RHAGLEN Y GYNHADLEDD CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

LLYFRGELL GENEDLAETHOL CYMRU

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES

ABERYSTWYTH

14–16/09/2015

Mewn cydweithrediad â / In collaboration with:CyfnewidfaLênCymru/WalesLiteratureExchange

ac/andAmgueddfaCeredigionMuseum

Prifddarlith/Keynote:YrAthro/ProfessorMichaelCronin(DublinCityUniversity)Cyfweliad:YrawdurBasgaiddKirmenUribemewnsgwrsgydaNedThomas

Interview:BasquewriterKirmenUribeinconversationwithNedThomas

Rhwydwaith / Network: LLGCWPA

Cyfrinair WiFi Password: pFvdE2kDX

Hashnod trydar / twitter Hashtag:#MinTrav

Amgueddfa Ceredigion Museum

TerraceRd,Aberystwyth,DyfedSY232AQ

Conference Dinner

PierBrasserie

TheRoyalPier,MarineTerrace,AberystwythSY232AZ.

Ffôn/Tel:01970636123

Dydd Llun, 14 Medi 2015 Monday, 14 September 2015

11.00 Cofrestru o flaen y DRWM, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru

Registration in front of the DRWM, National Library of Wales

12.30 Cinio/Lunch

13.40 DRWM– Croeso / Welcome Address

14.00 DRWM – Panel 1a: Belgian Refugees in Wales

JohnAlban:‘BelgianRefugeesandSwansea’sBelgianCommunity’

CaterinaVerdickt:‘BelgianartistsfindingrefugeinWalesduringtheGreatWar’

RhianDavies:‘Soir héroïque:BelgianrefugeemusiciansinWales’

Ystafell y Cyngor / Council Chamber – Panel 1b: Women Travellers

AlisonMartin:‘AWelsh"Assembly":CompilationandAdaptationinPriscilla

Wakefield'sFamily Tour(1804)’

KathrynWalchester:‘ThePicturesqueandtheBeastly;Walesinthejournalsof

Lady’sCompanionsElizaandMillicentBant(1806,1808)’

SilviaPelicier-Ortín:‘AMinorityinSearchofIdentity:TravelWritingandthe

RepresentationofBritish-JewishWomeninLindaGrant’sThe Cast Iron Shore

andWhen I Lived in Modern Times’

15.30 Te/TeaBreak

16.00 DRWM – Panel 2a: Iberian Travellers

DavidMiranda-Barreiro:‘“EverythingStaystheSame”:JulioCambaTravellingSpain’

BárbaraÁlvarezFernández:‘Everything but the squeal:Aportraitofpresentday

Galicia’

EnriqueSantosUnamuno:‘GalicianNationalIdentityandExtraterritorialityin

Diarios dun nómada(1993)byXavierQueipo:aGeoliteraryandCartographic

Approach’

Ystafell y Cyngor / Council Chamber – Panel 2b: Literary Travellers

RuthOldman:‘TheChivalrousNation:TravelandIdeologicalExchangeinSir Gawain

and the Green Knight’

AmyL.Klemm:‘TraversingAcrossImaginedLands:MagicRealismand“Minority”

Culture’

MarijaBergam:‘“Alanguageofwetstonesandmists”:ACaribbeanPoetasTraveller

throughEnglandandWales’

17.30 Swper/Dinner

19.00 DRWM

Sgwrs rhwng Kirmen Uribe a Ned Thomas

A Talk with Kirmen Uribe and Ned Thomas

Dydd Mawrth, 15 Medi 2015 Tuesday, 15 September 2015

10.00 DRWM – Panel 3: Involuntary Travellers

GaborGelleri:‘Exilemeetsminority:chevalierLaTocnaye’s“promenades”’

ArddunArwyn:‘GermanPrisonersofWarinWales’

11.00 Coffi/CoffeeBreak

11.30 DRWM – Panel 4a: Western Travellers

EimearKennedy:‘ComplexEncounters:Irish-languagetravelwritersandthecultural

“other”’

JulieWatt:‘HighlandersinWestAfrica’

DianaLuft:‘Identity?Politics:WilliamGriffith’sAfricanAdventure’

Ystafell y Cyngor / Council Chamber – Panel 4b: Minorities of the Imaginary

JessicaReid:‘“Folk”celebration?ThomasSt.Serfe’s“ThePrinceofTartaria,his

VoyagetoCowperinFife”’

ChristopherMcMillan:‘A Discription,A journeyandaProphecy:Scottophobiain

EnglishLiterature,1626-1763’

LornaMcBean:‘WhiteManWriting:LanguageofColonisationinthewritingsof

WilliamLithgow(1582-1645)’

13.00 Cinio/Lunch

14.00 DRWM – Panel 5a: Purposeful Travellers

MarionLöffler:‘GermanScholarsinWales,c.1840–c.1880:FriedrichCarlMeyer’

AdamN.Coward:‘RamblesandStudiesoftheUnitedStatesConsulinsouthWales’

Ystafell y Cyngor / Council Chamber – Panel 5b: Travellers and Commodities

GwynGriffiths:‘YrYmwelwyddTymhoroloLydaw’

Anna-LouDijkstra:“‘GuidebookGazes”:WalesThroughDutch,GermanandFrench

Eyes,1990-2010’

MelindaSzarvas:‘Immobiletravel:The“postcard-literature”inYugoslavia’

15.30 Te/TeaBreak

16.00 DRWM– Prif Ddarlith / Keynote Lecture: Michael Cronin

‘Minority Reports: Travel, Language and the Politics of Microspection’

19.30 Cinio’rGynhadledd/ConferenceDinner:PierBrasserie

Dydd Mercher, 16 Medi 2015 Wednesday, 16 September 2015

9.30 Amgueddfa Ceredigion Museum

Arddangosfa‘EwrOlwg:CymrudrwyLygaidYmwelwyroEwrop,1750–2015’

Exhibition‘EuroVisions:WalesthroughtheEyesofEuropeanVisitors,1750–2015’

10.00 Panel 6: Travellers and Material Culture

RobertLewis:‘WelshLanguageandBilingualProvisioninTourisminWales’

JacquiAnsell:‘DifferenceandDecorum:AddressingDressinPublishedTravelogues’

11.00 DychwelydiLyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru/ReturntotheNational Library of

Wales

12.00 DRWM Panel 7: Curious Travellers

ElizabethEdwards:‘“[B]leakanddesolateasanythingIhaveseeninScotland”:Mary

Bruntononthehometour’

Mary-AnnConstantine:‘“Tofindoutallitsbeauties,amanmusttravelonfoot”:

CatherineHutton’sexplorationsofWales’

13.00 Casgliadau / Closing Remarks

Dydd Llun, 14 Medi 2015 Monday, 14 September 2015

11.00 Cofrestru yng Nghyntedd Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru

Registration in the Foyer of the National Library of Wales

12.30 Cinio/Lunch

13.40 DRWM – Croeso / Welcome Address

14.00 DRWM

Panel 1a:

Belgian Refugees in Wales

Ystafell y Cyngor / Council Chamber

Panel 1b:

Women Travellers

Panel 1a: Belgian Refugees in Wales Cadair / Chair: Robert Evans

Belgian Refugees and Swansea’s Belgian Community

FollowingtheoutbreakoftheGreatWar,GreatBritainreceivedthelargestinfluxofrefugees

initshistory,asover250,000Belgiansarrived,havingfledfromtheadvanceoftheGerman

army across their homeland. It was an exodus which has been described as ‘a migration

phenomenonwithoutpreviousprecedentinthemodernhistoryofEuropeoutsidetheBalkan

peninsula’. The arriving refugees were dispersed across the whole of the United Kingdom,

includingmanypartsofWales.ReliefforthemwascoordinatedbythecentralWarRefugees

Committee in London, but was actually delivered by local committees, of which there were

over2,500acrossthecountry.

Some700oftheseBelgianrefugeescametoSwansea,mainlyin1914and1915,wherethey

united with a large, pre-existing Belgian community, mainly composed of the families of

metal-workers, the first ofwhomhad arrived in the town in the late 1840s, when they had

broughttheirexpertise,gainedinthezincworksofBelgium,tohelpdevelopSwansea’sown

newly-establishedspelterindustry.

ThewelcomeandsupportwhichtheBelgianrefugeesreceivedinSwanseaweregenerally

verypositive,especiallywhencomparedwiththesometimesadverseexperiencesofrefugees

inotherpartsoftheUnitedKingdom.TheenergiesanddedicationofSwanseaCorporation–

andespeciallyoftheSwanseaBelgianRefugeeCommittee–madealargecontributiontothis

success, but, as a visiting Belgian minister pointed out in 1916, the people of Swansea

themselves also played their own vital part in ensuring that these less fortunate souls

received a good welcome. As a consequence, links between Swansea and Belgium were

maintained post-war and were re-affirmed during the Second World War, when an even

largercontingentofBelgianrefugeesreturnedtothetown.

JohnAlban

UniversityofEastAnglia

Belgian artists finding refuge in Wales during the Great War

Theoutbreakof thewar inAugust1914broughtanenormous influxofBelgianrefugeeson

the move. Hundreds of thousands Belgians arrived in Britain, among them hundreds of

architects and artists. The Belgians were warmly welcomed since Britain felt partly

responsiblefortheagonyoftheBelgianpopulation.IntheUKtheBelgianswerehoused,cared

forandemployed.TheBritishculturalsocietyofferedmanyopportunitiesfortheexiles,not

only the people themselves were cared for, also the reconstruction of Belgium has been

prepared and researched by many British and Belgian architects. A conference for this

purposeonlywasheldin1915inordertopreparetherebuildingofBelgium.Apartfromthis

urbanization aspect many artists and architects stayed in Britain during the war and

interactedwithsociety.

Onemustrealizethatbecauseofthescatteringeventsofthewaralogicalwellconducted

cultural policy is lacking, although the situation was very different in Wales. Yet, these

refugeescameaboardinBritainandweredispatchedalloverthecountry.Somethrived,some

merelysurvived. Inthemanydocuments,archives,personal letters andartefacts significant

cases can be found, and these cases can be used to illustrate the larger mechanisms and

schemesofanexiledartisticcommunity.

Thispaperhoweverwill focusontheeffectsof thismigrationontheBelgianartistswho

were involved in interior architecture. An interesting example is the one of Valerius de

Sadeleer and his daughter Elisabeth who by invitation of the Davies sisters of Aberystwyth

madeRhydyfelin theirhomeforseveralyearsduringtheGreatWar.Whentheyreturnedto

Belgium in1922 they named, as a token ofrecognition, their new home inTiegem ‘Tynlon’

aftertheirWelshhome.MoreimportantElisabethandherfatherworkedinthenewArtsand

Crafts centre in Aberystwyth. They were commissioned to do so by the Davies sisters, who

were very keen on injecting Aberystwyth’s cultural life with renowned continental artists.

ElisabethtrainedintapestryweavingintheWilliamMorristradition.WhenbackinBelgium

hertapestryfirmgrewtobeoneofthemostimportantinthecountryintheinter-warperiod.

CaterinaVerdickt

AntwerpUniversity

Soir héroïque: Belgian refugee musicians in Wales

In October 1914, Gwendoline and Margaret Davies – heiress grand-daughters of the

nineteenth-centuryindustrialistDavidDavies,Llandinam–assistedaselectgroupofBelgian

refugeestosettleinPowysandCeredigionwiththeaimofraisingculturalstandardsinWales.

AmajorretrospectiveexhibitionofartworksproducedduringtheirtimeherebyValeriusDe

Saedeleer,GeorgeMinne,EdgarGevaertandGustavevandeWoestijnewasheldatNational

MuseumCardiffandtheMuseumofFineArtsinGhentin2002.

Theexhibitioncataloguealludesto‘severalwell-knownmusiciansfromBrussels’whoalso

came to Mid Wales, but who were they and why had their narrative disappeared? This

discrepancy was the spur to my research and a remarkable story has emerged of the

distinguished singers, instrumentalists and composers whoheld prominent positions at the

Brussels Conservatoire, Royal Palace and Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie before forming a

concert-partytotourWalesinaidoftheBelgianReliefFund,1914-16.EugèneGuillaumeand

Nicolas Laoureux wrote and premièred music in Aberystwyth while Joseph Jongen’s

Crépuscule au Lac Ogwenwas inspiredbyaholidayinSnowdonia.DavidvandeWoestijne–

Gustave’sson–wasborninLlandinamandgrewuptobecomealeadingBelgiancomposerof

thenextgeneration.

Developed as part of Gregynog Festival 2014: War, featured during Welsh Government’s

commemorativeprogrammeCymru’n Cofio | Wales Remembers 1914-1918andarevelationto

culturalcommentatorswhenfirstunveiledataBrusselspressconference in June2014, this

presentationdrawsonuncataloguedsourcesinWalesandBelgiumtoretellthestoryofthese

forgottenrefugeesandrestorethemandtheirrepertoiretorightfulattention.

RhianDavies

ArtisticDirector,

GregynogFestival

Panel 1b: Women Travellers Cadair / Chair: Ruth Oldman

A Welsh "Assembly": Compilation and Adaptation in Priscilla Wakefield's

Family Tour (1804) Priscilla Wakefield,a leading Britishauthor of children's educational non-fictioninthe early

nineteenth century, produced her best-selling Family Tour through the British Empire ...

Adapted to the Amusement and Instruction of Youthin1804.Thisaccountofthetopographyof

the British Isles (the "Empire" of the title) did not, however, reconstruct ajourney she had

herselfundertaken.Rather, itwasa"sketch,having theairofareal tour [...] containing the

prominent features of the subject"that was an unashamed compilation and adaptation of

existingliterature,wovenselectivelybyWakefieldintoherwork.Focusingspecificallyonthe

pages devoted to Wales, I shall be exploring how she transposed anintriguingrange of

material–fromRichardWarner'sWalk through Wales(1800)toThomasWarton'spoemThe

Grave of King Arthur (1777) – into a narrative that sought to be informative as well as

imaginatively engaging. My interest, though, is not solely in the dialogic relations between

thesetextsandtheirculturalre-evaluationoftheapparently'peripheral'territoryofWales.I

am also interested in thevery politics ofWakefield's intertextuality. Her literary dexterity

enabledherasanapparent'minority'figure–amiddle-agedQuakerwomanessentiallyliving

by her pen – touse travel literature as a highly successful form of knowledge-making for a

juvenileaudience,despiterarelyleavingtheboundsofherhome.

AlisonMartin

UniversityofReading

The Picturesque and the Beastly; Wales in the journals of Lady’s Companions

Eliza and Millicent Bant (1806, 1808)

Recentscholarship in the fieldof travelwritingstudiesand inRomanticismhasestablished

that the late eighteenth century saw a transformation in the representation of Wales in

writingbyEnglishtravellers;changing from,asSarahPrescotthasargued, ‘abackwardand

uncivilised land to a place venerated for its ancient bardic culture and sublime landscapes’

(2014, 108; Constantine, 2008; Lichtenwalner, 2008). This paper considers the manuscript

journals of sisters Millicent and Eliza Bant, companions to Lady Wilson, from their tour of

WalesinthefirstdecadeofthenineteenthcenturyandsuggeststhatwhilsttheBantsistersdo

employ newly-established Romantic formulations of landscapes in their accounts of Wales,

these compete with other complex discourses. In the journals a number of unexpected and

contradictoryperspectivesonWalesandtheWelshareproposedbyMillicentandElizaBant;

Wales is simultaneously ‘beastly’ and ‘picturesque’, a place of industry and of nature for

example.

The Bant sisters form part of, what James Clifford has suggested is, ‘a host of servants,

helpers,companions,guides,andbearers[who]havebeenexcludedfromtheroleofproper

travellersbecauseoftheirraceandclass;andbecausetheirsseemedtobeadependentstatus’

(Clifford,1997,33).Itisthis‘dependentstatus’,whichIsuggestisattherootoftheinteresting

interstitial narratorial position through which both their employer, Lady Wilson and the

Welsh become objects of the travelling authors’ gaze. Furthermore, this in-between status

results inarenderingof thecompanions’proximityto theorganisationandpracticalitiesof

travelanddrawsattentiontothechallengesstillencounteredintheearlynineteenthcentury

bythetravellingpartydespiteWales’semergenttouristinfrastructure.

KathrynWalchester

LiverpoolJohnMooresUniversity

A Minority in Search of Identity: Travel Writing and the Representation of

British-Jewish Women in Linda Grant’s The Cast Iron Shore and When I

Lived in Modern Times

When thinking about marginalised people, diasporic collectives, or individuals relegated to

theperiphery,theJewishpeopleforgeaheadastheyhavetraditionallybeendefinedbytheir

minoritystatuswherevertheyhavesettled(Cheyette,2014;GoldbergandKopelowitz,2012).

However, the present-day literary panorama has observed that “Jewish literature is

flourishing[…]-theresurgenceofapeoplestillstrivingtobeheard”(BerkmanandStarkman,

1998:1).Intheirattempttounveilthemechanismsthatrelegatethemtothisminorposition,

many British-Jewish writers have recently created works shaped by the transnational and

diasporicnaturethatcharacterisestravelwriting.Thistrend isevenmorenoticeable in the

case of women, as they “participate as ʻothersʼ in several traditions at once” (Baskin, 1994:

21),asJews,immigrantsandwomen.

Among the increasing British-Jewish female voices problematising their identity, Linda

Grant’s creations deserve pride of place as they show the mechanisms through which the

relationship between self and place may open new alternatives for the (re)construction of

their liminal identities. Inthispaper,The Cast Iron Shore (1996)andWhen I Lived in Modern

Times (2000) will be analysed and, although the dissimilarities between the travels

representedwillbepointedout─The Cast Iron ShoreechoesthevastJewishmigrationtothe

USwhileWhen I Lived in Modern Times showsthereturnto Israelafter theHolocaust─,my

main hypothesis is that both use the journey as a device guiding the narrative, a motif

representing the necessary breaking of boundaries for the characters to negotiate their

identities, and a metaphor to claim for a renewed outlook on the role of Jewish women in

society. By applying theories on the formation of Jewish identity and femininity alongside

ideasontravelwriting,and justasGoldbergarguesthat Jewsalwaysexperiment“withnew

waysofʻputtingtogetherʼJudaismandJewishcommunality”(2012:2),Iwouldconcludethat

Grant’sworksprovethattravelwritingisausefultoolto“puttogether”thepiecesconforming

contemporaryJewishfemaleidentities.

Works Cited Baskin,Judith.R.1994.Women of the Word: Jewish Women and Jewish Writing.Detroit:WayneStateUniversityPress.Berkman,MarshaLeeandElaineMarcusStarkman.1998.Contemporary Jewish Stories: Here I Am from around the World.PhiladelphiaandJerusalem:TheJewishPublicationSociety.Grant,Linda.1996.The Cast Iron Shore.London:GrantaBooks.――.2000.When I Lived in Modern Times.London:GrantaBooks.Cheyette,Bryan.2014.Diasporas of the Mind: Jewish and Postcolonial Writing and the Nightmare of History.NewHavenandLondon:YaleUniversityPress.Goldberg,StevenM.CohenandEzraKopelowitz(eds).2012.Dynamic Belonging: Contemporary Jewish Collective Identities.NewYorkandOxford:BerghahnBooks.

SilviaPelicier-Ortín

UniversityofZaragoza

15.30 Te/TeaBreak

16.00 DRWM

Panel 2a:

Iberian Travellers

Ystafell y Cyngor / Council Chamber

Panel 2b:

Literary Travellers

Panel 2a: Iberian Travellers Cadair / Chair: Phil Davies

‘Everything Stays the Same’: Julio Camba Travelling Spain WhereastheGalicianbutMadridbasedjournalistJulioCamba(1882-1962)acquiredalong-

lasting fameasatravelwriter thankstohischroniclesabout foreigncountriespublished in

the Spanish press and subsequently compiled in a series of volumes (Londres; Alemania; Un

año en el otro mundo; Aventuras de una peseta; La ciudad automática), La rana viajera [The

Travelling Frog](1920)gatherssomeofthearticleshewroteaboutSpain.Inthispaper,Iwill

examine Camba’s domestic travel writing, which not only provides an excellent insight into

significant social and political issues at the time (with references to the rise of peripheral

nationalisms, Regeneracionismo and the corrupted nature of Spanish politics), but also

highlightsthesimilaritiesbetweentheRestorationperiodandpresent-daySpain.Throughhis

characteristichumorousstyleandthesubversionofprevioustropesoftravelwriting,Camba

createsananti-RomanticrepresentationofSpanishsocietythatcombinescriticismofSpain’s

economicstagnationandnationaldecaywithacentralistviewofthecountry.Hismockeryof

Spanishpoliticians,hisscorntowardsGalicianandBasquelanguagesandhisparodictakeon

Catalonia’sclaimsforautonomyshedlightontheformationofSpanishcentralistnationalism

inthedecadepriortotheCivilWaranditspersistenceincurrentSpain.

DavidMiranda-Barreiro

BangorUniversity

Everything but the squeal: A portrait of present day Galicia According to social identity theories (Hogan, 2009: 8) a group or nation can be defined

throughwhattheinhabitantsthinkofthemselvesandwhatothersconsiderrepresentativeof

thatgroup(i.e.in-groupandout-groupcategories).

ThispaperanalysestheimageofGaliciaanditspeopleinthetravelbookEverything but the

Squeal. Eating the Hole Hog in Northern Spain(Farrar,StrausandGiroux,2008),bytheBritish

journalistandwriterJohnBarlow.BorninBritainbutlivinginACoruñaformorethantwenty

years, he sets out to consume every bit of the pig that is eaten in his pork-loving adopted

home.Overthecourseofayear,Barlowcrisscrossestheregion,butthefoodquestismerelya

windowontothepeoplewhomakeit.Hefocusesoncertainvalues,traditionsandbeliefsthat

bind the population together: language, sense of humor, lack of self-steem, emigration.

However, in spite of these shared bonds, we consider this ancient culture at risk of

disappearing.Thisthreathasbeenclearoverthelastdecades,whenpeopleflewabackward

countrysideinsearchofeconomicprogress,leavingbehindtheirlanguage,homes,handicrafts

andtrades.

BárbaraÁlvarezFernández

UniversidadedeVigo

Galician National Identity and Extraterritoriality in Diarios dun nómada

(1993) by Xavier Queipo: a Geoliterary and Cartographic Approach This paper combines theories and methodologies from Comparative Literature, Spatial

HumanitiesandDigitalHumanities(CartographyandCriticalGIS,specifically),asdeveloped

by authors such as Franco Moretti, Barbara Piatti and Ian N. Gregory. More precisely, this

paperwillprovideareadingof thetextDiarios dun nómada,atraveloguepublished in1993

bytheGalicianauthorXavierQueipo,indigitalandcartographicterms.Inordertodothis,the

firststepwillbetogeoreferencethelocationslinked(sometimeswithgreatprecision)tothe

different entries of the text. The expected result is the visualisation of a very wide

geographical and textual configuration, a literally geosymbolic Atlantic space. Starting from

thispoint,thepaperwillcarryoutageoliteraryandqualitativeanalysisoftheculturalissues

and items mentioned in those entries: authors, literary works, emotions and subjective

judgementsaboutspacesandlocations…Themainlinesofthisanalysiswillbetravelwriting,

mobilitiesandthetravelogueasgenre,thesymbolicmakingofGaliciannationalidentityand

theimportanceof(extra)territorialityandlinguisticdiversityinXavierQueipo’swork.

EnriqueSantosUnamuno

UniversidaddeExtremadura

Panel 2b: Literary Travellers Cadair / Chair: Lorna MacBean

The Chivalrous Nation: Travel and Ideological Exchange in Sir Gawain and

the Green Knight TheMiddleAgessawalliterativepoetictraditionflourishacrosstheBritishIsles,thoughnot

in a singular, unified form. Variations in the form erupted depending upon geographical,

cultural, and political variables and many texts reveal a sense of strong regional pride. The

theme of nationalism also became prominent as the British Isles began to define which

geographicalareaswerepartsofitsnation.Whilesomescholarsbelievethesetwotakescan

bemutuallyexclusive,IarguethattheAlliterativeRevivalisnotstrictlyindicativeofregional

and local literaryprideorof thematicnationalistic fervor.Rather, thepoetryof thisRevival

contributesmanyvoicestoanoverarchingnationalnarrativethroughthealliterativestyle.

This presentation intends to examine Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the most

defining examples of the alliterative resurgence, and the instances of travel and ideological

exchangepresentedinthepoem.WritteninaNorthMidlandsdialect,severalmomentsinthe

poem provide commentary on relations between the royal court of Richard II and the

provincesoftheNorthWestMidlands.Whilethepoemrevealsmomentsofregionalpride,I

intendtoarguethatthroughtheuseofthealliterativestyleandtherhetoricalexecutionofSir

Gawain’s final punishment, this poem reveals a commentary on the overarching English

nationalidentity,givingvoicetominoritygroups.SirGawain’stravelsleadhimthroughWales

and North West England, allowing him to experience these traditions and lifestyles which

differ from the royal tradition he is used to. By examining the poetic style, language, and

certain key scenes in which ideological exchange occurs between minority and majority

cultures, thispresentationwilldemonstratehowtheregionalpridepresented inSirGawain

andtheGreenKnightcontributestoacommentaryonhowthecourtshouldtreatitsminority

groupsandgentry.

RuthOldman

IndianaUniversityofPennsylvania

Traversing Across Imagined Lands: Magic Realism and ‘Minority’ Culture

While in some ways Magic Realism has become a ubiquitous term, to describe various

contemporaryworks,yetacertainambiguitysurrounds it. Iwillbe focusingonthreemagic

realist novels within British Commonwealth writing. These works are structured around

multiple layers of reality. Like many modernist movements, however, magic realism rejects

nineteenth-centurypositivism,theprivilegingofscienceandempiricism,returninginsteadto

mythologies,folkloreandmysticism.Thisinnowayrepresentsanabandonmentofhistory;in

fact, the representation of historical conflict is central to magic realist prose, and I would

arguethatincontemporaryliteraturemagicrealismpresentsawayofrestoringahistorical

dimension to the post-modern novel. The disconcerting multiplicity of realities in magic

realism emphasizes rather than denies the historical dimension of these narratives. The

exploration of the quotidian in early magic realism increasingly gives way to the

representation of conflict, which is often but not exclusively generated by a crisis of

national/cultural identityresulting fromtheoverlapofseveral layersofhistoryandculture

withinagivengeographicarea.

In this paper I will be exploring Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Peter

Carey’s The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith, and Richard Flanagan’s Death of a River Guide. All

threeworksexploretravel,both inrealandalso imagined,magical,ordystopian lands.The

centralcharactersoftheworksaredealingwithafeelingofdisplacementfromtheirhomes,

families,andcountries.Theymustlearntousetheir‘minority’statusinordertochallengethe

hegemonicstructuresatworkintheirlives.Languageplaysanequallyimportantroleineach

work, and in conjunctionwith travel, I will attempt to show the importance that bothhave

within the genre of Magic Realism, and in particular, the works from Rushdie, Carey, and

Flanagan.

AmyL.Klemm

IndianaUniversityofPennsylvania

“A language of wet stones and mists”: A Caribbean Poet as Traveller through

England and Wales Mypaperexamines severalpoems inwhichDerekWalcottwritesaboutEnglandandWales

fromtheautobiographicviewpointofthetravellingCaribbeanpoet.ThereadingIproposeis

partofalargerprojectonrepresentationsofEuropeinWalcott’spoetry,butintheirfocuson

EnglandandWalesthesepoemscrystalisetwoparticularlycomplexandsuggestive,yetvery

different,responsestothemanifoldofplace,historyandlanguageevokedbythelandscapes

hemovesthrough.

DeleuzeandGuattari’sconceptoflittérature mineureallowsmetospeakaboutWalcottasa

“minoritywriter”.HispositionasaWest Indianpoetmeanshe isbothoutsidethe imperial,

majority culture and, of necessity, in its language, which he has reterritorialised in his long

endeavour to use it for articulating a post-colonial, specifically Caribbean poetics. In their

engagement with Welsh and English “Elsewhere”, his poems inevitably participate in the

transvaluation of the relationship between centre and periphery (or peripheries), which

markedthemostsignificantpoetrywritteninEnglishafterWWII.

In discussing “English” poems from Midsummer (1984) I will argue that, while there is

somerecognitionofvitalbondswithEngland,Walcott’svoyageneverbecomesareturntothe

wellspringofhis identity,as somecritics seemto imply.HisrepresentationofEnglandalso

qualifiestheviewofWalcottasacosmopolitanpoet,equallyathomeindifferentplaces.Ithen

proceed to discuss Walcott’s “Wales” (The Fortunate Traveller, 1981) as an instance of

ÉdouardGlissant’srelation.WalesfascinatesWalcottbothbecauseofitsstratifiedhistoryand

longpoetic tradition–boththingsthat theCaribbeanmanifestly lacks–and becauseof the

correspondencesbetweenitandWalcott’s islands.Thesequickenhis imaginationandallow

for a productive identification that ultimately complicates and deepens his encounter with

Europe.

MarijaBergam

UniversityofGeneva

17.30 Swper/Dinner

19.00 DRWM

Sgwrs rhwng Kirmen Uribe a Ned Thomas

A Talk with Kirmen Uribe and Ned Thomas

Dydd Mawrth, 15 Medi 2015 Tuesday, 15 September 2015

10.00 DRWM Panel 3: Involuntary Travellers

Panel 3: Involuntary Travellers Cadair / Chair: Kathryn Jones

Exile meets minority: chevalier La Tocnaye’s "promenades" French travel literature doesn't express much interest in discovering the "other nations" of the

BritishIslesuntilthelastdecadeoftheAncienRégime.Mostearlierexamplesareeithercasesof

“mind travel” (Coulon’s guide from 1654), cases of involuntary travel (La Boullaye le Gouz in

Ireland), or remain exceptional (Jouvin de Rochefort’s 1670 guide). From the 1780ies, linked

partly to the emergence of the Ossian reference, Celtic cultures grow in importance, and the

practiceofthe“tourdestroisroyaumes”becomesfashionable.

The chevelier La Tocnaye belongs, in some respects, to this development, but also holds a

specialplace.Thisyoungaristocrat,desperatetoshakeoff theinactivityof lifeasanexile, turns

his experience into travel, in order to “survive” temporary hardship: survive financially,

intellectually, even physically. Having little money but an almost unlimited amount of time, he

decidestowalkaroundthewholeofBritain;hewilllaterundertakefurtherwalksinNorwayand

Scandinavia.

Duringhiswalks,hegrowsincreasinglycriticaloftheEnglish,andwillsystematicallysidewith

thelocalpopulation; inparticulartheScottish,withwhomhestaysforovertwoyears.Atevery

pointofhistravel,hecreatescounter-narrativestowell-knownEnglishnarrativesoftheterritory

hetravelsthrough.HepositionshimselfagainstJohnsoninScotland;reportscheerfullyaboutthe

“Twiss pots” in Ireland; and uses his travel to Norway to refute fellow traveller Mary

Wollstonecraftateverylevel:facts,writingandunderlyingideology.

This paper investigates whether this act of creating counter-narratives against a dominating

discoursecanbeseenasanactofmodernity.Wealsoinvestigatehis“programoftravel”,which

suggestsonlyexilesareinapositiontotakeontheroleoffacilitatorbetweencultures.

GaborGelleri

AberystwythUniversity

German Prisoners of War in Wales In the limited canon of research on Wales during the Second World War, German POWs as

European travellers to Wales are mentioned, although there is no in depth analysis of their

experience.Althoughtheir‘travels’toWaleswerenotvoluntary,thewritingsandexperiencesof

thesePOWsprovideuswithafreshsetofperspectivesonWales,theWelshandWelshsocietyand

culture.Drawingonarangeofsources,thispaperwillanalysetheexperiencesofGermanPOWsin

Wales during, and after, the Second World War. These sources include memoirs, personal

accounts and oral history interviews. This paper will also explore prisoner attitudes to Wales

whilstoffering aunique perspective of Walesfrom theviewpoint of foreign captives. Thepaper

will seek to ascertain what impressions of Wales were left in the POW’s memories and which

perceptions of an enemy were formed? To what extent did these perceptions change over time

and with the ending of the war? In answering these questions it will be possible to assess the

degreetowhichprocessofintegrationintothelocalcommunitytooplace(andifsohow?)Insum,

this paper will make asignificant contribution to the historiography of European travel writing

andWales.

ArddunArwyn

AberystwythUniversity

Panel 4a: Western Travellers Cadair / Chair: Carol Tully

Complex Encounters: Irish-language travel writers and the cultural ‘other’ Given that Ireland has never had a dominant position in Europe and was not involved in

leading the imperial expansion that contributed to the production of much international

travel literature from the sixteenth century onwards, it is, perhaps, not surprising that the

evolutionofIrish-languagetravelliteraturehasbeenverydifferenttothatoftravelliterature

in themajorworldlanguagessuchasEnglish,FrenchandSpanish. It isonly inmorerecent

years,forexample,thatIrish-languageliteraturehaswitnessedatransitionfromemigration

literaturetotravelliterature,withIrish-languagewritersnowrecountingjourneystheyhave

undertakenfor leisurepurposes.As aresult, itcouldalsobeanticipated that Irish-language

travelwriterswillengagedifferentlywiththepeoplesandplacesthattheyvisitthanmanyof

thetravellersfrommajorworldpowerswhocamebeforethemastheycouldempathizewith

thepeoplesofothersmallnationsandwiththosewhomayhaveexperiencedsimilarlinguistic

and cultural attrition to themselves. Thus by looking at the works of three Irish-language

travelwriters-ManchánMagan,GabrielRosenstockandCathalÓSearcaigh-thispaperaims

to explore the encounters between Irish-language travel writers and foreign peoples and

places. It will investigate the attempts made by these writers to distance themselves from

cultural, political and economic hegemony of Western powers but it will also highlight the

hugelycomplexpositioningof Irish-languagetravelwriters;notonlyaretheyspeakersof a

minoritised languagewhocomefromacountrythathas itself experiencedcolonization,but

theyarealsorelativelywealthytravellersfromadevelopedcountryinWesternEurope.This

unstable positioning can, therefore, result in encounters that are fraught with ethical

dilemmasforIrish-languagetravelwriters.

Overall, this study of Irish-language travel narratives will illustrate the often ambivalent

positionings of Western travellers who come from ‘minority’ cultures or from minority /

minoritised language backgrounds, who, despite their attempts to detach themselves from

hierarchicalencounters,oftenfinditdifficulttoescapetheasymmetricalpowerrelationsthat

have been entrenched in the encounters between Western travellers and the non-Western

‘other’forcenturies.

EimearKennedy

Queen’sUniversityBelfast

11.00 Coffi/CoffeeBreak

11.30 DRWM

Panel 4a:

Western Travellers

Ystafell y Cyngor / Council Chamber

Panel 4b:

Minorities of the Imaginary

Highlanders in West Africa In the early nineteenth century, a group of schoolmates from Elgin in Moray staffed thestationatCapeCoastCastleontheGoldCoastofAfrica.TheywereallthesonsofPresbyterianministersandallbutoneweregraduatesofoneofAberdeen’stwouniversitiesandso they,and their fathers, were very much influencedby the teaching of James Beattie, Professor ofMoral Philosophy and Logic at Marischal College. As a proponent of the ScottishEnlightenment,Beattiewas anearlyabolitionistwhoattackedDavidHume’sracist ideologyandinfluencedthethinkingofWilliamWilberforcewhowasjustbeginninghiscareer.

TheElginmenwereobligedtoseekworkoverseasbecauseoftheHighlandClearancesand,becausetheycamefrombeyondtheHighlandline(untilrecentlyatriballandwithchieftainswhosefirstlanguagewasnotEnglish),theycouldrelatetotheindigenouspopulationofWestAfrica. The slave trade had only just been abolished and the merchants on the Gold Coastneededtofindnewexportstoreplacehumantrafficking.ThefathersoftheElginmen,aslocalchurch ministers, each one writing about his own parish, had been involved in puttingtogethertheFirstStatisticalAccountofScotland,asurveyoftheeconomyofScotlandduringandontheeveoftheAgriculturalandIndustrialRevolutions.AsimilarEnlightenmentoutlookinfluencedtheaccountsof theGoldCoast in termsof finding ‘legitimate’ tradegoods. Itwasnotanimperialistland-grab;itwasanattempttoestablishnewBritishtradelinkstoreplacethe transatlantic slave trade. One of the Elgin men, Brodie Cruikshank, secretary of themerchant company, wrote up and published his observations in a travel book entitledEighteen Years on the Gold Coast of Africa,whichisineffectastatisticalaccountofthearea.

JulieWatt

IndependentScholar

Identity? Politics: William Griffith’s African Adventure In 1892 a series of letters appeared in the Carnarvon-based newspaper Y Genedl GymreigwrittenbyamancalledWilliamGriffithtohisbrother.Theydescribetheauthor’stravelsfromKimberleyinSouthAfricatoFortSalisburyinMashonaland(present-dayHarare,Zimbabwe)intheserviceofhisworkasagoldprospectorfortheBritishSouthAfricaCompanyunderthedirectorship of Cecil Rhodes. Griffith’s account must have mustered some interest, asnewspaper advertisements indicate that he was in demand as a speaker, and the collectededitionofhisletterswaspublishedtwice.

ItistemptingtouseaccountssuchasGriffith’stoattempttoidentifyaminority-languagetravel-writing aesthetic, different from the colonialist discourse of most majority-languagetravel writing of the period. It is difficult to accept that a member of a minority culture,presumably having experienced the denigration of his own language and history, mightparticipate in the same action, and tempting to search for clues of a greater acceptance ofminoritycultures,andagreaterunderstandingoftheirplight.InthecaseofWilliamGriffith,suchasearchwouldbeinvain.ThereisnoevidencethatGriffithidentifiedwiththeAfricancultures he encountered. While he has many positive things to say about the individualAfricans he encounters, much of this is familiar rhetoric, aimed at shaming the audience athomeintobetterbehaviourbyshowingupthenaturalgoodhabitsofthenoblesavage,andisfamiliar from majority-language travel writing of the period. This lack of sympathy may bedue to the fact that although Griffith identified as Welsh, there is no indication that heconsideredthistobeaminorityidentity,oranidentityinanywayincompatiblewithhisfullparticipationinthecolonialistactivitiesoftheBritishSouthAfricaCompany.

DianaLuft

CentreforAdvancedWelshandCelticStudies

Panel 4b: Minorities of the Imaginary: The Culture of Travel Writing across Early Modern Scotland Cadair / Chair: Linus Band-Dijkstra

‘Folk’ celebration? Thomas St. Serfe’s ‘The Prince of Tartaria, his Voyage to

Cowper in Fife’ Iwillbe lookingata little-studiedworkbytheScottishpamphleteerThomasSt.Serfe. ‘The

PrinceofTartaria’detailsthejourneyofafictiveforeignprincethroughRestorationScotland.

St.Serfedirectshisreadershiptowardsautopicversionofpost-RestorationScotlandthatis

based on his royalist beliefs. My paper will enquire into how St. Serfe makes use of

marginalised culture to reinforce the culturalhegemony in the minds ofhis readers. As the

Tartarian prince travels through Scotland, the local folk culture that he encounters and

partakes in is celebrated. However, this folk celebration is ultimately directed towards the

royalistcelebrationthatisthenarrative’sfinalscene.Iwillconsiderthetensionsbetweenthe

officialandtheunofficial,theperipheralandthehegemonicinthistext.St.Serfeimplements

theall-encompassingequalisinglaughteroffolkfestivitytore-establishastable,hierarchized

ScotlandintheimaginationsofSt.Serfe’sreaders.Mypaperwilldrawattentiontohowfolk

culturecanbe(ab)usedasameansofreproducingandreinforcingculturalhegemony.

JessicaReid

UniversityofGlasgow

A Discription, A journey and a Prophecy: Scottophobia in English Literature,

1626-1763 ThispaperwillexaminethreedescriptiveaccountsofScotland,fromthreewriters,spanning

twocenturies,eachemployingdifferentformsthatshowdevelopmentfrompoliticalinvective

to travelogue to poetry: A Discription of Scotland (disputed authorship) (1626), Edward

Ward’s(satirist,1667-1731)A Journey to Scotland(1699)andCharlesChurchill’s(poet,1732-

1764) The Prophecy of Famine: A Scots Pastoral (1763). Though separated by time and form

the texts share similar concerns, themes, ideology and Scottophobia. Themes include

descriptions of populace, topography, agricultural and technological backwardness,

barrenness,disease,culture,food,naturalresources,originsandreligion.

Moreover, the texts belong to specific political moments and comment on and reflect

shifting dynamics in the Anglo-Scottishrelationship. A Discription appears shortly after the

Union of Crowns, A journey is published prior to the Act of Union and during Scotland’s

ultimately disastrous solo colonial project in Darien, while The Prophecy of Famine affords

post-union insight intohow the English, in keeping with the previous texts, perceived their

Scottishpartnersasaminorityculture,butthroughtheadditionalframeworkofthegenerally

unwelcomeinfluxoftheperceivedminoritycultureintoEngland.

ChristopherMcMillan

UniversityofGlasgow

White Man Writing: Language of Colonisation in the writings of William

Lithgow (1582-1645) Since Boaventura de Sousa Santos’ seminal work ‘Epistemologies of the South’, the term

‘epistemicide’hasbecomeahammerinthetoolboxofdecolonisationtheory.Thispapertakes

a linguistic approach to de Sousa Santos’s concept and applies it to the writings of William

Lithgow(1582-1645).

Writing at the beginning of the seventeenth century and in Scotland’s awakening to

colonial projects, William Lithgow’s travelogues and poetry provide a unique window into

what Dr Kirsten Sandrock has termed the ‘Scottish colonial imaginary’. Looking at how

Lithgow’srealityisconstruedinmetaphorandimagery,thispaperbeginstopiecetogethera

hermeneuticof this imaginary.Byexamining instanceswhereLithgowdictates/narratesthe

realities of marginalised people, we begin to see a familiar Western epistemology and can

begintopickaparttheparticularcognitiveinjusticeswhichLithgowpedals.

LornaMcBeanUniversityofGlasgow

13.00 Cinio/Lunch

14.00 DRWM

Panel 5a:

Purposeful Travellers

Ystafell y Cyngor / Council Chamber

Panel 5b:

Travellers and Commodities

Panel 5a: Purposeful Travellers Cadair / Chair: Rita Singer

German Scholars in Wales, c.1840–c.1880: Friedrich Carl Meyer ThispaperconsidersagroupofGerman-languagevisitorswhosepreviousconnectionswith

Wales and academic training deeply influenced their travel routes and cultural outputs,

thereby potentially subverting both the image of Wales as romantically ‘Celtic’ and the

perceived centre-periphery relationship between the Celtic countries and the British state.

Reviewing the general characteristics of this groupof travellers, among them historian and

politician Baron Christian von Bunsen, Sanskrit Professor Max Müller and publisher Georg

Saurwein, the analysis focuses on the Celtic scholar and diplomat Friedrich Carl Meyer

(†1885).

HavingwonaninternationalessaycompetitionattheWelsh-founded,but internationally

renowned,AbergavennyEisteddfodin1842,MeyertravelledWalesin1844–5,takingaroute

lessdeterminedbynotionsofthepicturesque,thesublimeorthe‘Celtic’,butbythepeoplehe

wished to visit and the libraries he desired to consult. His continued engagement with the

country’s culture and its place in British politics is apparent from his correspondence with

prominentWelshmenand-women, likeLadyAugustaHall,andthehistoriansThomasPrice

and Thomas Stephens. Appointed ‘German Secretary and Librarian’ to Prince Albert at

Windsor in1847,hecontributedtosubscriptions forcultural institutionsinWales, lectured

ontheWelshlanguageinOxfordandequippedtheroyal librarywithacanonof ‘peripheral’

Celtic literature, thus furthering an appreciation of Welsh culture atthe heart of the British

Empireatatimewhenitwasviewedwithsuspicionbythe(colonial)establishment.

MarionLöffler

CentreforAdvancedWelshandCelticStudies

Rambles and Studies of the United States Consul in south Wales ThepurposeforWirtSikes’stimeinWaleswasprofession,notleisure.SikesservedasUnited

StatesconsultoCardifffrom1876to1883,duringwhichtimehefrequentlyenjoyed‘rambles’

throughoutsouthWales.AlreadyanotedwriterintheU.S.,Sikescontinuedhisliterarycareer

alongsidehisdiplomaticone,utilizinghisjauntstocontributearticlesonvariousWelshtopics

to American periodicals. Some of these articles were reprinted for a British readership in

1881 as Rambles and Studies in old south Wales. In the introduction to this work, Sikes

presented himself as correcting American and English ignorance concerning the region.

However,hisworkhadmeaningandmotivationbeyondpoliteethno-geographicalcuriosity.

Throughout his Welsh writing, Sikes was keen to compare Wales to the United States.

Whilethisaroseinpartfromhisownnationalityandadesiretomakehissubjectpalatableto

hisaudience,itwasalsomotivatedbyhisdiplomaticposition.AsconsulinCardiff,Sikeswas

responsibleforreportingonandfosteringAmerican-Welshtradeandsocialrelations,giving

himakeeninterestintheirpromotion.Thiswasheightenedbyhisstatusasconsultoa‘non-

state’nation.HeencouragestraveltoWales,aswellaspraisingofbothWelshandAmerican

goods.Inearlierwritings,Sikeshadfocusedonsocio-economicissues,particularlytheplight

ofimpoverishedwomenandtheevilsofdrink.TheseconcernsappearinhisWelshwritings,

and,particularlywith temperance,heoftenportrayedWalesasanideal.Thus,whileSikes’s

work superficially displays literary conventions which reinforce a view of Wales as

‘peripheral’,takeninwidercontexts,itconstructsWalesasaculturalandeconomic‘centre’,

motivatedbySikes’sprofessionalandsocialinterests.

AdamN.Coward

CentreforAdvancedWelshandCelticStudies

Panel 5b: Travellers and Commodities Cadair / Chair: Mary-Ann Constantine

Yr Ymwelwydd Tymhorol o Lydaw DechreuoddygwerthwyrwinwnsoLydaw,aelwidarlafargwladynSioniWinwns,ymweldâ

Phrydainmorbellynôlag1828.CyrhaeddoddeumasnacheIben-llanwym1931panoeddo

leiaf 1500 yn ymadael ag ardaloedd Rosko aKastell Paol idreulio chwe mis yn gwerthu eu

winwns unigryw ledled Prydain.Yr oedd Cymru yn bwysig yn y stori gan fod canran uchel

ohonyn nhw – o ystyried y boblogaeth – yn dod yma. Mae lle i gredu fod hyn oherwydd y

cysylltiad ieithyddol gyda gweithwyr cyffredin uniaith Lydaweg yn dod wyneb yn wyneb â

Chymry,ynarbenniggwrageddtŷ,oeddfwyneulaiynuniaithGymraeg.

Ni adawsant gorff o lenyddiaeth ar eu holau, heblaw am yr hyn â gofnodwyd mewn

cyfweliadau gyda nhw gan eraill. Ymhlith y cofnodwyr hynny mae Gwyn Griffiths a

ddechreuoddymchwilioi’whanesddiweddy70aupanoeddyfasnachdymhorolyndirwyd

tua’i therfyn. Gwnaeth lawer o’i ymchwil yn Llydaw yn gwrando ar atgofion dynion – a

menywod – oedd bellach wedi ymddeol ar ôl treulio hanner oes yn gwerthu winwns ym

Mhrydain.

DullySionisoedddychwelydi’rundrefneuddinasflwyddynarôlblwyddynaganilawer

ohonyn nhw fod yn ymwelwyr cyson a’n gwlad, rai dros hanner canrif a mwy, daethant i

adnabod eu hardaloedd yn dda a phrofi fod ganddyn nhw wybodaeth arbennig o hanes ac

arferionymannauhynny.HydynoedynachosSionisnafuonterioedyngNghymrugwelwyd

eu bod yn gwybod llawer am Gymru a wedi dysgu rhywfaint o Gymraeg ymysg Cymry

alltud. Bu’r cyswllt iaith yn fodd i dynnu dwy garfan o’r dosbarth gweithiol at ei

gilydd.Dysgodd JeanLeRouxfu’ngwerthueiwinwnsynLlundaindipynoGymraeggyda’r

gwerthwyrllaethoGeredigion.Bugallu’rSionisigyfathrebu’nrhwyddynyGymraegynfodd

igryfhau’rmythfodyGymraega’rLlydawegbronynunionyrunfath.

GwynGriffiths

IndependentScholar

‘Guidebook Gazes’: Wales Through Dutch, German and French Eyes, 1990-

2010 Despitetheadventofdevolutionin1997,Walesisstilllargely‘invisible’overseas,andisoften

conflated with England or overlooked altogether (Hellegouarc’h-Bryce 2009; Morgan and

Pritchard2005).Guidebooksplayanimportantroleinincreasingthevisibilityofanation,as

they introduce the country to potential visitors and create images prior to travelling.

However,theyalsotendtoreinforcestereotypesandcreate‘romanticfictions’(Mahn2008).

This paper examines the representation of Wales in French, German and Dutch guidebooks

between1990and2010andconsequentlyelucidatestheculturalandpoliticalrecognitionof

Wales in these continental texts. The depiction of Wales as a distinct entity on an

administrative, or rather on a cultural and linguistic level will be discussed, as well as the

commonalitiesanddifferencesbetweentheDutch,FrenchandGermanviews.

By focussing on the guidebooks’ introductorychapters and sections about Welsh culture

and language, the paper investigates the engagement of these guidebooks with Wales as a

devolved ‘minority’. The primary material will consist of well-known series such as Marco

PoloandGuide du Routardaswellaslesser-knownprintedguidebooksinordertoprovidea

broader overview of the used discourse. On the one hand, it will be argued that the guides

increase Wales’s visibility, simply by the fact that the country has become a consumable

object of the ‘tourist gaze’. On the other hand, the guidebooks also present Wales as a

mystified Other. By examining guidebooks before and after devolution, the paper discusses

whetherWales’svisibilityas adistinctnationhas indeed increasedornot. Itwillbeargued

thatalthoughdevolutionwasamilestoneforWalesonbothanationalaswellasinternational

level,theguidebooksdonotnecessarilyreflectthis.

Anna-LouDijkstra

SwanseaUniversity

Immobile travel: The "postcard-literature” in Yugoslavia InThomasFaist’sstudypublishedin2013theculturalsituationoftheHungarianminoritiesis

comparedtothesituationofthemigrantgroups:inbothcaseswecanexaminetransnational

ties.Thisparallelreinterpretstheculturalcharacterizationoftheminorities’identity,andalso

thee/migrantresearches.

E/migration is tightly connected to travelling, however the Hungarian minorities found

themselvesinanotherstate,withoutchangingtheirlocation–becauseofapoliticaldecision.

The lack of travel and the “irregular” travel became the central topics of the literature in

Vojvodina.InmypresentationIwillpresenttheliteraryeffectsofthesedevelopments,andI

willdefineaspeciallocalliterarysolution.

During/afterthefallofYugoslaviathepassportofthenon-existentstatebecameimportant

basicsymbolinthelocalliterature–independentlyofthenationality.Thenewbureaucratic

regulations basically influenced the possibility of travel. These circumstances established a

paradoxical image in the literature like "the arrival to nowhere" or "trip in one place". In

realitytheescapemeantthetravel.IntheliteratureoftheminoritiesinVojvodinadeveloped

a specific literary historical writer solution. By my definition this is called "postcard-

literature".Thisreferstothecomplementary(andnotonlyillustrative)relationshipbetween

theinformativetextandpicture.Intheseworkspostcardisnotonlyanimportantmotif,but

alsotheplaceofthetravel.Thepersonwhoreceivesthepostcardalsocanstartanimaginary

journey. These passages are a specific realization of the "image and geo narrative". The

followingwriterscanbementioned:VedranaRudan,DubravkaUgrešić,IldikóLovas,Nándor

Gionetc.Thenameofthesolutionrefersnot(only)totheshortnessofthetext:thesepassages

can be examined by interdisciplinary aspects. This solution is in close contact with other

literarygenres,suchasthediary,theautobiographyormemoir.

MelindaSzarvas

UniversityofJyväskylä

15.30 Te/TeaBreak

16.00 DRWM – Prif Ddarlith / Keynote Lecture: Michael Cronin

‘Minority Reports: Travel, Language and the Politics of Microspection’

Chair: Charles Forsdick

19.30 Cinio’rGynhadledd/ConferenceDinner:PierBrasserie

Dydd Mercher, 16 Medi 2015 Wednesday, 16 September 2015

9.30 Amgueddfa Ceredigion Museum

Arddangosfa‘EwrOlwg:CymrudrwyLygaidYmwelwyroEwrop,1750–2015’

Exhibition‘EuroVisions:WalesthroughtheEyesofEuropeanVisitors,1750–2015’

10.00 Panel 6: Travellers and Material Culture

Panel 6: Travellers and Material Culture Cadair / Chair: Heather Williams

Welsh Language and Bilingual Provision in Tourism in Wales Culture, including language, is a key differentiator between tourism destinations and thus

potentiallyanimportantassetindestinationmarketingandcreatinga‘senseofplace’.

While some visitors choose a destination primarily for its physical facilities, increasingly

touristswishtoexperienceaspectsoflocalculture(e.g.localfood,localtraditions)andmost

visitorsundertakesomeformof‘cultural’activity(e.g.attendingafestivalorvisitingacastle)

evenifthisisincidentalratherthantheirprimaryreasonforvisitingadestination.Research

suggestsapositiveshiftinattitudetowardslocalcultures(andlanguages),whichformpartof

theessentialmake-upofatraveldestination.

However, visitors may encounter difficulty in engaging with local culture for a range of

reasons,including:

Relativeinvisibilityoflocalculturesduetohistoricpoliticalhegemony Mediationoftheminoritycultureviaamajoritylanguageandworld-view Atendencyamongsometourismbusinessestothistypeofprovisionasunnecessaryand

anadditionalcost A lack of opportunities for visitors to engage meaningfully with the local culture and

languageIn the context of the Welsh Government’s strategy for a bilingual Wales, Visit Wales is

seekingtoactivelypromoteandencouragetheuseofWelshandbilingualisminthetourism

industryaswellasutilisingtheWelshlanguageinitsownmarketingcommunications. This

paperconsiderssomeoftheimplicationsandpracticalitiesofthisprovision. Withreference

to various theoretical perspectives and in the light of the experience of other bilingual

destinations,theissuesandthemesexploredinclude:

Thenatureandgrowthofculturaltourism Linguisticfunctionanddomainsofuse Industryanddestinationmarketingperspectives Skillsneeds Consumerperceptions,demandandbarriers Accessibilityofculture Consumerisation,commodificationandauthenticity

RobertLewis

TourismResearch,WelshGovernment

Difference and Decorum: Addressing Dress in Published Travelogues Costume (as an aspect of manners and customs) was a feature that many eighteenth and

nineteenth-centuryvisitorstoWalesfeltduty-boundtocommentupon. Thedresshistorian

expects to find publishedtravelogues a mineof information, but instead they prove to be a

minefield, full of ‘false inferences and misstated facts’ (as Mary Morgan pointed out in her

account published in 1795). Recent writers have tended to steer clear of the subject of

clothingintheirdiscussionsofWelshtourism.InthispaperIwishtofocussquarelyonthe

issue of when, how and why dress is (or is not) mentioned in travelogues [c1780-1880].

Throughdefiningtermsandconceptsspecifictoclothingitishopedthatmodernreaderswill

gain deeper insights into the forms, functions and complex value systems that clothing

embodiedfortheoriginalwritersandreadersoftravelogues.Ideasofdecorum–relatingto

dressworninlife,andideasofliterarydecorum,relatingtowhenandwhydetailsofdressare

recordedintravelogues,areakeyaspectofthispaper.

Dress was often seen as a marker of difference – embodying distinctions in class and

gender, as well as national and regional identities. For many travellers what to wear - and

whatnottowear-wasasourceofanxiety.Asthenewbreedofpedestriantouristemerged,

whattocarry,andhowtocarryone’sself,becameasourceofinterestandamusementasnew

forms of clothing had to be adopted or adapted to suit the unforgiving Welsh climate and

terrain. Distinctions between dress and drapery, fashionable and folk dress, clothing and

‘costume’ will be discussed with a view to identifying avenues of further enquiry in this

expandingfieldofstudy.

JacquiAnsell

Christie'sEducation

11.00 DychwelydiLyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru/ReturntotheNational Library of

Wales

12.00 DRWM

Panel 7: Curious Travellers

Panel 7: Curious Travellers Cadair / Chair: Dafydd Johnston

‘[B]leak and desolate as anything I have seen in Scotland’: Mary Brunton on

the home tour Presenting some early findings from the ‘Curious Travellers’ research project, this paper

introduces Mary Brunton’s posthumously-published 1815 tour of England and Wales.

Brunton(1778-1818),anovelist,was fromtheOrkneyIslands,moving toEdinburghonher

marriagein1798.ShekeptthehorizonsofherScottishhomelandverymuchinviewasshe

travelled through England and Wales in 1815, using Scotland as a gauge against which to

measurethenewpeople,industries,andlandscapessheencounteredonhertour.Brunton’s

transperipheralperspectiveonthedomestictourisacentralfeatureofthistext,butit’salso

just one element of the 1815 tour’s layered and miscellaneous intellectual landscape. This

papersuggeststhatthreemajor,interconnectedthemesflowthroughthistext.First,thetour

is a space for empirical observation and the construction of knowledge (as for example in

Brunton’s descriptions of porcelain manufacturing in the Midlands). Second, it’s a space for

aesthetic, social, and political critique, often framed in comparative terms: the virtues of

Tintern Abbey versus Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire; the relative poverties of Welsh and

Englishcottagers;theparallelproperties,physicalandmoral,ofLlangollenandtheScottish

Highlands. Finally, it’s a record of the imagination on the move, creatively braiding

topographicalreportage,ethnographicandeconomicprofiling,scientificcuriosity,andmoral

or ideological reflection by means of a highly literary register perhaps not surprising given

Brunton’scareerasanovelist.

ElizabethEdwards

CentreforAdvancedWelshandCelticStudies

‘To find out all its beauties, a man must travel on foot’: Catherine Hutton’s

explorations of Wales CatherineHutton(1756-1846)wasaBirmingham-basednovelistandprolificletter-writer,a

friend (and fellow Unitarian) of Joseph Priestley, and the daughter of Birmingham’s ‘first

historian’, the bookseller William Hutton. She was also a keen traveller within the British

Isles, and recorded her tours in letters and narratives, some published in journals like the

Monthly Magazine,otherswovenintotheplotsofhernovels.Sheisasharpobserverofsocial

conditions, and a witty commentator on the foibles of those she encounters; the fact that

(unlike many coach-bound lady tourists of her time) she was often prepared to ride on

horseback or even walk gives her accounts considerable vigour. With her father, Catherine

Hutton visited Wales several times, first in 1787 and then in the period 1796-1800: the

respective accounts of their experiences (different genders, different generations) make

interestingcomparativereading,andformthebasisofthispaper.ButtheHuttons’responses

totheWelshlandscape,languageandpeople,willalsobesituatedbothintheveryparticular

touristrelationshipthatdevelopsinthisperiodbetweentheMidlandsandWales,aswellasin

the broader context of the domestic tour’s ‘rediscovery’ of the non-English-speaking

peripheries, and the implications this has for writing the history, or histories, of different

partsofBritain.

Mary-AnnConstantine

CentreforAdvancedWelshandCelticStudies

13.00 Casgliadau / Closing Remarks

Map Aberystwyth

LlyfrgellGenedlaetholCymru

NationalLibraryofWales

AmgueddfaCeredigion

CeredigionMuseum

Pier:Brasserie