T=Y=W=Y=S=O=G=I=O=N Investigating improvised compositional methods founded on processual, plurilingial and spatial poetics towards the discovery of effective forms drawn from other sources and through performance

This practice-led PhD aims to answer the question: how can processual / improvisation, spatial and plurilingual poetics be used to adapt text from other sources in order to create new effective forms? T=Y=W=Y=S=O=G=I=O=N is a discursive long sequence that aims to answer this question through variously translating, transforming, appropriating and adapting text drawn from the Welsh medieval cycle of stories the Mabinogi. In addition, this thesis uses specifically the Oxford Jesus College MS. 111, (The Red Book of Hergest) as its source. The creative work is broken into three sections which deal with these separate motifs. ‘The Red Book of Hergest Ward’ uses spatial and multilingual motifs to explore the word Hergest. ‘Cych’ explores spatial and improvisatory motifs. Finally, ‘Branwen’ deals with improvisation and adaptation. While the creative work seeks to explore the three critical strands of the thesis it also obeys its own aesthetic logic, and in so doing omits and includes different thematic motifs beyond the remit of the three critical chapters. The critical part of the thesis explores the individual thematic strands separately, answering more specific questions that address aspects of the creative work. The foundation of these chapters are close-read examples of authors who use the relevant approaches in their work. Finally, I discuss writers who show hybridity in their work incorporating more than one of these (critical) strands in their writing, David Jones as an example of a writer who uses all three strands. Comparisons with my own work are drawn throughout this thesis. Audio recordings of performed work from the creative portfolio accompanies this thesis, recorded by and with improvised accompaniment from Dario Lozano-Thornton