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We are being increasingly exposed to ideas of perfect sleep in fiction and journalism. This paper explores the notion of a modern self-consciousness surrounding sleep and sleeplessness, and the ways in which this obsession creates a kind of performance anxiety when it comes to achieving sleep of a recommended quality. By analysing journal articles and fictional texts in which the importance of a sleep standard is emphasised, this paper discusses the various situations in which we can fail to sleep, or how sleep can fail us. It will first examine the pressures of performing for ideal rest by investing in and manipulating sleep. This paper will then observe the act of detaching ourselves from the force of sleep, mythologizing and externalising the experience. Finally, by analysing the presentation of insomnia in Jonathan Coe’s The House of Sleep (1997), this paper will suggest that erratic sleeping habits can sometimes be a necessary failure, and that the modern preoccupation with sleep is placing too much focus on an otherwise natural and unpredictable process.

The graphic novels of Carol Swain frequently take rural Wales as their setting. Her most recent publication in 2014, Gast, continues her preoccupation with an isolated Welsh community. It explores aspects of liminality and fluidity, of blurred boundaries, both in terms of identity and of language. This article discusses the ways in which Swain represents and intertwines the landscape and language of Wales in order to demonstrate the child protagonist’s absorption into rural life. This article will consist of three parts. First, it introduces the work of Carol Swain and provides a brief summary of Gast that will help to contextualize some of my analysis. It will then discuss Swain’s mix of the Welsh and English language, and how language is used both to establish identities and confuse them. Gast is a graphic novel of intense silences, but when words are spoken they have an almost poetic weight to them, and this section will discuss the importance of conversations in the story. Finally, this article looks to the landscape of Gast to demonstrate how the isolation of the community is reflected in the sprawling countryside, but also how the protagonist comes to explore and understand the sparseness of her surroundings. By comparing Gast to the canon of Welsh writing in English, such as Brenda Chamberlain’s Tide-Race ([1962] 2007) and Cynan Jones’ The Long Dry in 2006, and to the recent S4C/BBC Wales drama, Hinterland (2013), this article aims to situate Swain’s text alongside the fiction that reflects a realistic image of the Welsh identity.

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