Artists in Dylan Thomas's Prose Works: Adam Naming and Aesop Fabling

209 Pages·1995·10.68 MB·English

by  Ann Elizabeth Mayer

Artists in Dylan Thomas's Prose Works
Adam Naming and Aesop Fabling
Artists in Dylan Thomas's Prose Works is an exploration of the
rich but relatively neglected prose works of Dylan Thomas. Ann
Mayer examines the changing conceptions of language and the
creation of meaning evident in Thomas's numerous self-referen-
tial acts of writing and telling.
Through an analysis of the artist figures in Thomas's early ex-
perimental prose, Portrait of the Artist as a 'Young Dog, Adven-
tures in the Skin Trade, and Under Milk Wood, Mayer shows
how Thomas continually explored and reevaluated his vocation,
the nature of his chosen medium, and the world itself. She links
Thomas's prose works to his poetry through the blending of lyric
and narrative strategies and examines Thomas's self-conscious
concerns for his relationship to his modernist contemporaries.
Mayer goes beyond the traditionally New Critical approaches
that dominate Thomas scholarship, using contemporary critical
theory to offer new insights into the complexity and ambiguity
of a major twentieth-century writer.
ANN ELIZABETH MAYER is assistant professor of English, Uni-
versity of Western Ontario.
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Artists in Dylan
Thomas's Prose Works
Adam Naming and
Aesop Fabling
ANN ELIZABETH MAYER
McGill-Queen's University Press
Montreal & Kingston • London • Buffalo
© McGill-Queen's University Press 1995
ISBN o-7735-13o6-x
Legal deposit third quarter 1995
Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian
Federation for the Humanities, using funds provided by the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
McGill-Queen's University Press is grateful to the Canada Council for
support of its publishing program.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Mayer, Ann Elizabeth, 1960-
Artists in Dylan Thomas's prose works: Adam naming and Aesop fabling
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN o-7735-13o6-x
1. Thomas, Dylan, 1914-1953 -Prose, 2. Thomas, Dylan, 1914-1953 -
Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.
PR6039.H52Z77 1995 828'. o8 C95-900479-3
912
This book was typeset by Typo Litho Composition Inc.
in 11/13.5 Sabon.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
List of Abbreviations ix
Introduction 3
1. The Written World 13
2. Solipsistic Adam 54
3 Portraits of the Artist 8 5
4 Under Milk Wood 136
Notes 171
Bibliography 181
Index 189
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Acknowledgments
I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Don McKay,
whose guidance and inspiration during the preparation of the
book and afterwards have been invaluable. I am also grateful to
Stan Dragland and Patrick Deane for their continued advice and
support. Thanks also go to Sheila Rabillard, Don Gutteridge,
and Tom Dilworth for their comments and suggestions, and to
Marnie Parsons, David Bentley, and Sheila Deane for their valu-
able advice. As well, I am indebted to Walford Davies of the Uni-
versity College of Wales, Aberystwyth, John Ackerman, Ralph
Maud, and the entire class of the inaugural year of the Dylan
Thomas School, Summer 1988, for stimulating discussions and
memorable visits to Thomas's haunts.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd.,
New Directions Publishing Corporation, and the Trustees for the
Copyrights of late Dylan Thomas for permission to quote from
the works of Thomas: Collected Poems 1934-1953 (i993), ed-
ited by Walford Davies and Ralph Maud; Dylan Thomas: The
Collected Stories (1986); The Collected Letters of Dylan Tho-
mas, edited by Paul Ferris (1987); Under Milk Wood (1954).
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Abbreviations
CL Collected Letters
CP Collected Poems
cs Collected Stories
QEOM "Quite Early One Morning"
UMW Under Milk Wood