Authority and Subjugation in Writing of Medieval Wales

The New Middle Ages

by Ruth Kennedy (Editor)

The conquest of Wales by the medieval English throne produced a fiercely contested territory, both militarily and culturally. Wales was left fissured by frontiers of language, jurisdiction and loyalty—a reluctant meeting place of literary traditions and political cultures. But the profound consequences of this first colonial adventure on the development of medieval English culture have been disregarded. In setting English figurations of Wales against the contrasted representations of the Welsh language tradition, this volume seeks to reverse this neglect, insisting on the crucial importance of the English experience in Wales for any understanding of the literary cultures of medieval England and medieval Britain.

310 pages, Hardcover

First published September 16, 2008

About the author

Ruth Kennedy has lived much of her life close to the countryside in Upstate New York. Her many nature poems reflect her twenty years residence in the Bristol Hills. Her poems have appeared in the anthologies Five in the Afternoon and Haiku Poets of New York State, as well as journals such as Hazmat, Creekwalker, and Tamyfyr Mountain Poetry.

Reviews

[Heather Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Various papers, mostly on the Welsh-English interface in a wide variety of topics. Some of the papers that caught my eye were an edition and commentary on Higden’s Polychronicon (the Welsh section) and Trevisa’s English translation thereof; a comparison of the state of the dramatic arts in Wales vs. England; and conflicts between Welsh and English law.