School of Welsh About the School The survival of Welsh in the modern era – both as a living language and a dynamic literary medium – is a truly remarkable story. As Wales gradually evolves into a vibrant bilingual nation, there has never been a more exciting time to study the language and its literature at postgraduate level. Bangor University is located in an area where 69% of the population is able to speak Welsh. No other university offers such a unique linguistic environment to study a living Celtic language and its literature. Bangor University’s contribution to the growth of modern Welsh scholarship and learning has been immense. It was here that John Morris-Jones compiled his monumental Welsh Grammar (1913), which forms the basis of the modern literary language. Between the 1930s and 1960s, it was at Bangor that Ifor Williams produced the first modern scholarly editions of the earliest Welsh poetry. Bangor also had an instrumental role in the production of three of the outstanding reference works of contemporary Wales, The Welsh Academy English-Welsh Dictionary (1995), Dictionary of the Place-Names of Wales (2007), and the Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales (2008). At present, the School of Welsh has expertise in all of the major fields of Welsh literature, and among its staff are some of contemporary Wales’s leading writers and creative practitioners. Staff and facilities Our staff are leading international experts in their respective fields of study. Their publications encompass both the medieval period and the literature of Wales in more recent times. The School has expertise in all of the major fields of Welsh literature, and among our staff are some of contemporary Wales’s leading writers and creative practitioners. Students can take advantage of the excellent IT Services on offer at the University together with an extensive collection of books and journals in our Library and Archives Service. Many of the journals are available online in full-text format and we also have databases, videos and CDs; micro material; a wonderful manuscript collection and a web-based catalogue to access e-books, e-journals, past exam papers, subject guides and other learning resources.
Overview of the academic areas covered within the School If you have experience of studying literature or comparative literature at undergraduate level, we would be interested in hearing from you. Wales has an unbroken literary tradition which extends back to such medieval highlights as the tales of the Mabinogion (which include the Welsh Arthurian legends), the heroic poetry of the Book of Aneirin and the love and nature poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym. During the twentieth century, writers such as T. Gwynn Jones, Saunders Lewis, Kate Roberts and T.H. Parry-Williams gave a dynamic new direction to the literature of Wales. You may also have an interest in the social history of minority languages and the manner of their survival in the modern world. How did Welsh survive the industrial revolution? What was the fate of the Welsh diaspora in north America? What is the connection between Welsh and the growth of nationalism in modern Wales? If you are intrigued by such questions, a postgraduate course at the School of Welsh at Bangor is for you! The great merit of our MA course is its flexibility and the fact that it allows a free choice of topics within the broad parameters of the discipline. If, for example, you are primarily interested in medieval literature, your course will be structured accordingly. If, on the other hand, you wish to undertake a study of modern Welsh literature, or, if you wish to pursue the social history of Welsh, our MA course will be able to accommodate your academic interests. Research for the degree of MPhil or PhD may be conducted in the main fields of Welsh literature from the medieval period to the present, e.g. early court poetry, Welsh saga poetry, the tales of the Mabinogion, Dafydd ap Gwilym, the poets of the Welsh gentry, literature and society 1500-1900, the Welsh diaspora and Welsh culture of north America, the modern Welsh novel, modern Welsh poetry, the modern Welsh theatre. For those students who have no knowledge of Welsh prior to enrolment, the School works in close partnership with the University’s Welsh for Adults Unit, which has a host of courses and opportunities for students wishing to learn the language. Your language tuition needs will be assessed as part of the application process. Before embarking on your postgraduate course, you may well decide to take advantage of the Welsh for Adults Unit’s intensive three-week summer school for beginners.
COURSE LIST: MA/Diploma • Cymraeg/Welsh • The Celts PhD/MPhil • Astudiaethau Celtaidd/Celtic Studies • Cymraeg/Welsh Please note: the courses above are Welshmedium courses. For those who have no knowledge of Welsh prior to enrolment, the School works closely with the University’s Welsh for Adults Unit. Your language tuition needs will be assessed as part of the application process.
TO FIND OUT MORE: Tel: +44 (0) 1248 382240 E-mail: cymraeg@bangor.ac.uk www.bangor.ac.uk/ysgolygymraeg
DID YOU KNOW... Novels written by two lecturers in the School of Welsh were selected for the long list of the Wales Book of the Year 2011 competition.
Gwenddydd, by Dr Jerry Hunter tells the harrowing story of a soldier’s relationship with his sister, who is a nurse, and the horror of their experiences during the Second World War. “With war still plaguing our world, we often hear about the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on the lives of soldiers and former soldiers,” says Dr Hunter. “I wanted to highlight the perennial aspect of that story by setting it in a recent – or more recent – time.” Caersaint, which went on to win one of the four runner-up prizes, is a popular humorous novel by Dr Angharad Price. Her love for the town of Caernarfon was the inspiration behind the novel which follows the ups and downs of the main character, Jaman Jones. “When students come to Bangor to study Welsh they have the opportunity to be taught by some of Wales' leading writers,” says Professor Peredur Lynch, Head of the School of Welsh. “These latest novels by Angharad Price and Jerry Hunter are indicative of the extraordinary creative energy that we currently have in the School of Welsh. Their success also demonstrates that Bangor is at the forefront of contemporary literature.”
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