The Routledge Reader in Caribbean Literature

463 Pages·1996·2.1 MB·English

by  Alison Donnell

The Routledge Reader in CARIBBEAN
LITERATURE
The Routledge Reader in Caribbean Literature is an outstanding compilation
which stages some of the central debates about cultural and aesthetic value that
have animated both writers and critics of Caribbean literature throughout the
twentieth century. It brings previously unknown or inaccessible texts to greater
attention and draws more familiar texts into a new range of contexts. The Reader
offers new critical configurations, new connections, new ways of reading and
new notions of Caribbean literary praxis.
Both the renowned and the less well known are given a voice in this
remarkable anthology which encompasses poetry, short stories, essays, articles
and interviews. Amongst the many represented are the writers: C.L.R.James;
George Lamming; Jean Rhys; Benjamin Zephaniah; Claude McKay; Jamaica
Kincaid; Sylvia Wynter; Derek Walcott; David Dabydeen; and Grace Nichols.
The editors probe some of the sore points of the Caribbean literary tradition,
areas which previous publications have disavowed for varying reasons,
particularly Creole writing, writing in Creole writing which works with (rather
than against) colonial and eurocentric forms and early, especially early women’s,
Caribbean literature.
The Routledge Reader in Caribbean Literature provides an accessible
historical and cultural framework to the texts through a series of introductions
making the anthology an ideal teaching tool as well as a fascinating collection
for anyone interested in the wealth of Caribbean literary traditions.
Dr Alison Donnell lectures in post-colonial literatures at Nottingham Trent
University, England. Dr Sarah Lawson Welsh lectures in English and post-
colonial literatures at the University College of Ripon & York St John, England.
In Memory of My Father
Derrick Donnell (1933–1993)
And
For My Son
Max Donnell Ford (b.1995)
A.D.
To My Parents
And
In Memory of My Grandmothers
Frances Samler and Ivy Lawson
S.L.W.
The Routledge Reader in
CARIBBEAN LITERATURE
Edited by
ALISON DONNELL and
SARAH LAWSON WELSH
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 1996
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an International Thompson Publishing company
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of
thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 1996 Alison Donnell and Sarah Lawson Welsh
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
The Routledge reader in Caribbean literature/[compiled by] Alison
Donnell and Sarah Lawson Welsh.
p. cm.
Includes biographical references and index.
1. Caribbean literature (English) 2. Caribbean Area—Literary
collections. I. Donnell, Alison. II. Lawson Welsh, Sarah.
PR9205.5.R68 1996
820.80(cid:0) 9729–dc20 95–48494
ISBN 0-203-43105-7 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-73929-9 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-12048-9 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-12049-7 (pbk).
Contents
Acknowledgements x iv
Sources xv
General Introduction 1
1900±29
Introduction 22
Poetry and prose
TROPICA (MARY ADELLA WOLCOTT)
The Undertone 33
Nana 34
Busha’s Song 35
TOM REDCAM (THOMAS MACDERMOT)
My Beautiful Home 36
O, Little Green Island Far Over the Sea 37
Jamaica’s Coronation Ode 38
J.E.C.MCFARLANE
The Fleet of the Empire 39
My Country 41
ALBINIA HUTTON
The Empire’s Flag 43
A Plea 45
H.S.BUNBURY
The Spell of the Tropics 47
ASTLEY CLERK
vi
Islets Mid Silver Seas 48
P.M.SHERLOCK
Pocomania 48
EVA NICHOLAS
A Country Idyl 50
CLARA MAUDE GARRETT
One 51
H.D.CARBERRY
Epitaph 52
CLAUDE MCKAY
My Native Land My Home 53
A Midnight Woman to the Bobby 54
The Apple-Woman’s Complaint 57
In Bondage 58
Outcast 59
Flame-Heart 59
I Shall Return 60
H.G.DE LISSER
Jane’s Career 61
A.R.F.WEBBER
Those That Be in Bondage—A Tale of Indian Indentures and Sunlit 65
Western Waters
C.L.R.JAMES
Triumph 69
Non-fiction works
LEO OAKLEY
Ideas of Patriotism and National Dignity 75
HARVEY CLARKE
Miss Jamaica 77
J.E.C.MCFARLANE
vii
Claude McKay 79
EDWARD BAUGH
West Indian Poetry 1900–1970: A Study in Cultural Decolonisation 80
AMY J.GARVEY
Women as Leaders 84
1930±49
Introduction 86
Poetry and prose
UNA MARSON
Renunciation 1 02
In Vain 1 02
If 1 03
Jamaica 1 04
In Jamaica 1 05
Quashie Comes to London 1 06
Kinky Hair Blues 1 12
Cinema Eyes 1 13
Nigger 1 15
GEORGE CAMPBELL
Holy 1 17
Oh! You Build a House 1 17
LOUISE BENNETT
Jamaica Oman 1 19
Bed-time Story 1 21
Proverbs 1 21
Tan a Yuh Yard 1 23
Beeny Bud (Mussirolinkina) 1 24
ROGER MAIS
Listen, the Wind 1 25
viii
VERA BELL
Ancestor on the Auction Block 1 28
A.J.SEYMOUR
Sun is a Shapely Fire 1 30
THE MIGHTY CHALKDUST
Brain Drain 1 31
THE MIGHTY SPARROW
Dan is the Man 1 33
Non-fiction works
C.L.R JAMES
Discovering Literature in Trinidad: The Nineteen Thirties 1 35
ALBERT GOMES
Through a Maze of Colour 1 36
THE BEACON EDITORIALS
Local Fiction 1 41
Local Poetry 1 42
J.E.C.MCFARLANE
The Challenge of Our Time 1 42
VICTOR STAFFORD REID
The Cultural Revolution in Jamaica after 1938 1 44
ROGER MAIS
Where the Roots Lie 1 48
UNA MARSON
We Want Books—But Do We Encourage Our Writers? 1 50
ALISON DONNELL
Contradictory (W)omens?: Gender Consciousness in the Poetry of Una 1 51
Marson
MERVYN MORRIS
On Reading Louise Bennett, Seriously 1 56
GORDON ROHLEHR
ix
Images of Men and Women in 1930s Calypsoes 1 60
1950±65
Introduction 1 67
Poetry and prose
MARTIN CARTER
University of Hunger 1 79
I Come From the Nigger Yard 1 81
I Am No Soldier 1 83
ELMA NAPIER
Carnival in Martinique 1 85
SAMUEL SELVON
Waiting for Aunty to Cough 1 88
JEAN RHYS
The Day They Burnt the Books 1 92
KARL SEALEY
My Fathers before Me 1 96
Non-fiction works
HENRY SWANZY
The Literary Situation in the Contemporary
Caribbean 2 01
GEORGE LAMMING
The Occasion for Speaking 2 04
SARAH LAWSON WELSH
New Wine in New Bottles: The Critical Reception of West Indian 2 10
Writing in Britain in the 1950s and Early 1960s
REINHARD SANDER and IAN MUNRO
The Making of a Writer—a Conversation with George Lamming 2 16
EVELYN O’CALLAGHAN
The Outsider’s Voice: White Creole Women Novelists in the Caribbean2 19
Literary Tradition