'And this is yet Aneurin's land': The creation of Welsh identity in the Romantic era

This project investigates the ways in which Romantic era writers use historical materials in order to produce and/or manipulate specific cultural identities for the Welsh. Writers working to preserve the cultural identity of Wales utilized historical materials---legends, heroic figures, and the bardic voice, to manufacture a sense of continuity in which ancient cultural practices, far from having fallen into disuse and oblivion, are shown to be vital elements of contemporary culture. These writers draw upon the achievements of the past to secure claims of cultural validity, and contextualize their own work within the framework provided by the literary productions of their predecessors. In contrast, writers working outside of the Welsh cultural collective use Welsh materials to underscore a vision of a unified Britain wherein the specific cultural concerns of the Welsh are rendered unimportant because their history has been absorbed into that of the United Kingdom. Writers like Thomas Gray and Robert Southey negate claims of an ongoing Welsh heritage by casting cultural figures in roles foredoomed to destruction. By sentimentalizing ancient Welsh cultural production, the viability of contemporary claims is negated. The achievements of the Welsh are then transmuted into British accomplishments and used to further substantiate the current political regime. This practice attempts the erasure of Welsh cultural identity and attempts to enforce assimilation with the political nation. This project argues that while Wales was often envisioned in terms that treated its culture as a commodity that could be transferred to British possession, the writers of the Welsh cultural collective effectively resist this coercion and create a Welsh identity separate from the British identity the Welsh also share. These writers theorize a relationship to the Welsh past that renders any ruptures from that past unimportant, and makes it both possible and even desirable for the Welsh to once again define themselves in terms of a culturally specific Welsh identity.