Textual Transformations: Iain Sinclair’s Black Apples of Gower and the Merlin Legend

Aleksander Bednarski

doi:10.18276/rk.2022.13-13

ISSN: 2081-8718 eISSN: 2353-2831 OAI DOI: 10.18276/rk.2022.13-13

Lista wydań / 13 (2022)
Textual Transformations: Iain Sinclair’s Black Apples of Gower and the Merlin Legend

Autorzy:	Aleksander Bednarski Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II
Słowa kluczowe:	Iain Sinclair Black Apples of Gower Myrddin Merlin literatura walijska
Data publikacji całości:	2022
Liczba stron:	21 (249-269)
Cited-by (Crossref) ?:

Informacje dodatkowe

Cytowanie: Bednarski, Aleksander. “Textual Transformations: Iain Sinclair’s Black Apples of Gower and the MerlinLegend”. Rocznik Komparatystyczny 13 (2022): 249–269. DOI: 0.18276/rk.2022.13-13.

Abstrakt

This paper explores the connections between Iain Sinclair’s 2015 travelogue Black Apples of Gower and the Merlin legend. Despite the fact that, on the surface, Sinclair does not refer to the early Welsh merlinistic tradition, on closer inspection both share what M. Wynn Thomas has described as “hidden attachments” – cross cultural connections and experiences between the two literatures of modern Wales. The archaic bedrock of the Merlin legend and the alchemical imagery in Sinclair’s book are both rooted in the mythico-ritualistic complex of symbolic regeneration based on the repetition of the act of original creation. Both Merlin and the alchemical process involve an ontological transformation which is mirrored in Black Apples of Gower by the transcendence of textual and medial boundaries: a complex network of intertextual allusions and word-image relationships (ekphrases, reproductions and illustrations). By exploring these relationships, along with the merlinistic and alchemical imagery present in the text, I argue that the work employs the strategy of what I call textual nigredo – a process of intertextual and intermedial transformation. The affinities identified between the Merlin legend and Sinclair’s travelogue provide an argument for seeing Iain Sinclair as a Welsh writer and shed new light on the links between the Welsh-language literary tradition and English-language Welsh writing which may be pursued further in the future.

Pobierz plik

Plik artykułu

Bibliografia

1.	Aldhouse-Green, Miranda. Rethinking the Ancient Druids: An Archeological Perspective. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2021.
2.	Allen, Graham. Intertextuality. 2nd edition. London: Routledge, 2011.
3.	Biedermann, Hans. Dictionary of Symbolism. Trans. James Hulbert. New York – Oxford: Facts on File, 1992.
4.	Bond, Robert. Iain Sinclair. Cambridge: Salt Publishing, 2005.
5.	Burns, Richard. Ceri Richards and Dylan Thomas. Keys to Transformation. London: The Enitharmon Press, 1981.
6.	Clarke, Basil, ed. Life of Merlin/Vita Merlini by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1973.
7.	Colombino, Laura. “Iain Sinclair: Complexity, Imagination and the Re-Enchanted Margins of ‘London Orbital’”. London in Contemporary British Fiction. Eds. Nick Hubble, Philip Tew. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. 111–125.
8.	Culler, Jonathan. Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, Linguistics and the Study of Literature. Routledge: London – New York, 2004. Kindle edition.
9.	Cunliffe, Barry. Britain Begins. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
10.	D’Alviella, Eugène Goblet. “Circumambulation”. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. Vol 3. Ed. James Hastings. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1910.
11.	Eliade, Mircea. The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structures of Alchemy. Trans. Stephen Corrin. Chicago – London: The University of Chicago Press, 1978.
12.	Ferber, Michael. A Dictionary of Literary Symbols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
13.	Forsdick, Charles. “Travel and the Body: Corporeality, Speed and Technology.” The Routledge Companion to Travel Writing. Ed. Carl Thompson. Oxon – New York: Routledge, 2016. Kindle edition.
14.	Frykenberg, Brian. “Wild Man in Celtic legend”. Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Ed. John T. Koch. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006. 1790–1799.
15.	Genette, Gérard. Palimpsests. Literature in the Second Degree. Trans. Channa Newman, Claude Doubinsky. Lincoln–London: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
16.	Green, Miranda. Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art. London – New York: Routledge, 1992.
17.	Hagstrum, Jean. The Sister Arts: The Tradition of Literary Pictorialism and English Poetry from Dryden to Gray. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958.
18.	Hitchins, Steven. “‘Downriver’ by Iain Sinclair”. https://www.walesartsreview.org/greatest-welsh-novel-10-downriver-by-iain-sinclair/ [accessed: 20.09.2022].
19.	Jones, Richard. “A Welshman Disguised as a Londoner: A Profile of Iain Sinclair”. Planet 148 (2001): 55–60.
20.	Jung, Carl Gustav. Letters of C. G. Jung 1951–1961. Vol 2. Hove: Routledge, 2015.
21.	Koch, John T. “Avalon”. Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Ed. John T. Koch. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006.
22.	------. The Celts: History, Life, and Culture. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2012.
23.	Kopaliński, Władysław. Słownik symboli. Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna, 1990.
24.	Knight, Stephen. Merlin: Knowledge and Power Through the Ages. Ithaca–London: Cornwell University Press, 2009.
25.	Krieger, Murray. “Ekphrasis and the Still Movement of Poetry; or Laokoön Revisited”. Idem. Ekphrasis: The Illusion of the Natural Sign. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. 263–288.
26.	------. “The Problem of Ekphrasis: Image and Words, Space and Time – and the Literary Work”. Pictures into Words: Theoretical and Descriptive Approaches to Ekphrasis. Eds. Valerie Robillard, Els Jongeneel. Amsterdam: UV University Press, 1998. 3–20.
27.	Lord, Peter. The Visual Culture of Wales: Imaging the Nation. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2000.
28.	Lund, Hans. Text as Picture: Studies in the Literary Transformation of Pictures. Trans. Kacke Götrick. Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992.
29.	Macfarlane, Robert. “Iain Sinclair’s struggles with the city of London”. 2011.
30.	https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/15/ghost-milk-iain-sinclair-olympics [accessed: 3.05.2021].
31.	Mazelis, Jo. “Black Apples of Gower by Iain Sinclair” (2015). https://www.walesartsreview.org/non-fiction-black-apples-of-gower-by-iain-sinclair [accessed: 20.02.2021].
32.	Mercieca, Simon. “The Religious Cults of Thaumaturgical Powers and the Devotion towards St Nicholas of Bari in Malta”. Symposia Melitensia 6 (2010): 21–35.
33.	Mitchell, W. J. T. Picture Theory. Chicago–London: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
34.	Newman, William M., Anthony Grafton. “Introduction: The Problematic Status of Astrology and Alchemy in Premodern Europe”. Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe. Eds. William R. Newman, Anthony Grafton. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2001. 1–37. Kindle edition.
35.	Peša, Vladimír. “Caves and the Sacral Landscape: A Case Study on the Neolithic and Early Aeneolithic Periods in South-east Central Europe”. Lands of the Shamans: Archaeology, Cosmology and Landscape. Eds. Dragoş Gheorghiu, George Nash, Herman Bender, Emília Pásztor. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2018. 46–88.
36.	Principe, Lawrence M., William R. Newman. “Some Problems with the Historiography of Alchemy”. Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe. Eds. William R. Newman, Anthony Grafton. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2001. 385–431. Kindle edition.
37.	Rajewsky, Irina O. “Intermediality, Intertextuality, and Remediation: A Literary Perspective on Intermediality”. Intermédialités 6 (2005): 43–64.
38.	Ross, Anne. “Ritual and the Druids”. The Celtic World. Ed. Miranda J. Green. London – New York: Routledge, 2005. 423–444. Kindle edition.
39.	Sinclair, Iain. Lights Out for the Territory: 9 Excursions in the Secret History of London. London: Penguin Books, 2003.
40.	------. Black Apples of Gower. Toller Fratrum: A Little Toller, 2015.
41.	Thomas, M. Wynn. “Hidden Attachments: Aspects of the Relationship Between the Two Literatures of Modern Wales”. Welsh Writing in English: A Yearbook of Critical Essays. Ed. Tony Brown. Cardiff: New Welsh Review, 1995. 145–163.
42.	Tolstoy, Nikolai. The Quest for Merlin. Boston–Toronto: Little Brown & Co., 1985.
43.	Wagner, Peter. “The Nineteenth-century Illustrated Novel”. Handbook of Intermediality. Literature – Image – Sound – Music. Ed. Gabriele Rippl. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015. 378–400.
44.	Weston, Daniel. Contemporary Literary Landscapes: The Poetics of Experience. London – New York: Routledge, 2016.
45.	Wolf, Werner. The Musicalization of Fiction: A Study in the Theory and History of Intermediality. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999.
46.	Yacobi, Tamar. “The Ekphrastic Model: Forms and Functions”. Pictures into Words: Theoretical and Descriptive Approaches to Ekphrasis. Eds. Valerie Robillard, Els Jongeneel. Amsterdam: VU University Press, 1998. 21–34.

Rocznik Komparatystyczny