Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Nov 30, 2014 News
As part of its mission to promote local culture, Moray House Trust hosted an evening dedicated to the work
of renowned Guyanese novelist, Wilson Harris, last Tuesday. Dr Joyce Jonas presented an overview of Harris’s oeuvre with extracts read by Paloma Mohamed, Russell Lancaster, Stanley Greaves, Vanda Radzik and Michella Ali.
Harris’s writing style is often thought to be abstract and densely metaphorical, and his subject matter wide-ranging. His writing has been called ambitiously experimental and his narrative structure, described as ‘multiple and flexible’ according to literary critics. He is considered one of the most original and innovative voices in post-war literature in English.
Theodore Wilson Harris was born in New Amsterdam in 1921, in what was then called British Guiana. Wilson attended Queen’s College and later was employed as a government surveyor before becoming a lecturer and writer.
His first novel, Palace of the Peacock, was published in 1960; and his canon comprises of a score of novels, poems and essays on post-colonial literary criticism. According to Dr Jonas, Wilson’s aim has been “to explore the psyche of the Guyanese people, and indeed the psyche of the colonizer/colonizer wherever it occurs.”
“We belong to a short-lived family and people. It’s so easy to succumb and die. It’s the usual thing in this country as you well know.” Thus speaks Donne, a character in Palace of the Peacock.
Harris realized very early on that as a writer and critic that the post-colonial West Indies would have to devise its own form of writing; in order to shape its own narrative and adequately reflect its realities. This, as Dr Joyce Jonas pointed out, necessitated “a revolution in the form of the novel.
He dispenses with the linear time-line. He dispenses with a clear outline of individual character.” As another critic who was quoted put it, Harris “has tried to widen the scope of the Caribbean imagination.”
His writings include a collection of poems, numerous essays and twenty-four novels. His work exemplifies a passionate and unique insight as a defence of the notion of cross-culturalism as well as a visionary exploration- of the interdependence between history, landscape and humanity.
Harris was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature in 2011.
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
Apr 23, 2024
Kaieteur Sports – Over the weekend, the prestigious Lusignan Golf Club played host to the highly anticipated AMCHAM Golf Tournament, drawing golf enthusiasts and professionals alike from across...Kaieteur News – Just recently, the PPC determined that it does not have the authority to vitiate a contract which was... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Waterfalls Magazine – On April 10, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]