Feeding the hunger of history: society and politics in Dylan Thomas's prose and dramatic works
This thesis argues for a much more considered and nuanced reading of Dylan Thomas’s political outlook than extant criticism has tended to present. It makes a case for the reading of Thomas’s socialism as intrinsic to his ethical vision, and explores this through close analytical attention to his prose and dramatic work. It proceeds by considering how those political views were formed and reformed, and contextualises them alongside and against the political expressions of his contemporaries, notably the ‘Auden Group’. Particular attention is paid to the socialist undertones of Thomas’s film scripts and radio plays of the 1930s and 1940s, his radio broadcasts and short stories, and the argument is framed within, and draws substantially on, existing criticism. Socialism is explored here in both the strong, ideological sense, and in a more understated concern with the practices and interdependencies of the small communities that Thomas places at the heart of his creative work. The thesis concludes that Thomas largely rejected the more theoretical party politics of the Left in favour of an emotionally-direct expression of his political beliefs that aligned more closely with his ‘poetic’ voice, and that this approach was arrived at through his work as a short story writer and scriptwriter for film and radio. It argues that Under Milk Wood is, consequently, the most developed example of this style, and proposes a reading of the play against the backdrop of post-war recovery and renewal, drawing on Thomas’s political and social views.
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