John Gwilym Jones

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Not to be confused with the poet and archdruid John Gwilym Jones [cy] (born 1936).

John Gwilym Jones
BornJohn William Jones
(1904-09-27)27 September 1904
Groeslon, Caernarvonshire
Died16 October 1988(1988-10-16) (aged 84)
Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor, Gwynedd
Resting placeLlandwrog, Gwynedd
OccupationDramatist, novelist, short-story writer, drama director, academic, critic
LanguageWelsh
NationalityWelsh
CitizenshipBritish
Alma materUniversity College of North Wales
Period1934–1979
Literary movementModernism
Notable worksY Goeden Eirin, Hanes Rhyw Gymro, Ac Eto Nid Myfi, Yr Adduned, Tri Diwrnod ac Angladd

John Gwilym Jones (27 September 1904 – 16 October 1988) was a Welsh dramatist, novelist, short-story writer, drama director, academic and critic, considered a pre-eminent figure in those fields.[1] In particular, he is widely acknowledged to be one of the two greatest 20th-century Welsh playwrights, along with Saunders Lewis;[2] of his many plays, Hanes Rhyw Gymro (1964), Ac Eto Nid Myfi (1976) and Yr Adduned (1979) are considered masterpieces.[3] Almost all of his work was written in the Welsh language.[4] A writer in the modernist tradition, he is credited with introducing Brechtian techniques, stream-of-consciousness narrative and Freudianism to Welsh literature. Creative writers such as Kate Roberts[5] and John Rowlands[6] owed him a profound debt, and a whole generation of critics were influenced by his work as a teacher of Welsh literature.[1]

Youth

Jones was born John William Jones on 27 September 1904 in the village of Groeslon, near Caernarfon in north Wales, the only child of Griffith Thomas Jones, a stonemason, and his wife Jane. He was to live in Groeslon for the greater part of his life. He was schooled in Penfforddelen (near Groeslon) and Penygroes,[1] and matriculated at University College of North Wales in 1922. There the scholar Ifor Williams persuaded him to change his middle name to Gwilym.[7]

Teacher and critic

In 1926 Jones moved to London to take up a teaching post, then returned to Wales to teach in Llandudno (1930–1944), Pwllheli (1944–1948) and Penygroes (1948–1949).[2] In 1953 he took up a post as lecturer, later reader, in the Welsh Department of his old college in Bangor, before finally retiring from academic life in 1971. Two years later the University of Wales awarded him an honorary D.Litt.[1] He was an eminent and influential critic, publishing studies on, among other subjects, Daniel Owen, William Williams Pantycelyn, and the arts of writing and criticism.[2]

Dramatist

While working in London in the 1920s Jones developed an interest in drama and became an avid

Puritan writer Morgan Llwyd.[10] Cilwg yn Ôl (1965) is a translation of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger,[11] one of many plays he rendered into Welsh.[1] Three one-act plays by Jones were published as Rhyfedd y'n Gwnaed in 1976, and in Jones's own English translation, One Wedding, Two Rooms, Three Friends, were successfully produced off-Broadway by the Manhattan Theatre Club.[12][2] Ac Eto Nid Myfi (1976) has been described as "a masterpiece of the modern Welsh theatre", containing "the quintessence of his philosophy and skill as a dramatist"; its theme is the necessity of every man to come to terms with his environment and culture, the factors which have created him.[13] His final play was Yr Adduned (1979).[2]

Jones was a keen observer of advances in the techniques of contemporary European theatre.[1] He was the first Welsh-language dramatist to entirely reject naturalistic staging and to use alienation techniques.[3] His plays display his understanding of the common people of his native Arfon, and of their ways of thinking and speaking.[14] His characters are generally intelligent, literate and self-aware.[1]

Novelist and short-story writer

Y Dewis (1942) was Jones's first published novel.[2] It was followed in 1946 by his acclaimed volume of short stories Y Goeden Eirin (translated in 2004 as The Plum Tree and Other Short Prose), which has been called "a milestone in the development of the Welsh short story" for its introduction of Freudianism and stream-of-consciousness narrative to Welsh literature.[15][16] His second novel, Tri Diwrnod ac Angladd (1979), is said to be the more impressive of the two. It deals with the complications of family life, and makes much use of symbolism.[17][1]

Published works

All are in Welsh unless otherwise stated.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thomas 2004.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Stephens 1986, p. 313.
  3. ^ a b Poplawski 2003, p. 442.
  4. ^ "John Gwilym Jones". University of Wales Press. 2020. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  5. ISBN 9781783168637
    . Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  6. ^ Stephens, Meic (17 May 2015). "John Rowlands: Author who eschewed popular taste in order to explore the human mind and his own inner life". The Independent. London. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  7. ^ Lewis 1994, p. 7.
  8. ISBN 9780708326626
    . Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  9. ^ Hughes, Llio (2019). Rhwng Gwrthryfel a Gwacter: Agweddau ar y Theatr Gymraeg, 1945–79 (PDF) (PhD) (in Welsh). p. 12. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  10. ^ Stephens 1986, p. 247.
  11. ^ Lewis 1994, p. 80.
  12. ^ "Manhattan Theatre Club records 1964-2004 [bulk 1970-1994]". The New York Public Library Archives & Manuscripts. New York Public Library. 2020. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  13. ^ Stephens 1986, pp. 4, 313.
  14. ISBN 9780521651325
    . Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  15. ^ Roberts, Dewi (n.d.). "Gwales Review". Gwales. Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru/Books Council of Wales. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
  16. ^ Stephens 1986, p. 217.
  17. ISBN 1851094407
    . Retrieved 8 December 2020.

Sources
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