The Nation, the Festival, and Institutionalized Memory: Transoptic Landscapes of the Welsh National Eisteddfod
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-2-2021
Department
Department of Social Sciences
Abstract
Each year the National Eisteddfod alternates between north and south Wales in a festival that consistently redefines itself and what it means to be and perform Welshness. As a publicly funded and organized national institution, the National Eisteddfod’s performances, competitions, and pavilions reflect aspects of Welsh memory and heritage through traditional poetry, dance, and music. Likewise, this space is central to the continuing evolution of Welsh memory and Welsh music. The work of memory, language, and music during the annual ten-day festival in 2018 experienced numerous structural changes from customary eisteddfodau. Through musicals, folk music, carnivals, and other performances, music and memory in Cardiff Bay intersected with transatlantic identities, protest, and the deindustrialized urban setting. Using interviews and a transoptic landscape analysis, this paper explores the musical, performative, and national landscapes of the 2017 and 2018 National Eisteddfodau to better understand these emerging postcolonial, post-industrial, performative, and pluralized memories in Wales.
Publication Title
Geohumanities
Recommended Citation
Rhodes, M.
(2021).
The Nation, the Festival, and Institutionalized Memory: Transoptic Landscapes of the Welsh National Eisteddfod.
Geohumanities,
7(2), 558-583.
http://doi.org/10.1080/2373566X.2021.1903812
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/16718