CHAPTER - I
INTRODUCTION
Caribbean literature presents the predicament of a
people who are dispossessed resulting from cultural conflict
and
economic
disparities
and
tensions
struggle for political power.
emerging
from
the
The Caribbean scene presents
a more complicated fabric of divisions and diversities of a
•Society of Societies' of different cultures# roots, races,
exposed
to a
indigenous
'Complex
people,
the
fate'.
The
descendants
society
of
is
African
peopled
slaves
by
and
Indian indentured labourers as well as the descendants of
mixed
liaisons.
West
Indian
writing
of
mark
is
but
a
twentieth century creation influenced by many Amerindians and
Europeans as Caribs have no sense of strong affiliation or
loyalty
to
any
particular
society,
culture
or
nation.
Though much of the Caribbean literature is expartriate,
it
opens new directions in depicting the crises of West Indian
situation with precision and frankness.
West Indian
islands
have
suffered
the
greatest
cultural and social extremes; the planters and their ladies
tried often to outdo high life in the mother country itself;
Paris in the Morne-Rouge (Martinique), London in Bridgetown
(Barbados), where the statue of Nelson seems almost to nod
in
the
hot
sun;
and
then
in
contrast,
existence
in
the
• • o
• • 6
• •
• •
poverty ridden villages clinging like barnacles to the dry
steep hills of Haiti/ the voodoo drums sounding at nightfall
an
atmosphere
influences.
compounded
Also
there
of
is
folklore
the
level
and
of
magical
trade,
the
heavylabour for uncertain markets, the search for new ways
to
balance
the
often
faltering
economy
in
these
densely
packed little islands.
And
First
the
in
language,
official
too,
language,
the
there
which
fortunes
is
great
in many
of war,
variety.
cases
and
changed
back and
forth with
then
local
language,
a linguistic stew made up of scraps of English,
French, Spanish, Indian, African words, spiced with anything
else that was
handy,
and
served up,
in the
interests
of
communication, in differing forms on islands perhaps no more
than
sixty
miles
apart.
forged by necessity.
Living
languages,
in
any
case
And this mixture of cultures produced
their counterpart in legends drawn from deeply fed layers of
imagination.
West
islands
Indies,
by Columbus
since
has
its
been
discovery
facing
many
as
a
group
of
socio-political
problems and economic exploitation of the poor by the rich
class
of
society.
There
had
been
racial
and
political
dissentions for political power with the inflow of African
•• .• ow .* .•
slaves
and
estates
other
and
indentured
other
labourers
agricultural
to
work
farms.
on
The
sugar
islands
experienced similar crises and tyranny of the imperial rule
as in several other parts of the British empire.
West
political
Indian
history
'White violence'
attempts
of
blacks
and
is
and
dominated
long
in
isolation
coloured
and
social
'black resistance'
to
individuals with dignity and pride.
for
by
assert
and
and the
themselves
as
And creoles had to live
self-exile
and
even
after
achieving political freedom.
Politically/ the Europeans mostly whites, not only
colonized the land and people but also turned them into mere
slaves
and
disparity
put
them
in
the
to
indiginity.
society.
'Colour'
The
widened
'Plantation
the
economy'
introduces by the white masters helped only the rich class.
The social and economic backwardness of majority of creoles,
exploitation and
chicanery,
strained
the colonizer and the colonized.
interested
in
his
personal
the relationship of
The white master became
aggrandizement
neglecting
the
progress of the islands.
Wilson Harris called this syndrome
'victor - victim stasis'
and an exploration of the way in
which this has affected
central
Guyana
theme
in
Quartet.
his
the
contemporary
first
Culturally,
four
society
novels which
too,
West
became
the
formed the
Indians
suffered
• •• /
•*
•
• •*
•
during and after colonization.
They became shipwrecks on
the islands without any strong affiliation to any particular
cultural
of
linguistic tradition.
Having settled in West
Indies they have only historical connection with the land.
They
could
identity#
patterns
neither
nor
accept
imported
preserve
their
wholly alien
from
England
ancestral
culture.
and
cultural
The
cultural
carefully fostered
to
supplahtany existing African# Indian or Asian patterns were
designed to perpetuate a status quo in which the native was
taught to see his advancement but in terms of the successful
imitation of his English masters.
A sense of dependency#
fostered in him by the colonizer further damaged the West
Indian psyche.
Political freedom did not bring real emancipation
from cultural bondage to assert themselves and build their
national character as to establish their national identity.
Since most
Indian
of them are rootless beings#
writing
a
vehement
search
for
there
the
is in West
cultural
unaffected by the Western and European cultures.
roots
Displeased
with the socio-political atmosphere and cultural environment
and
loss
of
identity and recognition#
the creole in West
Indies has been performing some sort of cultural pilgrimage
to his native country with a veiw to refreshing his mind and
for spiritual solace.
Consequently# the individual in West
Indies developed duality#living in double exile.
•
*
• •
The West
subjugation/
C
t
•
• •
*J
Indian literature
nurtured
by political
cultural disinheritance/ social disintegration
and psychological dehumanization has quite naturally become
an
expression
of
unrequited
suffering/
bewilderment/
disillusionment/ and irrepressible rage.
In spite of physical isolation and sovereignty/ West
Indian literature invariably speaks of the common experience
of
colonization/
displacement/
slavery/
emancipation
and
nationalism that helped in the creation of socio-political
and
cultural
environment
order to establish
well.
its
and
to bring people
cultural
and
literary
together
in
identity as
West Indian literature also traces the history of the
country
spanning
the
significant
events
right
from
the
biginning of this century and showing the progress made by
the country in the recent past.
West
Indian
novel/
resistance emerged as an
springing
'essay'
from
the
Caribbean
in self-assertion.
West
Indians .discovered the novel as a way of investigating and
projecting the inner experience of their community which is
one of the most important events in the Caribbean literary
history.
What the West Indian writer has attempted quite
successfully is to tell the tale of his land from inside.
The
supposed
first-caribbean novel Bekha's Buckra Baby of
* •
•
•
• •
fi
V
•
Tom Redcan appeared in 1903.
•
Edgar Mittelholzer# Vic Reid#
Samuel Selvon# Roger Mais and George lamming are some of the
earliest
poineers
educated
in
the
British
tradition
and
voiced an essentially West Indian experience in their works.
The basic concern of West Indian novel# whether explicit or
implicit# is what it means to be a West Indian.
conscious
of
his
country's
personal experiences
but
history#
The writer#
narrating
in West Indian context#
his
own
tries to
bring awareness in the people to become conscious of their
national culture and identity.
Indian writing
is
The important theme of West
the struggle of define a
separate West
Indian reality and establish its values as significant and
worthwhile.
Colonialism# slavery and plantocracy have been the
concerns
of political
philosophers and social
scientists.
But the impact of these political events and social changes
on the West Indian psyche is recorded with great sensitivity
and creatively by the West Indian writers.
Indian
novels
embody
in
a
vital
sense
In fact# West
the
Third
World
experience of loss# abandonment and emptiness.
Writers
V.S.Naipaul#
like
Harris
Wilson#
Samuel
Selvon#
George Lamming are greatly concerned with and
about the socio cultural problems of the individual and West
Indian
society
and
try
to define
the social
patterns
of
•• •• /*7
Caribbean society.
•• ••
As Kenneth Ramchand observed :
"It is not unique for novelists to be
regarded as having something special to
say
to
their
societies.
But
the
;
West Indian novelists apply themselves
with unusal urgency and unanimity
to
an analysis and interpretation of their
society's ills, including social and
economic deprivations of the majority,
the pervasive consciousness of race and
colour, the cynicism and uncertainity of
the nature of bourgeoise in power after
independence, the lack of history to be
proud of and the absence of traditional or
settled
yhluesf^ ■
In
English-speaking
the
islands,
especially
in
Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad, the literary history of the
last twenty years has been one of extraordinaiy development.
It was
not
until
the
Second World
War
that
there was
brought into focus a process that was going on unnoticed all
the time and all over the region, an intellectual revolution
in which British West Indians discovered that they had not
only political and social sensibilities, but they had souls
as well.
That this region possessed a light and heart of
• •
ft
• *
• • u
• •
its own that ought to be seen and heard.
And it was within
this
Indian
intellectual
compulsion
that
West
literature
came into existence.
The two giant
steps toward forming the necessary
climate for the developing writer were taken in 1942; one in
London
yearf
one
its
in Barbados.
The B.B.C.
inaugurated/
in that
'Caribbean Voices' program most ably edited first
by Una Marson of Jamaica/ then by Henry Swanzy,• an English
intellectual
who
did
a
great
literature-in-progress.
BIM
(Bim
deal
to
encourage
a
whole
In Barbados/ the literary magazine.
- a native or
inhabitant
of Barbados/
sometimes
referred to as Bimshire) embarked on what has turned out to
be
a
long
career.
It
is
edited
by
Prank
Collymore.
Mr.Brathwaite calls him perhaps the greatest of West Indian
literary godfathers'.
In Jamaica/ 1943/ came FOCUS edited by Edna Manley.
In
1945.
A.J.Seymour
brought
out
the
first
issue
of
the
British Guianese magazine Kyk-over-Al (from the name of
an
old Dutchfort)/ which also continued for many years.
over-Al
and
university
the
college
Caribbean
of
the
produced generous special
Poetry.
Quarterly/
West
Indies
published
in
Mona/
Kyk-
by
the
Jamaica/
editions devoted to West
Indian
* •
Q
• •
•
mf
•
•
*
The first fruit of the intellectual revolution-tobe
was
the
Walcott,
appearance
the
most
in
1949
remarkable
of
*25
poetic
poems',
Derek
the
English
islands have produced; and A Morning at the Office,
by the
Guianese writerEdgar Mittelholzer.
talent
by
A new art sprang out of
the irrevocable changes that swept the West Indies in the
last few years.
reflect
both
The short stories, essays, plays and poems
contemporary
life
and
pBBsenfcnh is the trend of the future.
a
life
in
store.i.'The
Where new values will
predominate and a new approach to things will be born.
In the early stages the 'creole' literary tradition
established by the white crolfesi, a minority group enjoying
economic power got weakened by their cultural allegiance to
the metropolis and
by an ambivalence towards the islands.
The paucity of their literary output and the^vmrnmm&aa of
its
perspective
can
be
traced
for
instance,
in
the
deteriorating vision of a fine writer like De Lisser who moved
from
the
social
vision
of
a
novel
like
Jane's
Career
towards exotic romances like The White Witch of Rosehall.
The poetry of the period fared even worse in social
awareness and in responsibility towards a tradition, and the
problem
was
not
just
the
problem
of
an
imitative
and
derivative poetry drawing its inspiration and forms from a
metropolitan tradition;
it was one of an absence of vision
:: 10 ::
and direction.
M.J.Chapman
context#
Poets like James Graingerc (1723-1765) and'
(1833)
wrote
perspective
or
without
much
tradition.
of
a
Only
West
the
Indian
black poet
Francis Williams moved perhaps by his own inner tensions/
seemed to have seen poetry as a means of voicing personal
conflicts
and
social
dilemmas.
The
emergence
of
a
politically aware and socially conscious literary tradition/
it
seemed/
had
to
wait
the
improvements
in
West
popular education and the rise of nationalism.
Indian
Accordingly
the years between 1937/ when widespread rioting and strikes
broke
out
demands
on
for
the
self
islands
leading
determination/
to
and
labour
1962
unrests
when
the
and
West
Indian Federation broke up/ constitute the most active and
vigorous in the literary history of the islands.
They were
years of ativity and debate marking the rise of political
consciousness
in
the
West
Indies
and
the
popular
anticolonial agitation which heralded demands for social and
political change.
The emergence of the
'Beacon Group1/
a
political/ radical and creative set of writers active in the
labour
movement
struggle/
gave a
activity
in West
and
identified
with
the
new perspective and urgency
Indies.
For/
independence
to
literary
these activists were also
novelists/ poets/ short story writers and historians who saw
their writing as part of the anti-colonial struggle and of
the
new
sensitivity
to
economic
and
social
relations.
Alfred Mendes's Pitch Lake (1934)and Black Fauns (1935)/ and
•• •• 1^ 1X
C.E..R.
James's
perspective
Minty
by
Alley
raising
*• ••
(1936)
questions
widened
West
about
the
Indian
colonial
society and giving new depths to the social realism which
had
informed
Career.
earlier
Piteh
spiritually
Portuguese
novels
Lake
for
instance/
impoverished
in
Trinidad/
like
world
and
of
Minty
De
Lisser's
flayed
the
Jane's
the
hollow/
middle
Alley
class
confronted
its
educated hero with the lowly/ pinched world of the yard.
In
poetry
the
increased
self-consciousness
and
social awareness were reflected in dimensions especially
in the poetry of Una Marson and A.J.Seymour where
first
time/
giving
the cliches
way
statement.
to
of
the pastoral
personal
literature
tradition were
exploration
and
political
This vigorous literary activity took place in
the atmosphere of a new critical
standards.
for the
The
were
nature
being
and
interest in canons and
character
debated
and
of
the
defined
emerging
in
the
new
literary journals of the time/ and the ongoing interest in
the creole language/ in the traditions of the folk and in
West Indian historiography/ was helping to widen the scope
of the debate.
It was from this political and literary context
that
V.S.Reid's
surprising that
past
in
order
Mew
it
to
Day
(1949)
emerged/
and
it
is
not
should have recreated the historical
present
a
continuity
in
West
Indian
* •
•* *• 12
aL
• •
experience.
.mood
of
This historical perspective was part of the
the
times/
part
of
the
growing
sense
separate West Indian entity and experience.
of
a
The sense
of isolation was not really new in West Indian thought.
Jamaican
asserted
Settlers
and
planters
had
persistently
the distinctiveness of their society and
institutions way back in the eighteenth century.
its
They
had often jeolously guarded the autonomy and integrity
of their Legislative Assembly and even conceived of an
internal autonomous Jamaica within the wider framework
of Empire.
But this sense of 'identity' was frequently
obscured by ambiguities and dichotomies.
Often#
their
natural wish for autonomy conflicted with their contempt
for
the vulgarities
of a
slave and
colonial
society.
The impact of colonisation complic'atedthe situation by
generating
culture#
a
divisive
loyalty
an
stifling
the
metropolitan
and slavery further inhibited their attitudes
to the whole idea of freedom#
of
to
enfranchised
their
slave
aspirations
creating a neurotic fear
popultion#
for
and
national
ultimately
independence.
For the slave was not seen thenas a force in history#
being neither a maker nor a creator of history.
perspective was thus
Reid's
both • the continuation of a trend
and a widening of its implications.
For the first time
an imaginative writer had placed the West Indian black
:: 13 ::
in the context of West Indian 'history'.
He had rescued
him/her from anonymity and made his/her experience and
inner reality part
natural
of
freedom.
the West
The West
Indian aspiration
for
Indian scholar J.J.Thomas#
had admittedly argued the validity of 'negro' history in
the West Indies long before#
in Froudacity (1889)# and
Mittelholzer had dramatized in almost epic proportions
the evolution of Guianese colonial and slave society in
the
Kaywana
triology.
But
Reid's
novel
was
a
development on these# especially in the way it created a
particular West Indian sensibility shaped by the peasant
environment and way of
But
in
a
sense#
reflection
thinking
of
of
Reid's
the
the
self-assertion
life of the emancipated slave.
novel
ambivalence
time,
of
its
one
hand
of
on
was
also
of
ironically
the
a
nationalist
self-consciousness
and
its
the
dependence
on
other upon the guidance and goodwill of the metropolis.
The literature of the 50s and 60s was a more
rigorous examination of the colonial experience# combining
an
anti-colonial
definitions
and
perspective
values.
Poems of Resistance (1954)
col on ia.l
voice
as
part
In
with
a
search
for
new
Guyana#
Martin
Carter's
established a strident antiof
political
statement
and
protest while his later poetry examined the nature of
colonial society and the colonial psyche.
The past was
:: 14 ::
again being recreated but in fictional/ more imaginative
terms
that
gave
writers
the
leeway
to
explore
complex consequences of the region's history.
creative
writer
of
this
period
the
the
For the
apprehension
of
history was particularly problematic since the past as
manifested
in
uncreative.
progress
West
and
fragmentary
language
the
seemed
and
both
negative
and
Indian history conceived in terms of
development
and
imaginative
present
seemed
dependent
culture
writer's
of
on
a
short#
values
uncreative#
implict
colonising
engagement
with
in
the
power.
such
The
a
past
demanded new and radical approaches to history and for a
writer
Like
succession
Lamming#
of
'history'
episodes
with
casual
something more active
:
offering
opposition
antagonistic
'the
meant
not
connections
creation of
and
merely
a
a
but
situation
challenge
survival that had to be met by all involved'.
a
of
The past
in other words# was to be confronted and explored but
only with an eye
on the
future#
and
for
Lamming
the
future was the future of the community of people: their
self-knowledge# their identity and the reintegration of
their
personalities.
The
imaginative
medium#
not
conventional history or anthropology could grapple with
such an exploration and Lamming^snovels became ways of
investigating
West
and
projecting
Indian people#
ways
of
the
inner
charting
experience
the
West
of
Indian
:: 15
memory as far as it could go.
skin
through
Season
of
The Emigrants/
Adventure,
Pleasures of Exile/
and
probed
the
rebellion.
Prom In the Castle of my
Of Age and Innocence/
Water
with
Berries
to
The
Lamming explored colonial relations
nature
In somewhat
of
colonial
dependence
and
similar terms other novelists
revealed the reality of West Indian man in ways that no
conventional history could have managed.
had
earlier
experience
and
now examined
colonial
inhibiting
charted
the
progress
sensibility
the
emotional
relations
medium
by
in
The
of
West
exploring
and
through
v.S.Reid, who
a
real
spiritual
less
Leopard.
Indian
history,
tensions
restricting
In
Jamaica,
of
and
John
Hearne reacted in a similar way to the consequences of
history exposing the precariousness and vulnerability of
middle
Gate,
while
class
values
in
The Faces of Love
in
Trinidad,
novels
and
Samuel
like
Strangers
at
the
Voices Under the Window,
Selvan
and
V.S.Naipaul
assessed the costs and gains of the
1creolisation'
the East
and
Indian in A Brighter sun
Mr.Biswas
explorations
respectively.
centred
on
In
the
both
creolisation
of
A House for
the
of
novels
the
East
Indian and on the nature and quality of his adjustment
in the colonial society.
Indian characters moved from
enclosed peasant worlds into the wider colonial world,
and the movement was in both novels an exploration and a
:: 16::
growth in awareness and sensibility, though for Naipaul
more than for Selvon possibilities forwholeness, fulfilment
and achievement were lessened by the very circumstances
of the colonial experience.
Selvon1s
A
Brighter
Again Tiger (1958)
West
Even
when
(1952)
and
Turn
contributed to the tradition of the
Indian novel
delineation of
Sun
through
social
writing
of
their use of
problems,
the
and
loners,
local
sense
of
hustlers
speech,
comedy.
and
other
exiles on the fringe of West Indian society in England,
in
The
Lonely
Londoners
(1956),
characters who seemed typical and
Selvon
created
representative.
He
was among the first to capture the picaresque quality
sometimes
characteristic
of
West
Indian
lives.
His
sensitivity and gaiety led him, as it were, straight to
the
heart
of
his
characters.
The
concern
with
transition and social evolution was not just a concern
with
progress
capture
Indian
the
and
very
World,
and
growth
it
meaning
and
this
was
was
also
an
attempt
significance
part
of
the
of
a
to
West
inspiration
behind the proliferation of novels of childhood during
this
time.
Lamming's
Michael Anthony's
Christopher,
Ian
In.
the
Castle
of
The year in San Fernando,
Mcdonald's
The
Humming
My
Skin,
Drayton's
Bird
Tree,
Merle Hodge's Crick Crack Monkey and Jean Rhys's Wide
Sargasso Sea were all in part, attempts at capturing and
savouring something of the essence of West Indian Life
:: 17 ::
through
the
developing
Somehow
the
discovery
consciousness
and
identity
of
with
the
child.
this
world
seemed better and more truthfully revealed through the
impressions of the growing child.
In
meaning
the
and
60s
Indian
Guiana
_
n—t
similar
significance
intense explorations
West
a
of
Quartet
r-r-n-- t-
underlied
the
Personality.
recreated
*
pre-occupation
impact
His
the
Wilson
of
various
Harris's
history
novels#
with
on the
especially The
aberrations
of
history in the consciousness of both the oppressor and
his
victim#
enacting
not
just
the
linear
drama
of
conquest and defeat but also the dualities and paradoxes
of the confrontation#
as well as the possibilities for
rebirth# reconciliation and a new community.
During
this
vigorous
period
of
West
Indian
literary activity# the social world even in its negative
manifestation in the slum was an object of exploration.
Roger Mais's The Hills Were Joyful Together (1953)
Brother Man 1954)
of
the
slum#
and
limited themselves to the conditions
evoking
its
deprivations#
poverty#
frustration and waste as evidence of rural dispossession
and urbanisation.
These worlds were not the changing and
developing worlds of Naipaul# Selvon and Lamming : They
were the static enclaves of the urban castaways# those
:: 18::
whom
industrialisation had
flushed out
and abandoned.
Mais sought to highlight the social neglect of the slums
while at the same time revealing the indomitable will of
the
people
and
communal spirit.
the
healing
unifying
power
of
the
In the early 60s Orlando Patterson was
to evoke the same background in the Children of Sisyphus
(1964)#
demonstrating
the
frustration
and
revealing
same
social
escapism
as
concern
the
but
ultimate
absurdity of the West Indian condition .
The concern with the consequences of history#
with
the
social
world
and
its
impact
on West
Indian
sensibility# led almost naturally to another major theme
in the 50s and 60s : the theme of emigration the concern
was
a
response
both
to
a
historical
psychological colonial problem.
phenomenon
and
In the 50s and 60s West
Indians were actually emigrating from the islands to the
metroplis*-
in
search
of
what
they
called
a
"better
break"# though in some sense they were also manifesting
a
colonial syndrome#
a belief in shared heritage with
the mother country and the Western World. Novel after
novel# poem after poem explored the pleasures and perils
of exile and their effects on the sensibilities of West
Indians.
and
The
Sunlight#
Lamming's
The Emigrants#
Pleasures
The
Moses Ascending#
of
Lonely
Exile;
Londoners#
Water with Berries
Selvon's
Moses
Ways
of
Migrating#
Brathwaite's Rights of Passage
and
recently the novels of Austin Clarke have all revealed
:: 19 ::
the enlarged consciousness of the emigrant side by side
with
his
peculiar
disorientation
in
an
alien
world.
Increasingly however# the idea of emigration has become
almost a global phenomenon and a new extension of West
Indian
consciousness
and
vision
has
already
begun to
emerge in England and North America.
The exciting progress of theme# vision and form
in the West Indian Novel has not always been matched in
the region's poetry.
In the 1940s and 50s West Indian
Poets and dramatists lagged behind the novelists.
Still
groping for distinctive voices they had not acquired the
depth
of
theme
and
authority
novelists had achieved.
of
vision
that
the
Claude Mckay's experiments with
dialect and folk forms in the 1920s and his articulation
of
the
like
it
divided
Afro-Caribbean
consciousness
in
poems
"outcast" had offered significant directions#
was
not
until
the
60s
with
the
poetry
of
but
Louise
Bennett# Eric Roach# Derek Walcott and Edward Brathwaite
that
these
forms
and themes began to be handled with
maturity and complexity.
of
displacement
Castaway
and
Walcott grappled with themes
spiritual
impoverishment
The
and looking for ways in which the artist could
transcend these in his effort to be creative.
his
in
cynicism
and
despair
however#
he
did
For all
manage
to
:: 20 ::
retain
a
sense
experience
and
of
the
to
possibilities
progress
through
of
the
"The
poetic
Gulf"
and
"Another Life" towards a view of the artist as capable
of freeing his people by returning them unto themselves
through the very act of naming them/ of capturing their
lives# their landscape and their language.
Accordingly
his experiments in the Trinidad Wrokshop with dialect/
folk forms and folk mythologies in plays like "The Sea
at Dauphin/
T-Jean and His Brothers
Monkey Mountain •
and
Dream on
helped to establish a most vibrant
tradition in West Indian drama/
realising his hopes of
making 'heraldic men'out of 'foresters and fishermen'.
In West Indian literature the themes of anti­
imperialism and nationalism were part of the cultural
nationalism v which
was
its
manifestation.
The
consciousness of a West Indian people with a character/
history and aspirations separate from the metropolis was
an underlining ideology in the nationalist movement and
the
literature of
novel
a
new
the mid-twentieth
interest
in
history/
century.
in
the
In the
historical
process and in the continuity of historical experience/
marked
a
challenge
new
Indian
to nineteenth
historylessness
Samuel Selvon's
Hills
West
were
of
the
awareness/
century assumptions
region.
A Brighter-Sun
Joyful
which
Together
V.S.Reid's
was
about
a
the
New
Day/
and Roger Mais's
The
were
all
attempts
at
21
• •
creating
this
distinctive
* •
experience
Selvon's Turn Again Tiger
and
character.
recreates the environment
and social content of the colonial plantation/ complete
with its hierarchy of white supervisor#
keeper and labourers.
with
the
situation
The protagonist's confrontation
and
reflections
becomes
relationship
to
its
an
the
overseer# time
normal
and
examination
colonial
of
experience.
process of creolisation# Selvon implies#
the
whole
answer
to
the
quest
Naipaul's The Mimic Men
relationship
between
nationalist
colonial
assertion in the West
his
own
The
mere
is finally not
for
realisation.
the
psychological
freedom
and
examines the
experience
Indies#
and
showing how
freedom itself is limited and impaired by the permanent
disabilities of the colonial experience.
Naipaul says#
nationalism in such a context is ultimately ineffective#
appealing
drama
only
and
to
violence.
Innocence (1958)
nationalist
plotted
and
West Indies#
and
offering
Lamming's
Of
Age
only
and
explores the pitfalls and failures of
in
West
Indies.
the multi-racial
Carefully
complexity of the
it dramatises the historical disabilities
Indians
must
true unity and freedom.
Jamaica's
colour
George
aspirations
to reflect
which West
race
constitutional
overcome
in
order to achieve
V.S.Reid's New Day (1949) sees
freedom
of
1944
as
an
inevitable sequel to the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865.
: 22 ::
This
Novel
ineffectual
charts
the
movement
radicalism towards a
from
a
fiery
but
responsible political
leadership in which a combined force of workers and the
educated
class
achieves
political
reasoned
argument.
As
colonial
experience#
race
a
realisation
fundamental
has
always
aspect
been
a
through
of
the
crucial
issue in colonial relations and has surfaced in various
dimensions in the literature of the West Indies.
The
simplicity of the colonial society# Naipaul observes in
The
Loss
of
Eldorado#
was the very simplicity of
its
values of money and race# and in the colour-structured
society#
unified only by the consensual acceptance of
the inferiority of 'negro-ness'# race being an appalling
definer
of
value.
It
came
up
not
only
in
relations
between European white master and black slave# but also
between the various gradations of the colour hierarchy.
Such consistent debasement of 'negro-ness' had two major
psychological
repercussins
:
it
instilled in the black
slave an overwhelming awe of everything white and at the
same time bred a sense of inferiority and self-abasement
in his
inner most
slaves and the
accompanies
consciousness.
exhilaration
The emancipation of
of
freedom
which
it did nothing much to change the general
thinking of race;
rather the importation of indentured
labour from India into a number of West Indian islands
: : 23 ::
introduced a new racial element# complicating the whiteblack dichotomy.
White#
coloured#
African# East Indian
affected basically separate racial identities#
suspicious
and
often contemptuous
colonial
society#
reflecting
remained
fragmented
inspired
conflicts and violence.
and
interesting
exploration
(1958).
Walcott
of each other.
most
of
unsettled#
of
and
the
a
these
prey
and
A - Brighter Sun#
from
enclosed
racial
Suffrage of Elvira
religious
and
racially
V.S.Reid provided an
theme
Lamming
in
The
Leopards
explored
similar
Water with Berries
Selvon
The
tensions#
to
confrontations in Dream on Monkey Mountain#
His Brothers
fearful#
presented
T-Jean and
respectively.
In
a movement forward
entities.
V.S.Naipaul's
The
is a comic evocation of the racial,
cultural
mix-up which
is
the
historical
legacy of Trinidad society.
The theme of childhood and with it the idea of
growth from innocence to maturity has been a recurrent
theme
in
West
Indian
about childhood#
engaged
in
environment
novels#
particular world.
the
experience.
The Year
Days By The River
In
all
the
novels
the child protagonist is almost always
recording
or
literature.
impact
of
Machael
In San Fernando
a
particular
Anthony* s
(1965)
and
two
Green
areabout a child's progress through a
In Merbe Hodge's
Crick Crack Monkey
the young heroine's experiences are crucial both for her
: 24 ::
pessonal development and as an illustration of the novel's
theme of cultural confusion and insecurity.
the
world
ethos
of
childhood
and
of
the
dramatised
in
In
narrator
areas
general
the
part
of
the
disintegration
Castle
in Naipaul's
of
becomes
In Lamming
of
My
which
evoked
and
The
boy
Skin.
Miguel Street
child's perception
colonial
presents entire
are
opened simply
through his perceptibn of people around him.
Rastafarianism
interest and
as
a fascination
various
stages
writers
have
of
the
an ideology
for West
has
held
Indian writers at
literature's progress.
projected
the
rastafarious
Various
beliefs
rituals and featured their powerful speech rhythms
poetry and prose.
an
In some respect this
and
in
interest has
been a response to the sense of self and dignity which
the
sect
maintains
imitative#
through
bastardised
its very rejection of
version
of
'British'
the
society
which most middle class West Indians consider the norm
for their societies.
As a sect they have featured in
various dimensions in West Indian literature.
Mais's
The Hills Were Joyful Together
and
InRoger
Brother Man
it is their humane philosophy of peace and brotherhood
that
is
pinched
explored as
a
positive
unifying
and deprived world of the slum.
Patterson,
writing
in
1964,
however,
force
in the
For Orlando
the Rastafarians
:: 25 ::
signified
the
very
futility
of
transcending
the
depressing and depravity of the jungle.
The Caribbean writers may differ in their ways
and
style-their tropical
individuality runs riot.
As
Barbara Howes observed :
One
thing
they
seem
to
have
Vitality# a range of talent.
in
common
:
A great deal is
going on writers of stature have emerged and
more
are
emerging.
What
Mr.
Wickham
in
a
reecent article identifies as the essence of
the West Indian is 'a quality of intimacy1/ an
honesty and openness which accords well with
the
creative
spirit;
this
quality
separatist in intention'/ he says/
inevitably
from
the
traffic
'is
not
'but arises
of
a
small
population living an open life in the bright
searching light of i thei.sun'. 2
oi!
>
Caribbean writers brilliant talent has blossomed in the
post-war years.
very earth/ air/
power/
the
Caribbean literature
is
full
of
the
sea/ sand and sun of the islands/ the
passion/
the
love/
the
longing/
the
heartache/ the humour/ above all the dazzling vision of
: : 26::
the people and their aheer feeling for life itself.
The
Times Literary Supplement Comments on Caribbean writers:
"A torrent of literary talent has come surging out of
the Caribbean like a Gulf stream of the spirit-earthy#
passionate#
gay#
Caribbean writers
fantastic#
are
funny.
unmistakably
In
cut
short,
from
the
the
same
cloth".
The Caribbean writer# from the microcosm of his
island,
reaches out beyond it to the macrocosm of the
world.
That there is so much talent and intelligence
here is our great good fortune.
Finally#
in a very brief time the West Indians
have produced poets# novelists and a few playwrights of
an internationally acceptable standard#
inspite of the
lack of sufficientlylarge local encouraging public. West
Indian literature is the newest Caribbean literature and
one of the newest and most dynamic of the literatures of
the British Commonwealth; its achievement to date angurs
well for its future.
REFERENCES
Kenneth
Ramchand,
Background/
Barbara
The West
Indian Novel and Its
Faber and Faber, London, 1970, P.4.
Howes(ed),
Souvenir Press,
From
The
Green—Antilles,—
London, 1967, P.12.