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Wales and the French Revolution Series

Dr Heather Williams

Dr Heather Williams

Research Fellow


Heather Williams joined the Centre in 2007 as Pilcher Senior Fellow. Her work on the French Revolution allows her to combine her experience in French literature with Celtic Studies. After graduating in Modern Languages (French) from St Hilda's College, University of Oxford, she completed her D.Phil. there on Stéphane Mallarmé, and then went on to hold posts at the Universities of Nottingham, Oxford and Aberystwyth.



Rousseau

Is this a Rousseau inspired landscape?

Is this a Rousseau inspired landscape?

As part of my research into cultural exchange between Welsh, French and English in the wake of the French Revolution I have investigated the reception of Rousseau's ideas in Wales. This work took me in two distinct directions: to radical welsh thinkers such as Iolo Morganwg and Tomos Glyn Cothi, and to the Ceredigion landowner Thomas Johnes, famous for his landscaping of the grounds of the Hafod estate. A fuller discussion will be published in my chapter 'ousseau and Wales', in Footsteps of Liberty and Revolt: Essays on Wales and the French Revolution edited by Mary-Ann Constantine and Dafydd Johnston (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, forthcoming).

Iolo Morganwg and Translation

As part of my research into cultural exchange between Welsh, French and English in the wake of the French Revolution I have examined the role of translation in Iolo's Poems Lyric and Pastoral (1794). This collection contains an extraordinary moment where a six line fragment of Welsh verse becomes four different English poems.

For a fuller discussion, that traces the connections between translation and politics, see my article 'ranslation and the revolutionary space in Iolo Morganwg's Poems Lyric and Pastoral' (forthcoming).

Iolo Morganwg and the Romantic Tradition in Wales 1740–1918

Volney

As part of my research into cultural exchange between Welsh, French and English in the wake of the French Revolution I have re-assessed the evidence on translations of Volney's Ruines into English and Welsh in the 1790s. For a fuller discussion, see 'ymru, y Chwyldro Ffrengig a Gwyn Alf Williams: ail-asesu'r dystiolaeth', Llên Cymru (2012).

Contact details and selected publications