ALAN PETER FEAR A WALK THROUGH LLAREGGUB: A READING OF DYLAN THOMAS’S UNDER MILK WOOD PORTO ALEGRE 2012 2 UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM LETRAS ÁREA: ESTUDOS DE LITERATURA ESPECIALIDADE: LITERATURAS ESTRANGEIRAS MODERNAS LINHA DE PESQUISA: LITERATURA, IMAGINÁRIO E HISTÓRIA A WALK THROUGH LLAREGGUB: A READING OF DYLAN THOMAS’S UNDER MILK WOOD AUTOR: ALAN PETER FEAR ORIENTADORA: SANDRA SIRANGELO MAGGIO Dissertação de Mestrado em Literaturas Estrangeiras Modernas submetida ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul como requisito parcial para a obtenção do título de Mestre. PORTO ALEGRE Abril, 2012 3 FICHA CATALOGRÁFICA FEAR, Alan Peter A Walk through Llareggub: A Reading of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood Alan Peter Fear Porto Alegre: UFRGS, Instituto de Letras, 2012. 113p Dissertação (Mestrado - Programa de Pós-graduação em Letras) Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. 1. Literaturas de língua inglesa. 2. Literatura galesa. 3. Crítica literária. 5. Dylan Thomas 6. Under Milk Wood 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly I would like to thank the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and PPG Letras for accepting me on this course and giving me this wonderful opportunity to study these two years on my Master’s Degree. My special thanks to José Canísio Scher of PPG- Letras for kind attention, patience and help. My thanks also to CAPES for the invaluable financial support in the form of the study scholarship I have received which has allowed me to dedicate a great part of my time to the research. My thanks must also go to David Higham Associates of London, administrators of the Estate of Dylan Thomas, for giving me permission to reproduce excerpts from Under Milk Wood in the body of my text. To professors Rosalia Neumann Garcia and Rita Terezinha Schmitd, my appreciation and thanks for the captivating and enlightening classes. My special thanks to my supervisor Professor Sandra Maggio for the unrelenting optimism, energy and perpetual joyful mood; the delightful energetic literature classes and most of all the priceless advice, help, hints and guidance which has seen me through this long and challenging path. My kids Alice and Francisco deserve a mention for their patience and understanding during the weekends when I have been working hard and have not been able to give any attention to them. Finally my very special thanks, appreciation and love go to my partner Elisabete Longaray, whose love, support, patience and gentle urging has kept me going through the most difficult times of intellect blockage and without whom I would never have begun the whole process two years ago. 5 EPIGRAPH To be born in Wales, Not with a silver spoon in your mouth, But, with music in your blood And with poetry in your soul, Is a privilege indeed. from "In Passing", Brian Harris, 1967. 6 RESUMO A peça radiofônica Under Milk Wood, de Dylan Thomas, nos mostra cenas de um dia na vida dos habitantes da cidadezinha litorânea de Llareggub, no País de Gales. Como galês que sou, residente no Brasil há duas décadas, tenho percebido que apesar de este escritor ser bastante conhecido por aqui, sua obra não é muito estudada nos círculos acadêmicos. Após conduzir uma pesquisa rudimentar no formato de entrevistas feitas a professores e estudantes universitários, concluí que a recepção da obra de Dylan Thomas fica prejudicada devido às amplas diferenças culturais que existem entre o Brasil e o País de Gales. A experiência de uma oficina de leitura de Under Milk Wood mostrou que estudantes brasileiros de literaturas de língua inglesa podem responder muito bem ao texto a partir do momento em que começam a perceber o tom local e o estilo do cenário e das personagens, bem como as particularidades linguísticas. A resposta dos leitores, e a sua fruição da obra, crescem significativamente à medida em que percebem que dominam aspectos históricos e culturais ligados à peça, e também as referências geográficas que fazem a ponte entre o cenário ficcional do vilarejo e as cidadezinhas litorâneas similares do País de Gales da vida real, com os hábitos característicos dos moradores locais. Com base no acima exposto, o objetivo desta dissertação é se constituir um guia de leitura que seja útil para estudantes de literaturas de língua inglesa externos ao Reino Unido, como aqueles que encontrei no Brasil, bem como para tradutores potenciais da peça, ou mesmo para leitores em geral que queiram compreender e usufruir melhor aquilo que a peça Under Milk Wood tem a oferecer. Para melhor acompanhar os leitores neste passeio pela cidade de Llareggub, decidi estruturar o capítulo principal desta dissertação no formato de comentários críticos formados por notas e observações técnicas que visam esclarecer elementos culturais que impedem que o leitor desavisado decodifique certos aspectos da peça. O trabalho vem dividido em três seções. Na primeira são introduzidos os referenciais históricos e geográficos do País de Gales, apresentados a partir da leitura dos reconhecidos historiadores galeses John Davies e Geraint Jenkins. As informações sobre a literatura galesa produzida em língua inglesa se embasam predominantemente em Glyn Jones e Stephen Knight. A segunda seção analisa a estrutura da obra e a terceira apresenta o guia de anotações página a página. A sequência inicia com a apresentação do vilarejo de Llareggub e sua contrapartida nas cidades litorâneas do País de Gales. O guia página a página elucida aspectos culturais relacionados à narrativa, explica expressões coloquiais anglo-galesas e oferece possibilidades de interpretação para certas cenas e situações. Palavras-chave: 1 Dylan Thomas; 2 Under Milk Wood; 3 Literatura do País de Gales; 4 Cultura do País de Gales; 5 História do País de Gales. 7 ABSTRACT Dylan Thomas’s play for voices Under Milk Wood offers us a glimpse into a day in the lives of the inhabitants of the fictional small Welsh seaside town of Llareggub. Welsh readers identify immediately with the eccentricity of village life and the cultural richness of the characters and setting that embody the spirit of Wales. As a Welshman living in Brazil for the last twenty years I have noticed that, although Dylan Thomas is well known here, his work is rarely studied in academic circles. After conducting a rudimentary research consisting of interviews with professors and university students, I concluded that the work of Dylan Thomas is not easily grasped because of the vast cultural differences between Brazil and Wales. An experimental reading workshop of Under Milk Wood has shown that Brazilian English Literature students respond well to the work when they begin to understand the local tone and style of the setting and characters, including the linguistic peculiarities. Having a better knowledge of the cultural and historical aspects of the play, as well as geographical references for possible locations of the town and parallels with factual settings and habits of native townsfolk, can help readers to better understand and enjoy the work. The purpose of this thesis, therefore, is to function as a guide for non-English native students of English Literature, such as I have encountered in Brazil, for potential translators of the play, or even for readers in general who wish to reach a better understanding of Under Milk Wood and take more enjoyment from it. In order to accompany the student as a guide through the town of Llareggub I decided to build this thesis in the format of a set of annotated critical comments, consisting of a number of technical observations and notes that aim at elucidating the cultural elements that prevent the otherwise uninformed reader to make his way through the play. The thesis is divided into three sections. In the first part I refer to elements in the history and geography of Wales. As a support for this contextualization chapter I resort to the foremost historians of Wales, John Davies and Geraint Jenkins. For Welsh literature written in English, Glyn Jones and Stephen Knight have been the principal authors researched. The second section discusses the structure of the play with excerpts and a description of the town of Llareggub paralleled historically and geographically with factual seaside towns in Wales. The third section consists of a page by page guide, in the form of explanatory notes, of the play itself. This page by page guide elucidates the cultural aspects of Wales found in the narrative, explains Welsh-English colloquial language used and offers possible interpretations of scenes and situations. Key Words: 1 Dylan Thomas; 2 Under Milk Wood; 3 Welsh Literature, 4 Welsh Culture; 5 Welsh History. 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 9 1 WELSH LITERATURE WRITTEN IN ENGLISH 14 1.1 A Brief History of Wales 15 1.1.1 Social Unrest and Celtic Resistance 18 1.1.2 Welsh Literature Written in English 23 1.2 Dylan Thomas 28 1.2.1 The Road to Under Milk Wood 34 2 DYLAN THOMAS’S UNDER MILK WOOD 38 2.1 Form and Style: What’s it like? 39 2.2 Themes and Motifs: What’s it all about? 43 2.3 Geography of Llareggub: Where is it? 44 2.4 Characters: Who lives in Llareggub? 49 2.4.1 Principal Characters 49 2.4.2 Some Lesser Characters 53 3 UNDER MILK WOOD, PAGE BY PAGE 55 CONCLUSION 101 REFERENCES 106 APPENDICES 113 9 INTRODUCTION Over thirty years ago, when I was first introduced to Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood in English Literature class at Y Pant Comprehensive School South Wales – I was 14 years old – I never gave much thought to what it was to be Welsh. At the time I was ‘another brick in the wall’, so to speak, of the Welsh education system of the 1970s which followed the United Kingdom model of secondary education in the form of “Comprehensive Schools”, where some subjects were not obligatory and pupils were free to drop them or include them according to personal interest. Most subjects were obligatory of course and amongst these was English, taught not as a foreign language, but as grammar and literature. However, Modern Languages, which were German, French and Welsh, were optional subjects. The Welsh language in my school, and hundreds of other secondary schools throughout Wales, was taught as, and like, a foreign language, a double irony considering the original meanings of the origins of the words Welsh and Wales, which we shall see later. As a “foreign” language, my perception of it was that of another boring subject that had no use in my teenage reality, it was optional and therefore could be left out of my school subject timetable, a decision that I deeply regret many years later. As I began this current study I saw that, though in different circumstances, Dylan Thomas had also been subjected to the English education system, he had gone through an English language medium school, had been brought up in an English speaking region of Wales and spoke only English at home. The result of course was that, like myself and hundreds of thousands of Welsh people throughout history, he did not speak Welsh. Dylan Thomas was a great Welsh poet who did not speak the language of his homeland and wrote in English, how come? Why was there an English education system of schools in Wales? Why was it that our families and neighbours, in the South Wales valleys and towns spoke only English? Only when I left Wales at the age of 16 and began to mix with other youngsters of various parts of Britain did I begin to understand something of national identity. I was given 10 the nickname “Taff”, a common nickname for someone of Welsh origin, as is “Paddy” for Irish and “Jock” for Scottish. “Taff” is derived from Dafydd, a popular name found in Wales, the Welsh form of David. With the nickname came prejudiced sentiments, in the form of insults and verbal abuse, passed down through centuries since the medieval England–Wales wars which culminated in the subjugation and colonization of the latter, and here basically and briefly we find the answers to the above questions. This was something that was never taught to us in History at Y Pant but I have since learned through self-study and reading over the years and have been stirred into a deep interest in the study of Welsh history, culture and literature. The last has been unavailable for me as a direct object of study due to my inability to speak or read the Welsh language. I have of course been able to read English language literature, and, because of my interest in literature and things Welsh, I have been led to a literature which has emerged from Wales, due to those various questions of which we have already seen, written in the English language. Living amongst other natives of the British Isles, my sense of national identity was dormant within me, I knew I was Welsh but it was not necessary to tell people about who the Welsh were. However, since arriving in Brazil, being a foreigner, naturally I have been asked many times about my home country and many times I have been met with blank expressions when my answer is “Wales”, or I have been further pressed with questions such as “Is that in England?” and “Are you English then?”, which has led me to embark upon a personal campaign, aimed at my students or any curious unwitting victim at a bus stop or in a bar, to promote Wales as, if not a completely independent country, then at least having an independent culture with its own history, identity and language. As to Dylan Thomas and Under Milk Wood, many years ago I had the idea of translating the work into Portuguese, and I set about it as a part time hobby. I naively had it in mind that if Joyce’s Finnegans Wake can be translated into Portuguese, then surely Under Milk Wood would present little difficulty. I soon realized of course that I had neither the literary skills nor sufficient knowledge or experience of the Portuguese language for such an undertaking. An idea for an alternative study came to mind when I thought of my time as an undergraduate student of Language and Literature at a Brazilian university. During this time, I had observed that, amongst my colleagues and professors, little was known about Wales or literature from there. I then saw this as an opportunity to write about Dylan Thomas’s play in the form of explanatory notes for Brazilian students of English literature; literature professors who are not familiar with Wales or its literature; or for anyone who would be interested in