John Cowper Powys’s last major novel Porius (1951) is a complex polyphonic narrative. However, its main concern is the spiritual growth of the eponymous protagonist. Porius matures through an increasing understanding of ‘feminine consciousness’, which Powys suggests is ‘deeper’than that of men and ‘contains a clue to the most basic understanding of reality’. The novel is set in Wales in AD 499, just prior to the end of the Roman occupation, with a Saxon invasion impending. Powys began writing Porius in 1942, when Britain again faced an invasion,and he sees the twentieth century as a second Dark Age with Christianity being replaced by the worship of science and materialism, and Hitler’s Germany reflecting this trend in the extreme. Porius explores the idea that idea that evil originates from ‘some obscure struggle between men and women’ and Powys suggests that a bias toward ‘masculine consciousness’ leads to war, sadism, and violence. The patriarchal aspects of Christianity are condemned by Powys, and he prophesises its replacement with the worship of the Mother Goddess. Mythology is a major element and the characters include King Arthur’s magician Myrddin (Merlin), his lover Nineue, Tennyson’s Vivien, and survivors of a race of giants. Powys’s ideas about ‘feminine consciousness’,were particularly influenced by C. G. Jung, various women in his life, and the novelist Dorothy Richardson, who represents for him an ideal of this consciousness. 1
{"title":"A Quest for ‘Feminine consciousness’ in John Cowper Powys’s 'Porius'","authors":"Robin Wood","doi":"10.16995/wwe.3375","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/wwe.3375","url":null,"abstract":"John Cowper Powys’s last major novel Porius (1951) is a complex polyphonic narrative. However, its main concern is the spiritual growth of the eponymous protagonist. Porius matures through an increasing understanding of ‘feminine consciousness’, which Powys suggests is ‘deeper’than that of men and ‘contains a clue to the most basic understanding of reality’. The novel is set in Wales in AD 499, just prior to the end of the Roman occupation, with a Saxon invasion impending. Powys began writing Porius in 1942, when Britain again faced an invasion,and he sees the twentieth century as a second Dark Age with Christianity being replaced by the worship of science and materialism, and Hitler’s Germany reflecting this trend in the extreme. Porius explores the idea that idea that evil originates from ‘some obscure struggle between men and women’ and Powys suggests that a bias toward ‘masculine consciousness’ leads to war, sadism, and violence. The patriarchal aspects of Christianity are condemned by Powys, and he prophesises its replacement with the worship of the Mother Goddess. Mythology is a major element and the characters include King Arthur’s magician Myrddin (Merlin), his lover Nineue, Tennyson’s Vivien, and survivors of a race of giants. Powys’s ideas about ‘feminine consciousness’,were particularly influenced by C. G. Jung, various women in his life, and the novelist Dorothy Richardson, who represents for him an ideal of this consciousness. 1","PeriodicalId":149862,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Welsh Writing in English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127403685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dannie Abse was one of the most prolific Anglo-Welsh writers of recent times, best known for his poetry and also the author of plays, novels and memoirs. However, the full scope of his writing has yet to be widely acknowledged and some commentators have suggested that his work lacks depth and commitment. The present article provides an exploration and analysis of Abse’s poetry, proposing an understanding of how he did indeed achieve profundity, though not within an explicit, abstract metaphysical framework. Two major aspects of his mature work are considered in detail: his engagement with his Jewish heritage, particularly through its literature; and the sensitive portrayal of his professional medical experiences and the insights that arose from them. His writing offers no totalizing conceptual perspective, but rather a convincing expression of the continued value of the literature of religious traditions for making sense of our lives, a perceptive account of the fragile, bodily nature of our existence, and a timely reminder that science has more limitations than is commonly assumed. The depth – ethical, intellectual and philosophical – and commitment which Abse thus expressed are consonant with the insights of two of the twentieth century’s most original and influential philosophers, Emmanuel Levinas and Ludwig Wittgenstein.
{"title":"Nourished by experiences: meaning without metaphysics in the poetry of Dannie Abse","authors":"W. Bowen","doi":"10.16995/WWE.579","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/WWE.579","url":null,"abstract":"Dannie Abse was one of the most prolific Anglo-Welsh writers of recent times, best known for his poetry and also the author of plays, novels and memoirs. However, the full scope of his writing has yet to be widely acknowledged and some commentators have suggested that his work lacks depth and commitment. The present article provides an exploration and analysis of Abse’s poetry, proposing an understanding of how he did indeed achieve profundity, though not within an explicit, abstract metaphysical framework. Two major aspects of his mature work are considered in detail: his engagement with his Jewish heritage, particularly through its literature; and the sensitive portrayal of his professional medical experiences and the insights that arose from them. His writing offers no totalizing conceptual perspective, but rather a convincing expression of the continued value of the literature of religious traditions for making sense of our lives, a perceptive account of the fragile, bodily nature of our existence, and a timely reminder that science has more limitations than is commonly assumed. The depth – ethical, intellectual and philosophical – and commitment which Abse thus expressed are consonant with the insights of two of the twentieth century’s most original and influential philosophers, Emmanuel Levinas and Ludwig Wittgenstein.","PeriodicalId":149862,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Welsh Writing in English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126738317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Like Bill Murray in Lost in Translation, Alun Richards seems to have spent a whole year of 1984 in Japan. Although he found it fascinating to live a life in a totally exotic location, it is also clear from letters and correspondence that he also found it unbearably baffling. If that is the case, we cannot but wonder what he was actually baffled by in his encounter with Japan. Indeed, references to Japan and its culture are everywhere in his writing, but they are too stereotypical to communicate his upset to readers: ‘a little bald Japanese’, ‘exotic Japanese’ (Plays for Players), and even ‘a case of constipation on a Jap’ (Ennal’s Point).Presumably humour is his defensive strategy whenever he comes across ‘Others’,especially those of a different tongue. Richards constructs Japan as an ‘Other’,before proceeding to break down the barriers. My working assumption in this article is that Richards in Japan failed to ‘align with’ the unknown Others,that is, the Japanese. Also, Richards in the 1980s seems not only to have lost sight of his own community due to Thatcher’s drastic post-industrial politics but also to have evaded an emergent movement of nationalism which was quite new to him. The unbearable bafflement he experienced in Japan was arguably similar to this failure of alignment on his side. On this basis, this paper will contend that Richards’responses to Japan may offer important clues to understanding his controversial responses to cultural divisions and difference in his native Welsh context and more broadly.
{"title":"Lost in Alignment Alun Richards in Japan","authors":"Yuzo Yamada, Yamada Yuzo","doi":"10.16995/WWE.372","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/WWE.372","url":null,"abstract":"Like Bill Murray in Lost in Translation, Alun Richards seems to have spent a whole year of 1984 in Japan. Although he found it fascinating to live a life in a totally exotic location, it is also clear from letters and correspondence that he also found it unbearably baffling. If that is the case, we cannot but wonder what he was actually baffled by in his encounter with Japan. Indeed, references to Japan and its culture are everywhere in his writing, but they are too stereotypical to communicate his upset to readers: ‘a little bald Japanese’, ‘exotic Japanese’ (Plays for Players), and even ‘a case of constipation on a Jap’ (Ennal’s Point).Presumably humour is his defensive strategy whenever he comes across ‘Others’,especially those of a different tongue. Richards constructs Japan as an ‘Other’,before proceeding to break down the barriers. My working assumption in this article is that Richards in Japan failed to ‘align with’ the unknown Others,that is, the Japanese. Also, Richards in the 1980s seems not only to have lost sight of his own community due to Thatcher’s drastic post-industrial politics but also to have evaded an emergent movement of nationalism which was quite new to him. The unbearable bafflement he experienced in Japan was arguably similar to this failure of alignment on his side. On this basis, this paper will contend that Richards’responses to Japan may offer important clues to understanding his controversial responses to cultural divisions and difference in his native Welsh context and more broadly.","PeriodicalId":149862,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Welsh Writing in English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116104761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Intended as the first ever scholarly publication on 'Nesta', an unpublished 1940s novel, this article furthers the nascent re-discovery of the Argentine-Welsh writer Lynette Roberts, whose poems returned to print in 2005. Written by Roberts in Llanybri, Carmarthenshire, during the 1940s, and potentially revised in the mid-1950s, 'Nesta' is an unevenly experimental re-construction of the life of the Welsh medieval princess Nest ferch Rhys, and was read by figures such as Robert Graves, and T.S. Eliot, who considered the novel for publication at Faber. This essay argues that central to an understanding of 'Nesta' is that the text is very consciously
{"title":"(Lynette writing about) Nesta Recollection, Reconstruction and Reclamation in Lynette Roberts's 'Lost' Novel","authors":"Daniel Hughes","doi":"10.16995/WWE.377","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/WWE.377","url":null,"abstract":"Intended as the first ever scholarly publication on 'Nesta', an unpublished 1940s novel, this article furthers the nascent re-discovery of the Argentine-Welsh writer Lynette Roberts, whose poems returned to print in 2005. Written by Roberts in Llanybri, Carmarthenshire, during the 1940s, and potentially revised in the mid-1950s, 'Nesta' is an unevenly experimental re-construction of the life of the Welsh medieval princess Nest ferch Rhys, and was read by figures such as Robert Graves, and T.S. Eliot, who considered the novel for publication at Faber. This essay argues that central to an understanding of 'Nesta' is that the text is very consciously","PeriodicalId":149862,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Welsh Writing in English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125037721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Discussion of the life and work of Thomas Jeffery Llewelyn Prichard (1790–1862) has steadily increased over the past forty years. His novel, Twm Shon Catti (1828), with its disputed claim to be ‘the first Welsh Novel’, has been the chief focus of attention, while his poems have been relatively neglected. That the bulk of his poetry consists of long narratives on historical and legendary subjects, which he considered by their very nature superior, has not helped his case. With the recent discovery of Theatrical Poems (1822), known previously only from citations on the title pages of his other publications, it becomes possible to survey and re-evaluate his poetic output. His true strength lay in satire. Satirical poetry, supporting the fallen Napoleon while condemning Louis XVI and European monarchies in general, testifies to his radical thinking, as does his consistent nomination as “publishers” of his work those who had risked legal sanction (and in some cases suffered imprisonment) for offences against the laws on libel. Some of his most powerful poems describe the suffering of the rural poor and attack callous landowners. In Theatrical Poems a similar furious concern on behalf of actors exploited by unscrupulous theatre managers re-emphasises Prichard’s close knowledge of the stage and tends to confirm his connection with the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden.
{"title":"T. J. Llewelyn Prichard: Poetry (Including Theatrical Poems), Publishers and Politics","authors":"S. Adams","doi":"10.16995/ijwwe.781","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/ijwwe.781","url":null,"abstract":"Discussion of the life and work of Thomas Jeffery Llewelyn Prichard (1790–1862) has steadily increased over the past forty years. His novel, Twm Shon Catti (1828), with its disputed claim to be ‘the first Welsh Novel’, has been the chief focus of attention, while his poems have been relatively neglected. That the bulk of his poetry consists of long narratives on historical and legendary subjects, which he considered by their very nature superior, has not helped his case. With the recent discovery of Theatrical Poems (1822), known previously only from citations on the title pages of his other publications, it becomes possible to survey and re-evaluate his poetic output. His true strength lay in satire. Satirical poetry, supporting the fallen Napoleon while condemning Louis XVI and European monarchies in general, testifies to his radical thinking, as does his consistent nomination as “publishers” of his work those who had risked legal sanction (and in some cases suffered imprisonment) for offences against the laws on libel. Some of his most powerful poems describe the suffering of the rural poor and attack callous landowners. In Theatrical Poems a similar furious concern on behalf of actors exploited by unscrupulous theatre managers re-emphasises Prichard’s close knowledge of the stage and tends to confirm his connection with the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden.","PeriodicalId":149862,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Welsh Writing in English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132682801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Title Pending 9544","authors":"","doi":"10.16995/wwe.9544","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/wwe.9544","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":149862,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Welsh Writing in English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115144132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Title Pending 9954","authors":"","doi":"10.16995/wwe.9954","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/wwe.9954","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":149862,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Welsh Writing in English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123045891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Title Pending 10314","authors":"","doi":"10.16995/wwe.10314","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/wwe.10314","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":149862,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Welsh Writing in English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125664143","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Title Pending 9504","authors":"","doi":"10.16995/wwe.9504","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/wwe.9504","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":149862,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Welsh Writing in English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129332043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Title Pending 8590","authors":"","doi":"10.16995/wwe.8590","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/wwe.8590","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":149862,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Welsh Writing in English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122524471","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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