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UG hosts West Indian Literature conference
– Mittelholzer, Harris to be honoured
The School of Education & Humanities, University of Guyana, will host the 28th Conference on West Indian Literature from today through Wednesday at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal.
The conference is intended to reflect the steady evolution of West Indian creativity in literature and philosophy over the years, says Alim Hosein, a member of the organizing committee for the conference. The theme chosen for the conference is ‘The Quiet Revolutions in West Indian Literature and Criticism.’
The conference will include a centenary celebration of the life and work of the pioneering Guyanese writer Edgar Mittelholzer and a special tribute to the innovative Guyanese writer Wilson Harris.
Edgar Mittelholzer
Mittelholzer occupies a special place in the literary history of the English-speaking Caribbean. Although H. G. de Lisser is generally regarded as the first major novelist to emerge from the region, his achievement is divided between fiction, journalism, and public affairs.
On the other hand, in a career lasting some three decades, Mittelholzer wrote virtually nothing but fiction and earned his living by it.
He is thus the first professional novelist to come out of the English-speaking Caribbean. Some of Mittelholzer’s novels include characters and situations from a variety of places within the Caribbean.
They range in time from the earliest period of European settlement to the present day and deal with a cross section of ethnic groups and social classes, not to mention subjects of historical, political, psychological, and moral interest.
In addition, eight of Mittelholzer’s novels are non-Caribbean in subject and setting. For all these reasons he deserves the title of “father” of the novel in the English-speaking Caribbean.
Wilson Harris first wrote poetry, but is a well-known novelist and essayist. His writing style is often said to be quite abstract and densely metaphorical, and his subject matter very wide-ranging.
The papers which will be presented at the conference by academics and researchers from the Caribbean, North America and Europe reflect the growth and diversity of West Indian literature, covering topics such as Caribbean landscape, gender issues, the dance hall and soca phenomena, film, theatre, language, sexuality and music, apart from the traditional areas of fiction and poetry.
In addition to this, the scholarship of two outstanding Caribbean academics whose work illustrates the expanding frontiers of West Indian Literature and criticism will be featured in two special panels at the conference.
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