| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,300,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
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| Research Abstract |
We collected from the archives of the Welsh National Library materials such as texts, pictures, maps published in the 19^<th> century related to Welsh national and topographical images ; poetry and speeches produced at eisteddfodaw ; and illustrated news concerning Wales from English graphic media. We also made photographical reoord of popular Welsh tours by actually eloring these routes.
The following are the consideration gained through our research :
1.During the second half of the 18^<th> century, some of the educated English sought the cultural origin of the newly united Britain in the "ancient Britons", and led the British Revival, which actually meant to revitalize Welsh traditional cultures. Not only the English literati, but also the London Welsh and the upper & middle class Welsh resided in Wales were involved in this movement. It led to the discovery of mountainous Welsh scenery as the icon of the prototype of British landscapes, which invited the boom of Welsh tours at the en
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d of the 18^<th> century. The eisteddfod was also reestablished to organize modern bardic competitions in Wales. The image of Welshness at this period designated "the glorious and mysterious past" of Britain, represented by druids, bards, and sublime or picturesque Welsh scenery.
2.The 19^<th> century however, saw the development of traffic infrastructure such as the establishment of the railroad network through Britain, as a result of which Wales became an easily accessible destination for mass tourism. At the same time the industrial Victorian England started to send her nostalgic gaze towards the pre-industirialised traditional community Under these circumstances, the familialised Wales attracted English tourists who found there the arcadia where the innocent folk lived peacefully.
3.At the middle of the 19^<th> century, the notorious Blue Book was published. It was a report made by English governmental inspectors who condemned that Wales was a not only underdeveloped, but a morally, educationally and culturally degraded country due to the use of the Welsh language. The book provoked the nationalism on the part of the Welsh and they tried to construct the image of the Welsh folk who were born in mountainsides, but self-educated and much cultured enough to compose traditional bardic poems, and had a highly developed sense of moral and polite behaviours. This self-image of the "respectable Welsh folk" was represented through poems and male-choirs by the working-class, which were performed at national eisteddfodau in the late 19^<th> century in order to publicise that the Welsh are as good as the English neighbours, and are able to contribute to the progress of the Britain as her faithful citizens. Less
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