Huw Osborne - Queer Wales: The History, Culture and Politics of Queer Life in Wales

QUEER WALES

Gender Studies in Wales
Astudiaethau Rhywedd yng Nghymru

Series Editors
Jane Aaron, University of South Wales
Breched Piette, Bangor University
Sian Rhiannon Williams, Cardiff Metropolitan University

Series Advisory Board
Deirdre Beddoe, Emeritus Professor
Mihangel Morgan, Aberystwyth University
Teresa Rees, Cardiff University

The aim of this series is to fill a current gap in knowledge. As a number of historians, sociologists and literary critics have for some time been pointing out, there is a dearth of published research on the characteristics and effects of gender difference in Wales, both as it affected lives in the past and as it continues to shape present-day experience. Socially constructed concepts of masculine and feminine difference influence every aspect of individuals lives; experiences in employment, in education, in culture and politics, as well as in personal relationships, are all shaped by them. Ethnic identities are also gendered; a countrys history affects its concepts of gender difference so that what is seen as appropriately masculine or feminine varies within different cultures. What is needed in the Welsh context is more detailed research on the ways in which gender difference has operated and continues to operate within Welsh societies. Accordingly, this interdisciplinary and bilingual series of volumes on Gender Studies in Wales, authored by academics who are leaders in their particular fields of study, is designed to explore the diverse aspects of male and female identities in Wales, past and present. The series is bilingual, in the sense that some of its intended volumes will be in Welsh and some in English.

Also in series

Dawn Mannay, Our Changing Land: Revisiting Gender, Class and Identity in Contemporary Wales

Alice Entwistle, Poetry, Geography, Gender: Women Rewriting Contemporary Wales

Kirsti Bohata and Katie Gramich, Rediscovering Margiad Evans: Marginality, Gender and Illness

Angela V. John, Our Mothers Land: Chapters in Welsh Womens History, 18301939

For all titles in the Gender Studies in Wales series please visit www.uwp.co.uk

QUEER WALES

The History, Culture and Politics of Queer Life in Wales

Edited by

Huw Osborne

CARDIFF
UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS
2016

The Contributors, 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff, CF10 4UP.

www.uwp.co.uk

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN (pb) 978-1-7831-6863-7
e-ISBN 978-1-7831-6865-1

The right of the Contributors to be identified as authors of their contributions has been asserted by them in accordance with 77, 78 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The University of Wales Press acknowledges the financial support of the Welsh Books Council.

Cover image: Iantos Shrine, Cardiff Bay
Innovation Works UK Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo.

For Cory
In loving memory

This project began several years ago, so there are many people who have contributed in small and major ways. I am indebted to colleagues who provided guidance and sensitive editorial advice on certain aspects of the book. Thanks to my colleagues in the Department of English at the Royal Military College of Canada, especially Drs Helen Luu, Laura Robinson and Chantel Lavoie. Katie Gramich was very supportive in the early stages, and directed me to many people who might be interested in contributing. I am especially grateful to Jane Aaron for her kind and consistent encouragement throughout these several years of the books development. Jane nudged me back on track more than once and was always available with advice and guidance. There are many others (too many to list) at conferences and pubs (often both) who have shared ideas, sources and criticisms; thanks to everyone who so generously discussed this project with me. In fact, a great deal of this book emerged from panels at various conferences, especially the conferences of the North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History and the conference of the Association for Welsh Writing in English, so I am grateful to all of my colleagues who participated in these panels and who gave such constructive feedback. Sarah Lewis at the University of Wales Press merits a very special thank you. Her support and guidance throughout this process have been invaluable. She has been remarkably patient with me through several delays, and her generous assistance was considerable at all stages, from proposal to publication. The research and travel required for this book was made possible in part through the financial support of the Royal Military College of Canadas Academic Research Program. Lastly, I must also thank the contributors to this collection from whom I have learned so much. I think one edits a collection of essays when one cant find the book one would like to read, and I am pleased to say that I have that book now, and I am honoured to be part of it.

Illustrations

Figures

Jane Aaron is Emeritus Professor at the University of South Wales. She is the author of A Double Singleness: Gender and the Writings of Charles and Mary Lamb (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991) and a Welsh-language book on nineteenth-century womens writing in Wales, Pur fel y Dur: Y Gymraes yn Lln y Bedwaredd Ganrif ar Bymtheg (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1998). She also co-edited the volumes Out of the Margins: Womens Studies in the Nineties (London: Falmer Press, 1991), Our Sisters Land: The Changing Identities of Women in Wales (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1994), Postcolonial Wales (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2005), and edited a number of volumes for the Honno classics series, including an anthology of Welsh womens short stories, A View across the Valley: Short Stories from Women in Wales 18501950 (Dinas Powys: Honno Press, 1999). Her latest books include Nineteenth-century Womens Writing in Wales: Nation, Gender and Identity (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2007), the first in the Gender Studies in Wales series, and Gendering Border Studies (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2010), co-edited with Henrice Altink and Chris Weedon.

Kirsti Bohata is Associate Professor and Director of CREW (the Centre for Research into the English Literature and Language of Wales) at Swansea University. She is the author of Postcolonialism Revisited: Writing Wales in English (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2004). Her most recent books are the co-edited volume of essays, Rediscovering Margiad Evans: Marginality, Gender and Illness (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2013) and a new edition of Jill by Amy Dillwyn (Dinas Powys: Honno Press, 2013). She is currently completing a monograph on same-sex desire and social disorder in the fiction of Amy Dillwyn and co-authoring an interdisciplinary book on Disability and Industrial Society, 18801948, arising from a five-year project funded by a Wellcome Trust Programme Award.