Lacklustre Literature

I read both Welsh and English novels, and have noticed in the last couple of years a worrying discrepancy between what is published in both languages. Welsh language authors seem to be stuck in the past, and don’t seem to want to deal with the problems of the world in which we live. This might seem rather unfair, but in reality there has only been one Welsh novel that has grappled with the post September 11th world: Yr Anweledig by Llion Iwan.

Yr Anweledig (The Invisible) shows us the effect that war has on the lives of various characters, including an American soldier and a shepherd in the Hindu Kush Mountains. Although it does not deal directly with the way in which Britain has been affected, it does deal successfully with the way in which people’s lives have changed so dramatically since the attacks on the Twin Towers, and the way the world itself has changed. Yr Anweledig describes graphically the suffering, violence, and heart-break which war brings into the lives of ordinary people across the globe and the reader is filled with guilt, for these acts are done in our name. Unfortunately Yr Anweledig did not win the Prose Medal in the National Eisteddfod; rather the prize went to O Ran, yet another backward-looking Welsh novel, dealing with childhood.

Frank McCourt stated that “worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.” This could be easily paraphrased for Wales, just replace Irish with Welsh, and Catholic with Methodist. The obsession with childhood memoirs does not show merely a lack of creativity and innovation amongst Welsh authors, but more importantly is a symbol of our cultural obsession with looking back, and our inability to shake off the shackles of the past. It is imperative that we become forward-looking, that our culture celebrates our future, and plays a part in shaping that future rather than merely wallowing in personal or collective trials and tragedies.

But the trouble with the Welsh literary market is not merely that we are constantly bombarded with childhood memoirs (although this is certain true), rather the problem is that the books published are too introverted. The vast majority of books deal with the trials of the lives of the Welsh middle classes, and it is here that the problems lie; it is not merely a matter of not dealing with the problems of the world, but also a matter of not dealing with the problems of working class Welsh speakers. There has been very little, if any literature written about the recession and its effects on Wales, even though some areas of the traditional Welsh-speaking heartlands such as Anglesey have been hit hard by job losses. The reason for this is that Welsh authors tend to write only about their own narrow periphery, the problems that they experience, the traumas and crises of the well-off, well-dressed Welsh middle class.

It is about time that Welsh authors looked out of their ivory tours and realised that the country is changing, and has changed, and their work must reflect these changes, if it not to become obsolete. This is not to claim that Welsh authors should not write about Welsh-language Wales, because if they do not do so, nobody will. However Welsh literature should be more inclusive and more relevant, it should not be written by the a middle class clique, for a middle class clique, and reviewed and judged by members of that very same clique. Rather literature should speak to all of Wales, regardless of class, education or wealth, after all the language belongs to all.

As regards the matter of Welsh literature’s inability to write about the world and Wales’s place in the world, I believe that this is a symptom of our lack of self-belief and self-confidence. We must develop the belief that Wales has a role to play in the world, and a confidence that our voice should be heard along those of other nations. After all we are not a ghetto untouched and unaffected by the world’s problems, the world’s issues are our issues.