Dept. of Combinatorics & Optimization
University of Waterloo
I am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Member of the Academy of Mathematical and Physical Sciences.
For a full publication list, please see my Google Scholar page.
The .ps files of a number of papers can be found in PREPRINTS . This has been discontinued since the papers are available on the mathArchive.A list of I) submitted papers, II) papers in preparation, III) books, and IV) published papers may be found in PUBLISHED PAPERS .
The word "Chwalfa" has several meanings, including "Destruction", but the one that best captures one of the powerful themes is `Wilderness'. The novel opens with the wilderness of a mountainous region, the ultimate significance of which develops slowly though the novel, and is set during a strike at the slate quarry in a fictional village called Llechfaen. There are many references to well known politicians and literary figures of the era. The author has made use of some of the published accounts of certain events associated with the Great Strike that took place in the Penrhyn Quarry in North Wales in the period 1901 to 1903. The strike was one of the largest experienced in the industrial history of Britain. The events are seen through the experiences of the extended family of Edward Ifans, who is a quarryman, and his wife, Martha. The novel gives a vivid account of cultural and social life in North Wales and in South Wales during these exceptional times.
(Enillydd y Fedal Rhyddiaith yn Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Frenhinol Cymru 1995)
While set in the modern era, "The White Owl" opens with a reference to "Gwydion", and therefore to the "Mabinogi," a collection of stories of great antiquity that are associated with Wales, and continue to be the subject of scholarly research in Celtic Studies. They remain, however, less familiar outside Wales. While the novella may at first appear to be a dark and brooding account of events within a small village, the reader is drawn gradually towards complexities that demand contemplation, that haunt the imagination and the intellect, and that have meaning beyond the confines of the village itself. In an as yet unfinished commentary I have endeavoured to provide sufficient detail from the Mabinogi, and from other sources (including the Eleusinian Mysteries, and a few of the techniques of probing the text of the Mabinogi), to reveal enough of the substrate upon which I believe parts of the novel rest. The commentary is an account of my own reading and understanding of the novella: others will have their own understanding of it.
My work address is:
Professor David M.R. Jackson Department of Combinatorics and Optimization Faculty of Mathematics University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA, N2L 3G1Misc. info:
Email: dmjackso@uwaterloo.ca Fax: (519) 725-5441 Tel: (519) 888-4056