A Study On Welshness In Welsh Melodies

Felicia Hemans is a great Welsh poet living at the turn of the Victorian Period and Romantic Period.As one masterpiece of Felicia Hemans,Welsh Melodies embodies her deep love for Wales through the vivid and detailed depiction of Welsh exclusive culture.However,literature reviews on the song collection at home and abroad indicate that the scholars pay attention to female subjectivity and sentimental tone.Even though Welshness is one of the important themes of Welsh Melodies,scholars rarely touched the theme in this song collection.Based on above understanding,taking Raymond Williams' s cultural materialism as theoretical foundation,this thesis explores the particular expression forms of Welshness in both material and spiritual levels as well as the formative causes of Welshness presented in the song collection to reveal Felicia Hemans' s political stance.Specifically,this thesis firstly analyzes Welshness presented in the song collection from three dimensions of Welsh ancestry,Welsh language and regional allegiance.The thesis concentrates on above expression forms of Welshness to explore Felicia Hemans' s construction of Welshness in material level by analyzing the influence of her life experience,Britain Industrial Revolution and European Nationalist Movement on Welsh society and her thoughts.Subsequently,this thesis analyzes Welshness shown in Welsh Melodies from three aspects of Druidism,musical function and desire for freedom.And according to the expression forms,the construction of spiritual Welshness is analyzed by exploring the influence of Felicia Hemans' s life experience,the French Revolution and the Peninsular War on the social condition and the public mind.The research shows that Felicia Hemans is a Welsh nationalist.In summary,this thesis explores the representation of Welshness in Welsh Melodies so as to appropriately comprehend Felicia Hemans' s understanding of Welshness under the influence of her own life experience and social context.It is expected to deepen the study of Welsh Melodies and offer a new way to interpret Felicia Hemans' s works and creative thoughts.Meanwhile,through adopting cultural materialism to interpret Welshness inWelsh Melodies,this thesis is expected to make certain contribution to the application of the theory in the literature study.