Across the Ditch and into the Jungle

Until quite recently, there were two separate ‘Welsh literatures’ – one in Welsh, the other in English. The former, inevitably, was addressed to a small and diminishing readership; the second, known as ‘Anglo-Welsh’, spawned global giants such as the poets Dylan Thomas and R. S. Thomas. Both strands claimed to represent Wales and Welsh culture; but there was little contact between the two. Since devolution, however, things seem to have changed. A new generation of young bilingual writers, in the south as well as the traditional Welsh heartland of the north, has appeared, the fruits of a bilingual education policy which began in the 1980s, and which has been reinforced since the establishment of the Welsh Assembly in 1999. Many of them feel they do not have to limit themselves to one language, but increasingly are crossing the language divide, rewriting their work in English. But in the rewriting, things happen, the details change, the stories grow in the telling. The result is, at the same time, an affirmation of bilingualism and the appearance of some of the most vibrant literature in English being published in the UK today. The ‘ditch’ in the title is Offa’s Dyke, which was built in the 8th century to keep the Welsh out of England; the ‘jungle’ is the global lingua franca of English, the creative resources and potential of which seem to be as great as they ever were in the days when literature in English meant only ‘English’ literature.