A peça radiofônica Under Milk Wood, de Dylan Thomas, nos mostra cenas de um dia na vida dos habitantes da cidadezinha litorânea de Llareggub, no País de Gales. Como galês que sou, residente no Brasil há duas décadas, tenho percebido que apesar de este escritor ser bastante conhecido por aqui, sua obra não é muito estudada nos círculos acadêmicos. Após conduzir uma pesquisa rudimentar no formato de entrevistas feitas a professores e estudantes universitários, concluí que a recepção da obra de Dylan Thomas fica prejudicada devido às amplas diferenças culturais que existem entre o Brasil e o País de Gales. A experiência de uma oficina de leitura de Under Milk Wood mostrou que estudantes brasileiros de literaturas de língua inglesa podem responder muito bem ao texto a partir do momento em que começam a perceber o tom local e o estilo do cenário e das personagens, bem como as particularidades linguísticas. A resposta dos leitores, e a sua fruição da obra, crescem significativamente à medida em que percebem que dominam aspectos históricos e culturais ligados à peça, e também as referências geográficas que fazem a ponte entre o cenário ficcional do vilarejo e as cidadezinhas litorâneas similares do País de Gales da vida real, com os hábitos característicos dos moradores locais. Com base no acima exposto, o objetivo desta dissertação é se constituir um guia de leitura que seja útil para estudantes de literaturas de língua inglesa externos ao Reino Unido, como aqueles que encontrei no Brasil, bem como para tradutores potenciais da peça, ou mesmo para leitores em geral que queiram compreender e usufruir melhor aquilo que a peça Under Milk Wood tem a oferecer. Para melhor acompanhar os leitores neste passeio pela cidade de Llareggub, decidi estruturar o capítulo principal desta dissertação no formato de comentários críticos formados por notas e observações técnicas que visam esclarecer elementos culturais que impedem que o leitor desavisado decodifique certos aspectos da peça. O trabalho vem dividido em três seções. Na primeira são introduzidos os referenciais históricos e geográficos do País de Gales, apresentados a partir da leitura dos reconhecidos historiadores galeses John Davies e Geraint Jenkins. As informações sobre a literatura galesa produzida em língua inglesa se embasam predominantemente em Glyn Jones e Stephen Knight. A segunda seção analisa a estrutura da obra e a terceira apresenta o guia de anotações página a página. A sequência inicia com a apresentação do vilarejo de Llareggub e sua contrapartida nas cidades litorâneas do País de Gales. O guia página a página elucida aspectos culturais relacionados à narrativa, explica expressões coloquiais anglo-galesas e oferece possibilidades de interpretação para certas cenas e situações. / Dylan Thomas’s play for voices Under Milk Wood offers us a glimpse into a day in the lives of the inhabitants of the fictional small Welsh seaside town of Llareggub. Welsh readers identify immediately with the eccentricity of village life and the cultural richness of the characters and setting that embody the spirit of Wales. As a Welshman living in Brazil for the last twenty years I have noticed that, although Dylan Thomas is well known here, his work is rarely studied in academic circles. After conducting a rudimentary research consisting of interviews with professors and university students, I concluded that the work of Dylan Thomas is not easily grasped because of the vast cultural differences between Brazil and Wales. An experimental reading workshop of Under Milk Wood has shown that Brazilian English Literature students respond well to the work when they begin to understand the local tone and style of the setting and characters, including the linguistic peculiarities. Having a better knowledge of the cultural and historical aspects of the play, as well as geographical references for possible locations of the town and parallels with factual settings and habits of native townsfolk, can help readers to better understand and enjoy the work. The purpose of this thesis, therefore, is to function as a guide for non-English native students of English Literature, such as I have encountered in Brazil, for potential translators of the play, or even for readers in general who wish to reach a better understanding of Under Milk Wood and take more enjoyment from it. In order to accompany the student as a guide through the town of Llareggub I decided to build this thesis in the format of a set of annotated critical comments, consisting of a number of technical observations and notes that aim at elucidating the cultural elements that prevent the otherwise uninformed reader to make his way through the play. The thesis is divided into three sections. In the first part I refer to elements in the history and geography of Wales. As a support for this contextualization chapter I resort to the foremost historians of Wales, John Davies and Geraint Jenkins. For Welsh literature written in English, Glyn Jones and Stephen Knight have been the principal authors researched. The second section discusses the structure of the play with excerpts and a description of the town of Llareggub paralleled historically and geographically with factual seaside towns in Wales. The third section consists of a page by page guide, in the form of explanatory notes, of the play itself. This page by page guide elucidates the cultural aspects of Wales found in the narrative, explains Welsh-English colloquial language used and offers possible interpretations of scenes and situations.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa

This research aims to illuminate how and why war challenges the limits of poetic representation, through an analysis of non-combatant poetry of the Second World War. It is motivated by the question: how can one portray, represent, or talk about war? Literature on war poetry tends to concentrate on the combatant poets of the First World War, or their influence, while literature on the Second World War tends to focus on prose as the only expression of literary war experience. With a historicist approach, this thesis advances our understanding of both the Second World War, and our inherited notions of 'war poetry,' by parsing its historiography, and investigating the role critical appraisals have played in marginalising this area of poetic response. This thesis examines four poets as case studies in this field of research-W.H. Auden, Louis MacNeice, Dylan Thomas, and Stevie Smith-and evaluates them on both their individual explorations of poetic tone, faith systems, linguistic innovations, subversive performativity, and their collective trajectory towards a commitment to represent the war in their poetry. The findings from this research illustrate how too many critical appraisals have minimised or misrepresented Second World War poetry, and how the poets responded with a self-reflexivity that bespoke a deeper concern with how war is remembered and represented. The significance of these findings is breaking down the notion of objective fact in poetic representations of war, which are ineluctably subjective texts. These findings also offer insight into the 'failure' of poetry to represent war as a necessary part of war representation and prompt a rethinking of who has the 'right' experience-or simply the right-to talk about war.