New Theoretical Perspectives on Dylan Thomas

1. The book is in keeping with contemporary developments in literary criticism and interpretation. 2. The book is the first to offer a comprehensive critical overview of Thomas’s entire output. 3. It provides exciting new commentaries on cultural appropriations and interpretations of Thomas in the media, letters, and popular culture. 4. It contains work by some of the leading voices in the fields of Thomas studies and Welsh Writing in English. 5. It offers key insights into the Welsh contexts of Thomas’s work and legacy.

This book is a collection of essays examining the vast and varied output of Dylan Thomas. It is the first book to offer critical insights to the whole range of his output in verse, prose, drama and for screen.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'.