The Country and the City:

Rural and Urban Wales

Gregynog Hall, Nr Newtown, Powys

27-29 March 2015

A country of geographical, social and cultural contrasts, Wales encompasses a wide variety of different rural and urban landscapes. From urban Cardiff and the industrial/post-industrial mining valleys of the south through the ‘green desert’ of mid-Wales to the mountains of the north, these contrasting areas are depicted in many and various ways in the literatures of Wales.

 

As Raymond Williams famously noted, ‘country’ and ‘city’ are ‘very powerful words’ which gather and evoke the political, cultural and emotional importance of space and place, not least in relation to notions of the nation and the national.

 

The conference invites contributions on any topic relating to Welsh writing in English and the country and the city, the rural and the urban. Contributions are encouraged from across disciplines, historical periods, and methodological approaches. Topics might include, but are by no means limited to:

 

 

Abstracts of 250 words for twenty-minute papers should be submitted to [log in to unmask]  by Friday 9 January 2015. Proposals for panels of three twenty-minute papers are also welcomed. Applicants will be informed by 26 January.

 

Organisers: Dr Aidan Byrne (University of Wolverhampton) and Professor Diana Wallace (University of South Wales).