After a brief summary of the recent theoretical context of masculinity studies and the notion of identity, this article will analyze the construction of masculinity in a novel by one of Morocco’s most notable authors, Tahar Ben Jelloun’s L'Homme rompu. It will refer to this theoretical context in order to highlight the full weight of discursive pressures that are exerted on the individual. It will offer an in-depth analysis of masculinity and identity in the novel and, with reference to its unofficial sister-novel, Simone de Beauvoir’s La Femme rompue, will question to what extent the existentialist concepts of individual choice and subjectivity are still valid in the current theoretical climate.

This article describes the origins and some of the history of the Welsh-language philosophy journal Efrydiau Athronyddol, which was published from 1938 to 2006. The majority of the papers published in the journal were presented at the annual conference of the Welsh-speaking Philosophy section of the Guild of Graduates (Adran Athroniaeth Urdd y Graddedigion), an annual conference which continues today but which was established in the early 1930s. The article describes the nature and content of the first issue, and provides a summary of some of the main themes of articles published. It shows how the character of the journal underwent a significant change in 1949 as a result of a deliberate policy on the part of those most closely involved with the running of the journal and indeed in the Philosophy section of the Guild. The journal subsequently changed from being a purely philosophical one to a more interdisciplinary publication which dealt with a much wider range of topics, many of which had a distinct focus on Welsh intellectual life. The second half of the article focuses on one of the most influential papers ever published in the Efrydiau, namely ‘The idea of a nation’ by Professor J. R. Jones. Published the year before Saunders Lewis’s radio broadcast ‘Tynged yr Iaith’, its main claims are described and subjected to critical analysis. This paper exemplifies what was best about the journal: it is philosophical, but also interdisciplinary – drawing on poetry and history – and makes powerful political claims which led to Jones being described by Professor D. Z. Phillips as the philosophical inspiration for the Welsh Language Society, in addition to an acknowledged influence on the thinking of Saunders Lewis.

During the summer of 2010, as part of a project by Dr T. Robin Chapman and Dr Dafydd Sills-Jones, Welsh speakers of all generations and backgrounds were questioned about the poems of T. H. Parry-Williams, at the National Library and on the Eisteddfod field. The format was that of asking everyone to select a poem, to read it aloud, and then to explain why they had chosen it in an open-ended interview. The aim was to investigate the current status of the poetry of T.H. Parry-Williams, by analysing different readings on the basis of rhetoric and performance. Although no effort was made to secure a scientifically representative sample, both male and female readers were attracted, from different parts of Wales, and of all ages from early twenties to retirement age. It was expected that the project would raise questions about the reception given to the poems of T. H. Parry-Williams amongst the members of the public who took part in the experiment. Who would choose which poem? How would different performances of the same poem reveal geographical or generational differences? What would be the relationship between the performances and the reasons and stories that appeared during the interviews? There were also methodological questions to be resolved across an interdisciplinary gulf. How would audiovisual and literary techniques inter-relate? How would it be possible to analyse the readings, without following the usual interpretative trails? An exhibition of the interviews was staged in December of the same year in the form of a series of video screens showing the interviews in parallel and concurrent format. Although the project belongs to two similar analytical traditions, namely literary analysis and the analysis of film, the exhibition brought them together through a third tradition, exemplified in video artworks such as the audiovisual installations ‘Forty Part Motet’ and ‘Videos Transamericas’. Thus, this demonstrative/analytical mode posed a challenge to both researchers, and was an inventive journey into a new methodological domain. Although the researchers are agreed on the fundamental research question posed by the project, which is to seek to assess the position occupied by T.H. in Welsh culture thirty five years after his death, it became apparent during their collaboration that this was on the basis of markedly different ideas of the significance of the methods used and the findings obtained. Robin Chapman’s background is in recent Welsh literature. Dafydd Sills-Jones has experience of working in the field of documentary production, and is interested in the performing aspects of such productions. What follows is an epilogue where both use the project’s common ground to explain their methods to each other – and to themselves. The hope is that it will be a means not only for them to say something about our two disciplines, but that it will be an opportunity also to investigate in more general terms the (creative) tension that manifests itself in interdisciplinary collaboration.

The geographical distribution of Ophelia bicornis is restricted to the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea and the western coast of Europe as far as Brittany and southern parts of Great Britain. Within this wide reach, the worm is restricted to very narrow areas (in the context of the rise and fall of the tide) of sand which are generally unsuitable for sustaining populations of animals and plants. Despite this, Ophelia is shown to succeed and flourish there, depending, to a large extent, on physical and physiological adaptation.

In this article, we determine and analyse possible solutions to the problem of partitioning a circular cylinder into three regions of equal volume using the least surface area. The solutions are related to the minimal energy arrangement of films in dry aqueous foam confined in a cylinder. We enumerate the possible solutions and use the numerical simulation software Surface Evolver to calculate the area in each case. We determine the least area configuration for all values of the aspect ratio of the cylinder. We find only four possible optimal solutions, each appropriate over different intervals of the aspect ratio, and give closed form expressions for each one.

With the publication of its Welsh-medium Education Strategy in April 2010, the Welsh Assembly Government recognised the leading role of Welsh-medium education in the field of bilingual education throughout Europe and the world during the last fifty years. As the system further develops with increasing numbers of pupils choosing bilingual education in Wales, it is emphasised that it is important to be aware of the patterns and models available in other bilingual communities that successfully integrate bilingualism or multilingualism into their provision so that we can understand their relevance to our particular situation in Wales. This article gives an overview of the most recent developments in bilingual education in an international context and considers the important issues that emerge as this type of education continues to develop to cater for the needs of pupils in bilingual and multilingual communities throughout the world in the twenty-first century.

This article outlines the valuable contribution made by Annie Ellis (neé Davies) to the folksong revival in Wales and in particular her influence in the Aberystwyth/Cardiganshire district during the early decades of the Twentieth Century. It draws on original correspondence, fieldwork diaries, notated transcriptions, newspaper articles (in Welsh and French) and phonograph recordings from the National Library of Wales, the British Library, Bibliotèque Nationale de France and private collections. The following areas are discussed: Annie Ellis’s involvement in folksong related activities at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, including the establishing of the Canorion Society, folksong collecting competitions and performances of J. Lloyd Williams’s operetta, Aelwyd Angharad (Angharad’s Hearth). Six historically significant concerts of traditional Welsh music given by a quartet of undergraduate singers in Paris during March 1911, including performances at Le Lied en Tout Pays and the Richelieu Amphitheatre (Sorbonne). This visit represented the embodiment of the Entente Cordiale established between Britain and France during the years leading up to the First World War. Association with Madame Lucie Barbier (head of vocal studies at the University) and the positive response of the Parisian press. Ruth Lewis and Annie Ellis’s three day fieldwork visit to Landyssul, Pencader and the surrounding district in June 1913 and the outcome of their folk song collecting, including an evaluation of the texts and melodies collected. The article also highlights the role of one Edwardian woman in developing the cultural life of Wales and her attempts to promote Welsh traditional music on an international platform.