The Nation, the Festival, and Institutionalized Memory: Transoptic Landscapes of the Welsh National Eisteddfod. Issue 2 (1st December 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rhodes, Mark Alan
• Is Part Of: GeoHumanities. Volume 7:Issue 2(2021)
• Page Start: 558
• Page End: 583
• Publication Date: 2021-12-01
• Subjects: festivals -- memory work -- national identity -- soundscape -- Wales -- 节日回忆作品民族身份声景威尔士 -- festivales -- Gales -- identidad nacional -- paisaje sonoro -- trabajo sobre la memoria; Arts and geography -- Periodicals; Human geography -- Periodicals; 304.2
• DOI: 10.1080/2373566X.2021.1903812
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2373-566X

Abstract

Abstract : Each year the National Eisteddfod alternates between north and south Wales in a festival that consistently redefines itself and what it means to be and perform Welshness. As a publicly funded and organized national institution, the National Eisteddfod's performances, competitions, and pavilions reflect aspects of Welsh memory and heritage through traditional poetry, dance, and music. Likewise, this space is central to the continuing evolution of Welsh memory and Welsh music. The work of memory, language, and music during the annual ten-day festival in 2018 experienced numerous structural changes from customary eisteddfodau. Through musicals, folk music, carnivals, and other performances, music and memory in Cardiff Bay intersected with transatlantic identities, protest, and the deindustrialized urban setting. Using interviews and a transoptic landscape analysis, this paper explores the musical, performative, and national landscapes of the 2017 and 2018 National Eisteddfodau to better understand these emerging postcolonial, post-industrial, performative, and pluralized memories in Wales.