Jasmine Hunter-Evans
Department: English Literature and Classics and Ancient History
Discipline: English
Project Summary
David Jones and Rome: Reimagining the Decline of Western Civilisation
Within this thesis I investigated the reception of Rome in the works of the Anglo-Welsh, Roman Catholic, First World War veteran, David Jones. Not only was Jones a prolific poet, artist and essayist but he lived through a period of intense social upheaval in which the use and understanding of ancient Rome changed considerably.
The methodology of this project contextualised Jones’s acts of reception by situating them within four vital areas which shaped his vision of Rome: British imperial rhetoric, cyclical history, the Catholic intellectual revival, and Welsh nationalism. Within these areas, Jones’s reimagining of Rome was deeply influenced by his experiences, the works - whether historical, cultural, religious, literary or political - which he read, and the relationships with his friends and correspondents. Tracing Jones’s vast and complex receptions of Rome, in his poetry, paintings, inscriptions, essays and letters, reveals both the centrality and the potency of ancient Rome in contemporary discourses of Western civilisational decline.
Supervisory Team
Prof. Tim Kendall (English Literature) Prof. Rebecca Langlands (Classics and Ancient History)
