page_title: Welsh literature in English
section_title: Introduction
hierarchical_section_title: Welsh literature in English / Introduction
caption_attribution_description: Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, Wales
context_page_description: Anglo-Welsh literature and Welsh writing in English are terms used to describe works written in the English language by Welsh writers. It has been recognised as a distinctive entity only since the 20th century. The need for a separate identity for this kind of writing arose because of the parallel development of modern Welsh-language literature; as such it is perhaps the youngest branch of English-language literature in the British Isles.
  Welsh writers in English in the early twentieth century favoured the short story form over the novel. This was for two main reasons: in a society lacking sufficient wealth to support professional writers, the amateur writer was able to spare time only for short bursts of creativity; and, like poetry, it concentrated linguistic delight and exuberance. However, the genre did not develop in these writers much beyond its origin in rural sketches. Satire was avoided, and, since the main market was London publishers, the short stories tended to focus on the eccentricities of Welsh life.
context_section_description: The phrase "Welsh writing in English" has replaced the earlier "Anglo-Welsh literature" because many Welsh writers in English have felt that the latter usage failed to give "Welsh status to Welsh people who, not speaking Cymraeg, nevertheless do not feel at all English".
  There is no final, clear definition of what constitutes a Welsh writer in English, or Anglo-Welsh author. Obviously it includes Welsh writers whose first language is English, rather than Welsh, such as Swansea born Dylan Thomas (1914–53) and novelist Emyr Humphreys, born in Prestatyn in 1919. But it also includes those born outside Wales with Welsh parentage, who were influenced by their Welsh roots, like London-born poet David Jones (1895–1974). Glyn Jones in The Dragon Has Two Tongues defines the Anglo-Welsh as "those Welsh men and women who write in English about Wales"
  In addition, writers born outside Wales, who have both lived in as well as written about Wales, are often included, such as John Cowper Powys (1872–1963), who settled in Wales in 1935 and wrote two major novels, Owen Glendower (1941) and Porius: A Romance of the Dark Ages (1951), that have Welsh subject matter. In addition to using Welsh history and settings, Powys also uses the mythology of The Mabinogion. He also studied the Welsh language. Then there is the poet, teacher, and critic Jeremy Hooker (born 1941), who taught at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth from 1965–84 and became deeply involved in writing about and teaching Welsh writing in English during this time, though he wrote only a few poems with Welsh subject matter. The Liverpool-born novelist James Hanley (1897–1985) lived in Wales from 1931 until 1963 and was buried there. Hanley published, Grey Children: A Study in Humbug and Misery (1937), a study of unemployment in industrial South Wales and three novels set in Wales. As one writer notes: "a widely debatable area of Anglo-Welsh acceptability exists". Saunders Lewis, the noted Welsh-language poet, novelist, dramatist, and nationalist, in fact rejected the possibility of Anglo-Welsh literature, because of the use of the language of the British colonialists, affirming that '"the literature which people called Anglo-Welsh was indistinguishable from English literature". Ironically, Saunders Lewis was himself born in Wallasey in England to a Welsh-speaking family.
  The problems are perhaps epitomised by Roald Dahl, a writer of short stories and children's literature. Dahl was born in Wales, to Norwegian parents, and spent much of his life in England, and the Welsh influence on his work is not always immediately apparent. Thus he might be seen partly as a Welsh analogue to Northern Ireland's C.S. Lewis. Peter George is another example of a writer of Welsh origins who rarely wrote about Wales. Conversely, Eric Linklater was born in Penarth, but is generally considered a Scottish writer.
  A further challenge for the definition of Welsh literature in English has come with the globalisation of culture. However, modern Welsh literature in English reflects a multicultural experience.
  If a Welsh writer chooses to write in English, this does not mean that they are unable to speak Welsh as well. In some cases, such as Jan Morris or Gillian Clarke, English-language writers have chosen to learn Welsh. In others, a native Welsh speaker such as Siân James or Jo Walton may choose to write some, or all of their work in English. Writing for an English-language market does not necessarily mean that they have abandoned a Welsh language audience.
caption: The Wales Millennium Centre at night whose bilingual inscription consciously evokes Wales' dual literary tradition.
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