Pigeon by Alys Conran: A Journey through History, Language, and Identity

Abstract

Cymraeg, or Welsh as it is known in English, is one of the oldest languages in Europe, dating back possibly to 4,000 years, and which developed from the Celtic language known as Brittonic or Brythonic. Welsh is today an essential part of the region's culture and identity, and it is spoken as part of everyday life in several communities, particularly in North and West Wales. However, many were the challenges that put a strain on the survival of the language, such as the 1536 Act of Union, which established English as the sole official language in Wales, and the Industrial Revolution, which brought profound changes both in terms of population shifts and communications. The early twentieth century saw the emergence of several Welsh writers, whose works were written in English, such as Dylan Thomas and R.S. Thomas, thus creating new modes of writing and a crisis of national identity that began to resolve itself by the end of the twentieth century, with Wales' political devolution within the United Kingdom. Pigeon is the first and debut novel by Alys Conran, a contemporary writer, and native Welsh speaker, who, as her twentieth-one century- generation of bilingual writers, uses English as a means of communication, and commits to representing and celebrating Wales and the Welsh language through her novel, where the journey of the protagonist will become the symbol of the loss and the struggle for the Welsh language and identity's recovery.