‘Knowledge Increasing’: The Welsh-language Periodical Press at the Start of the Nineteenth Century
As we’ve reached the nineteenth century, we begin discussing some of the transformations which effected Welsh-language culture in the period. Industrialization, growth of the population, technological developments, pride in the British empire – all of these factors would condition Welsh-language literature as the century progressed. But we focus on one thing which is of extremely great interest to those seeking to understand the history of Welsh literature in the nineteenth century, namely the growth of the Welsh-language periodical press. (Yes, we define the word ‘periodical’ in passing as well.) We pop back to the eighteenth century in order to note some of the early experiments, but we go into some detail regarding the periodicals which appeared during the first decades of the new century.
We examine the way in which the editors of some of the first denominational journals presented their publications to their readers and we note in passing that Britishness and imperialism had a tight hold on them despite their supposedly radical religious stances.