SOURCE: Fulton, Helen. “Dafydd ap Gwilym and Intertextuality.” Leeds Studies in English 20 (1989): 65-86.

In the following essay, Fulton explores the concept of intertextuality, or the idea that writings refer only to each other and not directly to reality, and how it operates in Dafydd's work.

One of the unique aspects of Early English Literature and Language studies at the University of Sydney under the professorship of Leslie Rogers has been the promotion of modern English courses—including grammar and semiotics—alongside more traditional courses in Old and Middle English.¹ Such a combination has encouraged the practice of looking at medieval texts from the point of view of modern literary theory, rather than simply as philological curiosities or as ‘words on the page’ in need of close textual analysis. While acknowledging that the poems of Dafydd ap Gwilym amply reward a close reading, I would also suggest that a...