![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjThe last of the Kalamazoo books from last year, plus as many as I can get through of books from my trip to NYC and Darkovercon in November. Will I finish them all? Stay tuned for the exciting details!
Even though my Welsh research is far less active these days than it once was, there's a reflex to buy Welsh history books that I can't quite resist. And one of these days I'll get back to writing my Welsh historic romances so they'll all be quite practical, right?
Charles-Edwards, T.M. 2013. Wales and the Britons 350-1064. Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-821731-2
Every generation of historians turns out a new set of comprehensive histories of whatever topics are deemed worth the effort. It's nice that Wales is included in that effort. The pre-Norman period is one that often gets glossed over briefly so it's nice to find such a thick tome focusing entirely on this era. I probably didn't need this book, but if I ever do write within this era (and at least one of my trunk novels falls within it) I'll be glad to have it.
Griffiths, R. A. and P. R. Schofield, eds. 2011. Wales and the Welsh in the Middle Ages: Essays presented to J. Beverley Smith. University of Wales Press, Cardiff. ISBN 978-0-7083-2446-2
The festschrift format can result in a bit of a mixed bag. Sometimes the contributors write specifically on topics related to the honoree's interests, sometimes they contribute whatever they have lying around that didn't have a home yet. This collection falls in the former category with articles focusing on social and socio-political aspects of medieval Welsh history. Topics of particular interest to me include the intersection of Welsh and English law in the courts and the evidence for family structures found in 13-14th c. rental documents.
Fulton, Helen, ed. 2012. Urban Culture in Medieval Wales. University of Wales Press, Cardiff. ISBn 978-0-7083-2351-9
Another collection of articles, on a much more focused topic this time. Histories often focus strongly on military and elite culture, and in Wales the next level of focus tends to be on agricultural society and the social structures that supported it. Urban culture -- and especially with a focus on ethnically Welsh residents -- tends to come far down the list. So an entire collection of papers on this topic fills a major gap. One specific paper caught my eye due to an intersection with one of my other major historic interests: Deborah Youngs' "The Townswomen of Wales: Singlewomen, Work and Service, c. 1300-c.1550."
Becker, Audry L. and Kristin Noone. 2011. Welsh Mythology and Folklore in Popular Culture: Essays on Adaptations in Literature, Film, Television and Digital Media. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, Jefferson. ISBN 978-0-7864-6170-7
(This one actually migrated to the head of my bed for further reading, back when I started doing the reviews.) This is published as part of the "Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy" series so it shouldn't be a surprise to find a specific focus on the uses of medieval Welsh literature in modern SSF, especially Evangeline Walton's re-imagining of the Four Branches (3 articles) and the multiply-filtered Disney The Black Cauldron based on Lloyd Alexander's very loose … well, I wouldn't even really call it an "interpretation", let's say his books very loosely inspired by the same. Also covered are Welsh themes in Torchwood, Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle (and the Miyazaki film treatment of it), and the music of Heather Dale.
And that concludes the Kalamazoo books. On to the November books!
Peck, Amelia, ed. 2013. Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500-1800. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. ISBN 978-0-300-19698-6
This is the catalog for an exhibition I was able to see while in NYC last November. One might expect a large part of the exhibit to focus on themes of Orientalism and exoticism and the appropriation of textiles (or textile production industries) and artistic styles from colonial regions by Western fashion centers. But one of the things that struck me (beyond and in addition to this) was the incredible amount of cross-pollenation, adoption, and adaptation of fabrics and styles between non-Western cultures that participated in the massive web of international textile trade. Also the ways in which local cultures adapted and interpreted Western clothing styles or ornamentation techniques for their own purposes. I'm not meaning to diminish the ways in which colonialism drove and dominated the trade under study here, but the exhibit shows how much more complex the everyday details were. Also: lots of oohing and ahing and gorgeous clothing.
le Bourhis, Katell, ed. 1989. The Age of Napoleon Costume from Revolution to Empire: 1789-1815. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. ISBN 0-87099-571-5
We're back to books purchased as research materials for the Alpennian books. Technically this book cuts off right before my stories begin, but it's generally accounted the best source on the era it covers, and that era forms enough of a foundation for Alpennian costume at the beginning of my series that I couldn't pass it up.
Well, I'd hoped to get through a few more, but it's bed time. One more session should do it.
Even though my Welsh research is far less active these days than it once was, there's a reflex to buy Welsh history books that I can't quite resist. And one of these days I'll get back to writing my Welsh historic romances so they'll all be quite practical, right?
Charles-Edwards, T.M. 2013. Wales and the Britons 350-1064. Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-821731-2
Every generation of historians turns out a new set of comprehensive histories of whatever topics are deemed worth the effort. It's nice that Wales is included in that effort. The pre-Norman period is one that often gets glossed over briefly so it's nice to find such a thick tome focusing entirely on this era. I probably didn't need this book, but if I ever do write within this era (and at least one of my trunk novels falls within it) I'll be glad to have it.
Griffiths, R. A. and P. R. Schofield, eds. 2011. Wales and the Welsh in the Middle Ages: Essays presented to J. Beverley Smith. University of Wales Press, Cardiff. ISBN 978-0-7083-2446-2
The festschrift format can result in a bit of a mixed bag. Sometimes the contributors write specifically on topics related to the honoree's interests, sometimes they contribute whatever they have lying around that didn't have a home yet. This collection falls in the former category with articles focusing on social and socio-political aspects of medieval Welsh history. Topics of particular interest to me include the intersection of Welsh and English law in the courts and the evidence for family structures found in 13-14th c. rental documents.
Fulton, Helen, ed. 2012. Urban Culture in Medieval Wales. University of Wales Press, Cardiff. ISBn 978-0-7083-2351-9
Another collection of articles, on a much more focused topic this time. Histories often focus strongly on military and elite culture, and in Wales the next level of focus tends to be on agricultural society and the social structures that supported it. Urban culture -- and especially with a focus on ethnically Welsh residents -- tends to come far down the list. So an entire collection of papers on this topic fills a major gap. One specific paper caught my eye due to an intersection with one of my other major historic interests: Deborah Youngs' "The Townswomen of Wales: Singlewomen, Work and Service, c. 1300-c.1550."
Becker, Audry L. and Kristin Noone. 2011. Welsh Mythology and Folklore in Popular Culture: Essays on Adaptations in Literature, Film, Television and Digital Media. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, Jefferson. ISBN 978-0-7864-6170-7
(This one actually migrated to the head of my bed for further reading, back when I started doing the reviews.) This is published as part of the "Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy" series so it shouldn't be a surprise to find a specific focus on the uses of medieval Welsh literature in modern SSF, especially Evangeline Walton's re-imagining of the Four Branches (3 articles) and the multiply-filtered Disney The Black Cauldron based on Lloyd Alexander's very loose … well, I wouldn't even really call it an "interpretation", let's say his books very loosely inspired by the same. Also covered are Welsh themes in Torchwood, Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle (and the Miyazaki film treatment of it), and the music of Heather Dale.
And that concludes the Kalamazoo books. On to the November books!
Peck, Amelia, ed. 2013. Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500-1800. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. ISBN 978-0-300-19698-6
This is the catalog for an exhibition I was able to see while in NYC last November. One might expect a large part of the exhibit to focus on themes of Orientalism and exoticism and the appropriation of textiles (or textile production industries) and artistic styles from colonial regions by Western fashion centers. But one of the things that struck me (beyond and in addition to this) was the incredible amount of cross-pollenation, adoption, and adaptation of fabrics and styles between non-Western cultures that participated in the massive web of international textile trade. Also the ways in which local cultures adapted and interpreted Western clothing styles or ornamentation techniques for their own purposes. I'm not meaning to diminish the ways in which colonialism drove and dominated the trade under study here, but the exhibit shows how much more complex the everyday details were. Also: lots of oohing and ahing and gorgeous clothing.
le Bourhis, Katell, ed. 1989. The Age of Napoleon Costume from Revolution to Empire: 1789-1815. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. ISBN 0-87099-571-5
We're back to books purchased as research materials for the Alpennian books. Technically this book cuts off right before my stories begin, but it's generally accounted the best source on the era it covers, and that era forms enough of a foundation for Alpennian costume at the beginning of my series that I couldn't pass it up.
Well, I'd hoped to get through a few more, but it's bed time. One more session should do it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-04-14 06:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-14 07:54 am (UTC)(And you have more or less answered my suspicions when Daughter of Mystery was set.)
(no subject)
From: