Conclusions

Abstract

If the advent of Welsh devolution in 1997 is a psychological and political threshold for Welsh language activists then it is significant that there have been no new incarcerated creative writers since then. In addition, of those imprisoned prior to 1997, only Emyr Humphreys and Dewi Prysor venture back across this rubicon in order to revisit the prison cell in their creative writing. Only in the case of Humphreys is this is an act of retrospection, but one which is most limited, unfortunately, by its severely truncated form. He only offers us a single, short story ‘The Arrest’ in Old People are a Problem (2003). Prysor is limited in other ways. His prison drama, ‘DW2416’ (2005), while staged, remains unpublished and hence untouched by any serious critical scrutiny. Nonetheless, they both form a part of an emerging literature of retrospection. In a way, the project of historical retrospection began with the publication of Gwilym Tudur’s 1989 work on the history of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg. While intended as a popular text, this is a most informative work by a fully involved insider, incorporating original material — photographs, newspaper cutting, reports of court cases — and post hoc snap shots or pen portraits by individuals who were key players in events at the time. The text also includes an overarching commentary upon significant moments in that history in chronological order, from 1962.

I have been studying how I may compare this prison, where I live, unto the world (Richard II. Act V. Scene V. 1–2). The very process of communication demands creative change to make the past convincing and intelligible. Like memory, history conflates, compresses, exaggerates; unique moments of the past stand out, uniformities and minutiae fade away (Lowenthal, 1985: 218). Eto mae yn yr iaith y grym i fod yn Ddrudwy Branwen yn nydd cyfyngder, i gadw’n ffenest yn dryloyw a’n ‘henfoes yn wahanfur’ rhag trais y torfol. (Llywelyn, 2012: 41) [The language still has the strength to be Branwen’s Starling in the day of crisis, to keep our window clear, and our ancient values as a pallisade against the violence of the masses].