Bibliography
Michaela
Jacques
Contributions to journals
Jacques, Michaela, “Syllable and diphthong classification in the medieval Welsh bardic grammars”, Language and History 63 (2020): 73–90.
abstract:
The medieval Welsh bardic grammars, known as ‘Gramadegau’r Penceirddiaid,’ include an extensive system of classification to describe syllable and diphthong types. While much of the rest of the linguistic description in the bardic grammars is heavily Latinate, this section is apparently innovative and oriented towards the demands of bardic composition. The syllables and diphthongs section is extensively revised over the course of its transmission, and either expanded or contracted depending on the aims and purposes of its editors. This article examines the two earliest revisions, found in Peniarth MS 20 (c.1330) and Bangor MS 1 (mid-fifteenth century) as evidence of the changing function of the grammars over the course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. A case is made for the increasing use of the grammars as practical pedagogical documents from the mid-fifteenth century.
abstract:
The medieval Welsh bardic grammars, known as ‘Gramadegau’r Penceirddiaid,’ include an extensive system of classification to describe syllable and diphthong types. While much of the rest of the linguistic description in the bardic grammars is heavily Latinate, this section is apparently innovative and oriented towards the demands of bardic composition. The syllables and diphthongs section is extensively revised over the course of its transmission, and either expanded or contracted depending on the aims and purposes of its editors. This article examines the two earliest revisions, found in Peniarth MS 20 (c.1330) and Bangor MS 1 (mid-fifteenth century) as evidence of the changing function of the grammars over the course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. A case is made for the increasing use of the grammars as practical pedagogical documents from the mid-fifteenth century.
Jacques, Michaela, “Sexual discourse and structural unity in Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd’s Gorhoffedd”, Studia Celtica 52 (2018): 113–122.
abstract:
The mid-twelfth century Welsh poem 'Gorhoffedd', attributed to Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd, has frequently been divided by modern critics into two distinct sections (or even two distinct poems), owing to a break in both metre and subject matter between its first and second halves. The first half treats the speaker's love of Gwynedd; the second, his love of women. Each portion tends to be alternately highlighted or ignored depending on the demands of a given critical enterprise. In this paper, it is argued that such a compartmentalized approach elides the complexity and deliberate ambiguity of of the poem as a whole, and gives insufficient weight to its manuscript context. Instead, a reading is offered in which the discourse of nature is both subordinated to and transformed into sexual discourse: elaborate descriptions of love for the natural features of Gwynedd are transposed onto the women in the second half. By moving beyond metre as the sole criterion for structural unity, it is possible to offer a productive reading of the entire work as a complete and intricate artistic production, rather than the semi-successful melding of two disparate texts.
abstract:
The mid-twelfth century Welsh poem 'Gorhoffedd', attributed to Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd, has frequently been divided by modern critics into two distinct sections (or even two distinct poems), owing to a break in both metre and subject matter between its first and second halves. The first half treats the speaker's love of Gwynedd; the second, his love of women. Each portion tends to be alternately highlighted or ignored depending on the demands of a given critical enterprise. In this paper, it is argued that such a compartmentalized approach elides the complexity and deliberate ambiguity of of the poem as a whole, and gives insufficient weight to its manuscript context. Instead, a reading is offered in which the discourse of nature is both subordinated to and transformed into sexual discourse: elaborate descriptions of love for the natural features of Gwynedd are transposed onto the women in the second half. By moving beyond metre as the sole criterion for structural unity, it is possible to offer a productive reading of the entire work as a complete and intricate artistic production, rather than the semi-successful melding of two disparate texts.
