Pacifism, Peace and Modern Welsh Writing

* The book takes a literary-historical approach to its subject which opens up new perspectives on the history of peace and pacifism in Wales which historical approaches alone have overlooked. ; * It includes English- and Welsh-language texts and highlights the interdependence of English and Welsh culture in Wales. Quotations from Welsh-language texts are given in Welsh and in English translation to assist readers who are not Welsh speakers. ; * The reader is introduced to the changing nature of pacifism, peace and anti-warism and how these terms have acquired different meanings over time. The historical narrative is designed to make this scholarship more accessible to the reader who is not a specialist in peace studies. ; * The arguments of the book are illustrated and developed in accessible but original readings of key Welsh writers on peace and pacifism.

The book argues that pacifism and peace have played an important part in Welsh life and culture, and is an important but overlooked subject in Welsh studies.This book introduces the contribution of modern Welsh literature to our understanding of peace and pacifism – an important and much overlooked subject in Welsh studies. Taking a literary-historical approach to the subject, it reveals how modern Welsh writing opens up history in ways in which historical discourse alone sometimes fails to do. It argues that the concepts of peace, peacefulness and pacifism have played a broader and more complex role in Welsh life than has been recognised, primarily through an influential Welsh-language pacifist intelligentsia. The author reminds us that Welsh pacifism is distinguished from English pacifism by the Welsh language itself, its links with Welsh nationalism and by the fact that it faced challenges and pressures never encountered by English pacifism. Authors discussed in this study include Tony Curtis, George M. Ll. Davies, Pennar Davies, John Eilian, Emyr Humphreys, Glyn Jones, D. Gwenallt Jones, T. Gwynn Jones, T. E. Nicholas, Iorwerth C. Peate, Angharad Price, Ned Thomas, Lily Tobas and Waldo Williams.