Braids of Song Gwead y Gân

The desire to recognise the richness, humanity, and cross fertilisation of cultures and identities that built today’s America is the starting point for Braids of Song. Its overarching concerns trace the interrelation between immigration, identity and creativity within a Welsh Trans-Atlantic context. Braids of Song is a mixed-genre collection of stories that acknowledges the preciousness of culture; in particular, the music, which is both able to cross different linguistic boundaries and to breach those between melody and language itself. The stories are shared through four intertwined narrative strands in a mixture of literary styles, ranging from creative non-fiction essays and poems to dramatic monologues. The bequest of a handwritten opera manuscript begins the journey, and three musicians from the past each speak in dramatic monologue: Dr Joseph Parry, Dr Daniel Protheroe, and Marie Novello. The fourth narrative is my own in ysgrif (essay/composition): a medley of reflections and observations in a Welsh-American context. The collection is linked by poems, both found and original, carrying one story to the next and uniting the mixed-genre collection of Braids of Song. The critical commentary debate takes the form of an exploration that may be called, ‘Braided Identities’: identities woven from inherited ‘songs’ that have crossed the Atlantic to America and back again to Wales. The commentary, itself a story, attempts to articulate, analyse and reveal how creative components are enhanced by their cultural and geographical contexts.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Morgan, Mari

• PR Llenyddiaeth Saesneg

Dc Identifier Grantnumber

UWTSD

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.uwtsd.ac.uk:1187