Post-Independence Literature, Part One

May 24, 2009 Features / Columnists, Guyanese Literature

To gain a fuller appreciation of Guyanese literature after Independence, it would be useful to bear in mind that our literature was hitched in a close relationship over a long period to the British literary tradition.
This is not a censure against such a fine literary tradition that continues to entertain, educate and influence us in many ways, a tradition that allowed us a foothold in world literature and continues to sustain some of our more accomplished and recognised writers like Wilson Harris, David Dabydeen, John Agard, Grace Nichols, Jan Lo Shinebourne, Pauline Melville, just to name a few.

Coming out of that British literary tradition was Edgar Mittelholzer, the father of the Guyanese novel. When Mittelholzer died in 1965, he had to his name twenty-three novels published over a short span of time.
Writing by Guyanese during the colonial time was useful apprenticeship – learning the basics (according to Western view), preparing writers to handle universal themes and themes foreign to their own concern, preparing writers to reach various audiences, local and foreign, and generally helping to hone the skills of our writers.

That pervading colonial influence lost some ground with the rise of Guyanese intellectualism and birth of political awareness, both movements feeding off each other, sometimes betrothing each other to produce defining literature.
And the imaginative writers at that time were treating those new impulses of self-discovery, identity, and social revolt, the quest for freedom, self-respect and self-rule with a passion. So a Guyanese literature really started in the 1930s and 1940s, and was consolidated and validated through the 1950s and 1960s.

Poems (of resistance, of succession, and of affinity) by Martin Carter encapsulate that shift more than the work of any other writer of that time. Poems of pride in people, place and country from the pens of A. J. Seymour, Wilson Harris, Ivan Van Sertima and of others formed part of the equation of giving validity to a Guyanese identity and sovereignty.
There can be no doubt that after Independence there was a marked increase in publications by Guyanese writers, both from the established and the emerging ones, both from the locals and those in the Diaspora. (to be continued)
Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@ yahoo.com

What’s happening:
· Call for papers on ‘The Art of Edgar Mittelholzer’
· Look out for the production commencement date of the next issue of The Guyana Annual
· Look out for the launch of Yog Mahadeo’s collection of inspirational stories, ‘A Garland of Pearls’.