Full Description
In the words of Cornel West, Raymond Williams was 'the last of the great European male revolutionary socialist intellectuals'. A figure of international importance in the fields of cultural criticism and social theory, Williams was also preoccupied throughout his life with the meaning and significance of his Welsh identity. Who Speaks for Wales? was the first collection of Raymond Williams's writings on Welsh culture, literature, history and politics. Published in 2003, it appeared in the early years of Welsh political devolution and offered a historical and theoretical basis for thinking across the divisions of nationalism and socialism in Welsh thought. This edition, appearing in the centenary of Williams's birth, appears at a very different moment in which - after the Brexit referendum of 2016 - Raymond Williams's 'Welsh-European' vision seems to have been soundly rejected and is now a reminder of what might have been. This new edition includes material that was not included in the first edition, with a new afterword in which the editor argues that Williams continues to speak to our moment. Daniel G. Williams's new edition further underlines the ways in which Raymond Williams's engagement with Welsh issues makes a significant contribution to contemporary international debates on nationalism, class and ethnicity. Who Speaks for Wales? remains essential reading for everyone interested in questions of nationhood and identity in Britain and beyond.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements Introduction: The Return of the Native
CULTURE
1. Who Speaks for Wales? 2. Welsh Culture 3. The Arts in Wales 4. Wales and England 5. Community 6. West of Offa's Dyke
HISTORY
1. The Social Significance of 1926
2. Boyhood
3. On Gwyn A. Williams: Three Reviews
The Black Domain
Putting the Welsh in their Place The Shadow of the Dragon
4. Remaking Welsh History
5. For Britain, see Wales
6. Black Mountains
LITERATURE
1. Dylan Thomas's Play for Voices
2. Marxism, Poetry, Wales
3. The Welsh Industrial Novel
4. The Welsh Trilogy and The Volunteers
5. Freedom and a Lack of Confidence
6. The Tenses of Imagination
7. Region and Class in the Novel
8. Working-Class, Proletarian, Socialist: Problems in Some Welsh Novels
9. A Welsh Companion
10. All Things Betray Thee
11. People of the Black Mountains
POLITICS
1. The Importance of Community
2. Are We Becoming More Divided?
3. The Culture of Nations
4. Decentralism and the Politics of Place
5. The Practice of Possibility
Afterword to the Centenary Edition
Index
