‘
. . . now regarded as one of the most accomplished of Welsh prose-writers in
English.’ Western Mail‘
. . . now regarded as one of the most accomplished of Welsh prose-writers in
English.’ Western Mail
‘ . . . a valuable and thoughtful addition to the relatively slim corpus of writing about one of Wales’s most prolific and successful writers of fiction.’ Planet
‘This volume is the first substantial study of Davies's work, and is relevant to anyone interested in twentieth-century Welsh writing in English. Although essentially academic critiques, these essays succeed in revealing a number of the aspects of this multifaceted writer, many of whose issues remain relevant and controversial to the contemporary reader. (www.gwales.com)
‘ . . . this volume offers a rich variety of critical approaches to the work a writer of undeniable importance to Anglo-Welsh literature . . . an engaging and lively critical contribution to Welsh writing in English.’ New Welsh Review
Rhys Davies (1901–1978) dedicated his life entirely to writing and is now generally regarded as one of the most prolific and accomplished of Welsh prose-writers in English. In addition to writing over one hundred short stories, his many novels included The Withered Root (1927), The Black Venus (1944) and The Perishable Quality (1957).
While he has long been thought of as a master of the short story form, his novels are now considered to be among the finest written by a Welsh writer in English and a critical re-assessment of his career is long overdue. Decoding the Hare contains essays on the major aspects of Rhys Davies’s life and work, from the literary, social and national contexts within which he wrote, to issues of gender, sexuality and race.
Published to mark the centenary of Rhys Davies’s birth, Decoding the Hare is the first substantial study of his work and will be essential reading for all those interested in twentieth-century Welsh writing in English and in this complex and elusive writer in particular.
‘. . . Ni ellir mewn adolygiad byr wneud tegwch â’r doreth hon o ysgrifau, a mwy buddiol ydyw gofyn faint a gyfrannodd at fy nealltwriaeth innau o waith Rhys Davies. Fe’i chwyldrôdd, gan beri imi sylweddoli y bu cawr o lenor yn ein mysg, a minnau fel llawer un arall, heb sywli . . . Diolch i Meic Stephens am ei gymwynas yn golygu’r llyfr hwn mor raenus, a diolch iddo hefyd am ei ysgrif fywgraffyddol, sy’n dangos ei drylwyredd arferol, a’i ddawn fynegi glir a diwastraff.’ (Taliesin)
Meic Stephens is Professor of Writing in English at the University of Glamorgan and the Secretary of the Rhys Davies Trust. He has edited the work of Harri Webb, Glyn Jones and Rhys Davies, is the editor of The New Companion to the Literature of Wales and is also joint editor of the Writers of Wales series. Among the books he has translated are novels by Islwyn Ffowc Elis and Saunders Lewis and short stories and essays by contemporary Welsh writers.
Contents and contributors
Introduction MEIC STEPHENS
Rhys Davies and his ‘Turbulent Valley’ DAI SMITH
The Epic Rhondda: Romanticism and Realism in the Rhondda Trilogy MICHAEL J. DIXON
‘Not a Place for Me’: Rhys Davies’s Fiction and the Coal Industry STEPHEN KNIGHT
‘The Memory of Lost Countries’: Rhys Davies’s Wales TONY BROWN
Withered Roots: Ideas of Race in the Writings of Rhys Davies and D. H. Lawrence DANIEL WILLIAMS
Rhys Davies as Autobiographer: Hare or Houdini? BARBARA PRYS-WILLIAMS
‘One Rainy Sunday Afternoon’ D. A. CALLARD
‘I Wish I Had a Trumpet’: Rhys Davies and the Creative Impulse J. LAWRENCE MITCHELL
Eccentricity and Lawlessness in Rhys Davies’s Short Fiction LINDEN PEACH
Lawrentianisms: Rhys Davies and D. H. Lawrence JEFF WALLACE
‘Love . . . and the Need of it’: Three Novels by Rhys Davies JAMES A. DAVIES
The Masquerade of Gender in the Stories of Rhys Davies KATIE GRAMICH
Daughters of Darkness: Rhys Davies’s Revenge Tragedies JANE AARON
The Black Venus: Atavistic Sexualities KIRSTI BOHATA
‘Unspeakable Rites’: Writing the Unspeakable in Rhys Davies SIMON BAKER and JOANNA FURBER
‘Never Seek to Tell thy Love’: Rhys Davies’s Fiction M. WYNN THOMAS
Rhys Davies: A Bibliography MEIC STEPHENS
Index 287
Contributors
Jane Aaron is Professor of English at the University of Glamorgan.
Simon Baker was formerly a Lecturer in English at the University of Wales, Swansea.
Kirsti Bohata is a doctoral research student at the Centre for Research into the English Literature and Language of Wales, University of Wales, Swansea, and teaches part-time at the University of Glamorgan.
Tony Brown is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Wales, Bangor.
D. A. Callard is the biographer of Evelyn Scott, Anna Kavan and Rhys Davies.
James A. Davies was formerly Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Wales, Swansea.
Michael J. Dixon is a doctoral research student at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Joanna Furber is a doctoral research student at the Centre for Research into the English Literature and Language of Wales, University of Wales, Swansea.
Katie Gramich is Staff Tutor in Literature with the Open University in the south-west of England.
Stephen Knight is Professor of English Literature at Cardiff University.
J. Lawrence Mitchell is Professor of English at the College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University, USA.
Linden Peach is Professor of Modern Literature at Loughborough University.
Barbara Prys-Williams is a doctoral research student at the Centre for Research into the English Literature and Language of Wales, University of Wales, Swansea.
Dai Smith is Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glamorgan and Chairman of the Rhys Davies Trust.
Meic Stephens is Professor of Welsh Writing in English at the University of Glamorgan and Secretary of the Rhys Davies Trust.
M. Wynn Thomas is Professor of English and Director of the Centre for Research into the English Literature and Language of Wales, University of Wales, Swansea.
Jeff Wallace is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Glamorgan.
Daniel Williams is a Lecturer in English at the University of Wales, Swansea.