Welsh Fiction in English: 1979, 1997, and After

This chapter focuses on Welsh fiction. Realism has dominated the Welsh novel, from the working-class novels of the 1930s onwards, and it remains an important, perhaps limiting form, although there has been a good deal of experimentation within this broad category. What is notable about the post-devolution wave of novels is the increasing number of fragmented or hybrid texts: novels which fuse fantasy and realism, fiction and autobiography, and novels which use place rather than plot to structure interlinked narratives. Fantastical narratives which could be described as magic realism are becoming more common and accomplished. Welsh myth in particular is reinvigorated and the palimpsest of Welsh topography is used to create narratives that unapologetically reimagine Wales as a place in which culture is generated rather than merely reflected or consumed.