It's a ghost: The uncanny in rural Welsh identity

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The AHRC-funded project led by Sally Mackey at the Central School of Speech and Drama, `Challenging Concepts of “Liquid“ Place through Performing Practices in Community Contexts', involves performative responses to an interrogation of place, identity and dislocation. The author is one of the co-investigators working on this enquiry. Cyrff Ystwyth has produced work by the learning-disabled choreographer Adrian Jones over several years. Jones's work is a persistent assertion of identity shaped by rural agricultural life. This article is a response to material emerging through the devising process which forms a part of this three-year research project. Adrian Jones's new work, `Capel: The Lights are On', is concerned with imagery of home and family. In rehearsal a new theme emerged; Jones announced the presence of a ghost. The article considers how this sudden announcement resonates with Welsh identity. The author proposes that the work is a personal, emotionally charged response to identity that is grounded in material experiences of life in rural Wales. Jones's interest in the haunted coincides with a particular construct of Welshness that is inscribed with a mixture of history, myth and religion.
Original languageEnglish
Article number2
Pages (from-to)29-38
Number of pages10
JournalStudies in Theatre and Performance
Volume33
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2013

Keywords

  • rural Wales
  • place
  • uncanny
  • identity
  • emotion
  • Cyrff Ystwyth

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