Inherent Myth. Wales in Niall Griffiths s Fiction

FOREWORD

1 . INTRODUCTION

2. SETTING THE SCENE: GRITS
2.1 The problem of fragmentation
2.2 The grotesque as a unifying element
2.3 The grotesque as marker of theatricalisation
2.4 The characters as actors
2.5 Wales as theatrical stage
2.6 Wales as embedded space
2.7 Fictionalisation through language/of individual characters
2.8 ‘A Personal Guide to West Wales’ as a novel-within-a-novel
2.9 Relationships between narrative layers: the downwards orientation of the novel

3. REPOSSESION OF SPACE: SHEEPSHAGGER
3.1 The movement downwards - the novel s dimensional composition
3.2 Eviction from Paradise - eviction from home
3.3 Between water and earth: the evictee in his own land
3.4 Defending the territory: Ianto as a wounded animal
3.5 Theatricalisation: Ianto the puppet
3.6 Theatricalisation of setting
3.7 Y Gymraeg: an image-within-an-image
3.8 Restaging history: death and renewal

4. A THEATRE-WITHIN-A-THEATRE: KELLY+VICTOR
4.1 The carnivalised character of the fictional world
4.2 Kelly as predator
4.3 Kelly as creative agent
4.4 Kelly and Victor - the corrupt city and its victim
4.5 Kelly as puppet
4.6 The city of Liverpool as a stage
4.7 Wales as a theatre-within-a-theatre
4.8 The Welsh space as the most internalised layer of the novel

5. FACING AN INVASION: STUMP
5.1 The middle chapter as a lead-in to the main story line(s)
5.2 The amputee s narrative as neutralisation of danger
5.3 The Car5 narrative as an account of an invasion of the fictional space
5.4 The Morris Minor as a mini stage
5.5 Wales in Stump as a prosthesis

CODA: WRECKAGE
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX