chapbooks produced by less widely commercially and critically popular writers. Bringing these authors to the forefront of contemporary critical examinations of the Gothic, chapters in this collection examine how these works impacted the development of ‘women’s writing’ and Gothic writing during this time. Offering readers an original look at the literary landscape of the period and the roles of the creative women who defined it, the collection argues that such works reflected a female-centred literary subculture defined by creative exchange and innovation, one that still shapes perceptions of the Gothic mode today. This collection, then, presents an alternative understanding of the legacy of women Gothic authors, anchoring this understanding in complex historical and social contexts and providing a new world of Gothic literature for readers to explore.

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Dyma’r gyfrol gyntaf sydd yn ymdrin â mewnfudo rhyngwladol, cymunedau Cymru a’r Gymraeg o safbwynt ieithyddol a chymdeithasol. Ers dechrau’r ganrif, cafwyd trafodaethau cynyddol am ddyfodol amrywiaeth mewn nifer o wladwriaethau, gan gynnwys Prydain a Chymru. Mae’r gyfrol hon yn mynd ati i drafod sut y mae llywodraethau ac athronwyr cyfoes wedi ymwrthod ag amlddiwylliannedd tra yn chwilio am ffyrdd newydd o uno pobl trwy iaith a diwylliant. Wrth drafod y cyd-destun damcaniaethol a pholisi, mae’r gyfrol yn tynnu ar ymchwil empeiraidd gyda mewnfudwyr, tiwtoriaid iaith a swyddogion llywodraethol Cymru, i ddatgelu safbwyntiau am integreiddio yng Nghymru ac i herio rhagdybiaethau am berthynas mewnfudwyr a’r Gymraeg. Daw cymhlethdod sefyllfa iswladwriaethol Cymru i’r brig wrth i Lywodraeth Cymru ddatgan cefnogaeth dros ddwyieithrwydd, tra bod polisïau’r Wladwriaeth Brydeinig yn haeru polisi mewnfudo a dinasyddiaeth homogenaidd ac unieithog. Mae’r gyfrol yn awgrymu llwybr posibl i Gymru, felly, sef diffinio dinasyddiaeth amlethnig Gymreig a Chymraeg ei hun.

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Cyflwynir yn y gyfrol hon holl syniadaeth athrawiaethol yr Apostol Paul a’i gefndir meddyliol mewn un bennod ar ddeg, ynghyd â swmp y farn ysgolheigaidd ddiweddaraf ar y pwnc. Trafodir perthynas yr Apostol â Iesu; cefndir syniadol Paul; natur ei dröedigaeth a’i alwad apostolaidd, a’i ddealltwriaeth o natur y ddeddf Iddewig; ei syniadaeth am iachawdwriaeth a Pherson Crist; ei ddealltwriaeth o natur y bod dynol a gwaith yr Ysbryd ynddo ac arno; dysgeidiaeth foesegol yr Apostol; ei syniadaeth am yr eglwys; ei farn am eschatoleg a’r ‘Pethau Diwethaf’; a thrafodaeth ar gyfraniad y llythyrau yr amheir gan rai mai Paul oedd eu hawdur. Mae’r gyfrol yn unigryw fel yr ymdriniaeth lwyraf eto yn y Gymraeg ar y maes hwn; mae’n amlygu hefyd gyfraniad ysgolheigion o Gymry, yn arbennig C. H. Dodd a W. D. Davies, dau ysgolhaig Cymreig byd-eang eu dylanwad, i astudiaethau Paulaidd.

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Dylan Thomas's reputation precedes him. In keeping with his claim that he held `a beast, an angel, and a madman in him', interpretations of his work have ranged from solemn adoration to dubious mythologising. His many voices continue to reverberate across culture and the arts: from poetry and letters, to popular music and Hollywood film. However, this wide and sometimes controversial renown has occasionally hindered serious analysis of his writing. Counterbalancing the often-misleading popular reputation, this book showcases eight new critical perspectives on Thomas's work. It is the first to provide in one volume a critical overview of the multifaceted range of his output, from the poetry, prose and correspondence to his work for wartime propaganda filmmaking, his late play for voices Under Milk Wood, and his reputation in letters and wider society. The whole proves that Thomas was much more than his own self-characterisation as a `writer of words, and nothing else'.

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Born into a traditional Welsh valley community, Paul Murphy has been a member of the Labour Party for more than 55 years. In this book, he describes how the socialist beliefs of that community, and of his parents especially, helped to develop his own very early political consciousness. After three years studying at Oxford, and alongside work as a lecturer in History and Government, he went on to serve on his local council before succeeding Leo Abse in 1987 as MP for his home constituency Torfaen. His time in government from 1997 onwards included seven years as Secretary of State for Wales and for Northern Ireland, in the Cabinets of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and the book provides unique insights into Murphy’s leading role at times of major constitutional change, including the pivotal part he played as Northern Ireland Minister under Mo Mowlam in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement. - 'During the weeks leading up to the referendum, I travelled the length and breadth of Northern Ireland talking to local and regional newspapers, and presenting the case for a ‘Yes’ vote.' Read an extract of Paul Murphy's autobiography here - https://www.booklaunch.london/autumn-2019-page-10

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John Ormond was a poet and documentary filmmaker from Swansea, south Wales. His early poetry was published while he was a student in the 1940s and, upon graduation, Ormond moved to work as a journalist in London where he soon secured a job at the celebrated photojournalist magazine Picture Post. Having learned there to `think like a camera', he was employed by the BBC in Cardiff during the early days of television, and went on to become a pioneer of the documentary film form. In a uniquely dualistic creative career spanning five decades, Ormond made major contributions both to English-language poetry and documentary filmmaking. This book is the first in-depth examination of the fascinating correspondences between Ormond's twin creative channels: viewing his work against the backdrop of a changing Wales, it constitutes an important case study in the history of documentary filmmaking, in the history of British television, in inter-artistic creativity, and in the cultural history of Wales.

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The werewolf in popular fiction has begun to change rapidly. Literary critics have observed this development and its impact on the werewolf in fiction, with theorists arguing that the modern werewolf offers new possibilities about how we view identity and the self. Although this monograph is preoccupied with the same concerns, it represents a departure from other critical works by analysing the werewolf’s subjectivity/identity as a work-in-progress, where the fixed and final form is yet to be arrived at – and may never be fully accomplished. Using the critical theories of Deleuze and Guattari and their concepts of ‘multiplicities’ and ‘becoming’, this work argues that the werewolf is in a state of constant evolution as it develops new modes of being in popular fiction. Following on from this examination of lycanthropic subjectivity, the book goes on to examine the significant developments that have resulted from the advent of the werewolf as subject, few of which have received any sustained critical attention to date.

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Body Matters approaches the material world directly; it seeks to remind people that they are the matter of their bodies. This volume offers an assortment of contributions from anthropology, archaeology and medieval studies, with case studies from northern Europe, the Near East, East Africa and Amazonia, which variously draw attention to the multiple shifting materials that comprise, impact upon and co-create human bodies. This lively collection foregrounds myriad material influences interacting with and shaping the human body; the chapters come together to illustrate the fundamental fleshy, bony, suppurating, leaky and oozing physicality of being human. Ultimately, by reminding readers of their indisputable materiality, Body Matters seeks to draw people and the rest of the material world together to illustrate that bodies not only seep into (and are part of) the landscape, but equally that people and the material world are inextricably co-constitutive.

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This collection of essays brings together established scholars of Lusophone Goan literature from India, Brazil, Portugal and Great Britain. For the first time in English, this volume traces the key narrative works, authors and themes of this small but significant territory. Goa, a Portuguese colony between 1510 and 1961, was the site of a particular and particularly intense meeting of West and East. The problematic yet productive encounter between Europe and India that has characterised Goa’s history is a major theme in its literature, which affords important insights and material for post-colonial thought. Goan literature in Portuguese is the only significant Indian literature to have been written in a European language other than English and, as such, provides both a challenging point of comparison with anglophone Indian literature and a space to examine post-colonial theory often implicitly embedded in a British Indian colonial experience.

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This book engages with the relationship between religion, evolution and heredity, by bringing together two of its aspects that are frequently discussed separately: Darwinism and eugenics. It also demonstrates that religion has played a greater role in shaping modern debates on evolution and human improvement than current scholarship has previously acknowledged. Drawing on examples provided by Britain, Italy and Portugal across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the present study provides a fresh discussion of seminal topics such as reproduction, parenthood, the control of population and ideas of human improvement based on eugenics and genetics, which intersected and, at times, dominated the much broader debate between science and religion reignited by the publication of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection in the second half of the nineteenth century.

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The main focus of this book is on the contribution of Welsh scientists, engineers and facilities in Wales to the British nuclear programme – especially the military programme – from the Second World War through to the present day. After the war, a number of Welsh scientists at Harwell played an important role in the development of civil nuclear power, and subsequently also at Aldermaston where Welsh scientists and engineers were a key part of William Penney’s team producing the first UK nuclear device tested at Monte Bello in 1952. This book highlights the scientific and engineering contribution made by Welsh scientists and engineers, and, where possible, it considers their backgrounds, education, personalities and interests. Many, for example, were sons of miners from the Welsh valleys, whose lives were changed by their teachers and education at Wales’s university institutions – which responds in part to the question, ‘Why so many Welshmen?’

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An organized women’s suffrage movement operated continuously in Britain for more than sixty years, from the mid 1860s until the achievement of equal voting rights with men in 1928. In the decade prior to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, both militant suffragettes and law-abiding suffragists ensured that the issue came to the forefront of British politics. This book presents a comprehensive investigation of the movement in Wales, which participated in the agitation throughout the whole of the period. Grounded in primary research of extensive archival material, The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Wales assesses the impact of all the various campaigning organizations, highlighting the role of the many hugely committed but unsung individuals on whom local impact was dependent, and accounting for the stances adopted by various politicians as well as parliamentary developments. The book covers the dramatic and sensational actions of the suffragettes in Wales (including several of the most widely publicized clashes between demonstrators and authority outside London), and the more mundane work undertaken by the vast majority of campaigners across the decades – with due consideration of the arguments and organized resistance of the opponents of women’s suffrage. This is a study that focuses on the survival of the campaign in the face of wartime difficulties, detailing the much-neglected last decade of the campaign, between the granting of partial enfranchisement in 1918 and the triumph of equal franchise in 1928.

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Published to mark the centenary of his birth in 2019, this is the first comprehensive and authoritative study of the life and work (excluding only work for television) of the major Welsh writer Emyr Humphreys. During the course of a career spanning half a century, and dating back to the 1950s when he collaborated with the likes of Graham Greene, Patrick Heron, Saunders Lewis, Richard Burton, Siân Phillips and Peter O’Toole, Humphreys has published some two dozen works of fiction (including Outside the House of Baal, the greatest novel of anglophone Welsh literature) as well as highly distinctive poetry, seminal essays, and a visionary cultural history of Wales. In addition to offering a critical and interpretative survey of this remarkable, distinguished body of work, the present volume also sets Humphreys’s output in the context of the dramatic, transformative decades in recent Welsh history during which it was produced.

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The essays in this book aim to answer the following questions: What was the place of prayer in the early modern world? What did it look and sound like? Of what aesthetic and political structures did it partake, and how did prayer affect art, literature and politics? How did the activities, expressions and texts we might group under the term prayer serve to bind disparate peoples together, or, in turn, to create friction and fissures within communities? What roles did prayer play in intercultural contact, including violence, conquest and resistance? How can we use the prayers of those centuries (roughly 1500–1800) imprecisely termed the ‘early modern’ era to understand the peoples, polities and cultures of that time?

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Dyma’r gyfrol Gymraeg gyntaf i drafod y portread o amlddiwylliannedd yng Nghymru mewn ffuglen Gymraeg a Saesneg gyfoes. Mae’n astudiaeth gymharol sy’n dod â gwaith rhai o awduron Cymraeg a Saesneg mwyaf blaenllaw Cymru yn y degawdau diwethaf ynghyd – gan gynnwys Angharad Price, Llwyd Owen, Tony Bianchi, Charlotte Williams a Dannie Abse. Mae’n ein cyflwyno hefyd i waith awduron nad ydynt wedi derbyn llawer o sylw beirniadol hyd yn hyn, awduron megis Nikita Lalwani a Joe Dunthorne. Er mwyn ystyried y portread o amlddiwylliannedd, rhoddir ar waith ddamcaniaethau am ‘aralledd’ – term sy’n dynodi gwahaniaeth a ystyrir yn israddol i’r brif ffrwd gymdeithasol neu ddiwylliannol. Trwy archwilio ffurf y nofel Gymreig gyfoes, ynghyd â themâu megis ystrydebau, amlieithrwydd, a mudo a mewnfudo, awgryma’r gyfrol hon sut y gall darllen ffuglen ar draws ffiniau ieithyddol Cymru gyfrannu at ddatblygu cymdeithas Gymreig fwy cynhwysol – cymdeithas lle y mae’r Gymraeg yn ganolog i fywyd y genedl, ond lle yr ymwrthodir â seilio hunaniaeth Gymreig ar allu’r unigolyn yn yr iaith honno; a chymdeithas lle y mae’r dwyieithrwydd sylfaenol hwn yn herio cysyniadau am oruchafiaeth, ac angenrheidrwydd, un brif ffrwd ddiwylliannol.

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Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the most celebrated literary work of medieval England, portrays the culture of the late Middle Ages as a deeply commercial environment, replete with commodities and dominated by market relationships. However, the market is not the only mode of exchange in Chaucer’s world or in his poem. Chaucer’s Gifts reveals the gift economy at work in the tales. Applying important recent advances in anthropological gift theory, it illuminates and explains this network of exchanges and obligations. Chaucer’s Gifts argues that the world of the Canterbury Tales harbours deep commitments to reciprocity and obligation which are at odds with a purely commercial culture, and demonstrates how the market and commercial relations are not natural, eternal, or inevitable – an essential lesson if we are to understand Chaucer’s world or our own.

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This book offers a unique understanding of what administrative justice means in Wales and for Wales, whilst also providing an expert and timely analysis of comparative developments in law and administration. It includes critical analysis of distinctly Welsh administrative laws and redress measures, whilst examining contemporary administrative justice issues across a range of common and civil law, European and international jurisdictions. Key issues include the roles of commissioners, administrative courts, tribunals and ombudsmen in devolved and federal nations, and evolving relationships between citizens and the state – especially in the context of localisation and austerity – and will be of interest to legal and public administration professionals at home and internationally.

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Labour, Mobility and Temporary Migration delves into sociological research on Polish migrants who migrated to the lesser-explored South Wales region after Poland joined the European Union in 2004. At the time of enlargement, Polish migrants were characterised as being economically motivated, short-term migrants who would enter the UK for work purposes, save money and return home. However, over ten years after enlargement, this initial characterisation has been challenged with many of the once considered 'short-term' Poles remaining in the UK. In the case of Wales, the long-term impact of this migration is only starting to be fully realised, particularly in consideration of the different spatial areas - urban, semi-urban and rural - explored in this book. Such impact is occurring in the post-Brexit referendum period, a time when the UK's position in the EU is itself complex and changing.

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Dyma gyfrol sy'n ymdrin a hanes Cymry America yn y bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg, trwy lygaid y wasg gyfnodol Gymraeg. Cynrychiolai'r cyfnod rhwng 1838 ac 1866 ei hoes aur, ond ychydig iawn o ymchwil sydd wedi darlunio hynt a helynt yr ymfudwyr o Gymru trwy ddefnyddio cyfnodolion fel ffynonellau cynradd. Fel cyfrwng cyfathrebu allweddol yn yr oes honno, rhoddent lwyfan i'r Cymry drafod pynciau'r dydd yn eu mamiaith. Prin bod unrhyw un yng Nghymru heb ryw gysylltiad teuluol ag America, neu'n adnabod rhywun sydd wedi ymfudo, ac yn yr un modd mae gan ddisgynyddion y Cymry yn America ddiddordeb yn eu hetifeddiaeth - mae bwrlwm y cymdeithasau Cymreig yn ffynnu o hyd ar draws y cyfandir, a dathliadau Gwyl Ddewi a chymanfaoedd mor fyw ag erioed. Eto i gyd, ychydig iawn a wyddant fod gwasg Gymraeg fywiog ar un adeg yn gwasanaethu'r Cymry yn eu gwlad fabwysiedig.

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This new book examines all of the available source materials, dating from the ninth century to the present, that have associated Arthur with sites in Wales. The material ranges from Medieval Latin chronicles, French romances and Welsh poetry through to the earliest printed works, antiquarian notebooks, periodicals, academic publications and finally books, written by both amateur and professional historians alike, in the modern period that have made various claims about the identity of Arthur and his kingdom. All of these sources are here placed in context, with the issues of dating and authorship discussed, and their impact and influence assessed. This book also contains a gazetteer of all the sites mentioned, including those yet to be identified, and traces their Arthurian associations back to their original source.

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