SOME OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GUYANESE LITERATURE AFTER INDEPENDENCE
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 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.
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 other writers 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.
Self-publishing was a notable feature at that time. Sheik Sadeek was a pioneer in this field, printing his own numerous works and the material of other writers. And throughout the Post-Independence period writers continue to pay to publish their own work, individually or through organisations like the Roraima Publishers (now defunct), Red Thread and the Association of Guyanese Writers and Artists.
Other enabling features could be found with the launch of KAIE, journal of the National History and Arts Council. The commendable work of KAIE in marketing our writers was ably supported by other literary periodicals like NEW WORLD, DAWN, HERITAGE, PLEXUS, EXPRESSION and THE GUYANA ANNUAL. String those periodicals together and find they have kept the flame of our literature alive, in good and bad times, with each succeeding generation of writers benefiting from our recorded literary heritage and building on it in no uncertain manner.
A recent and welcomed addition to our journals is the Arts Journal offering critical perspective to our literature.
THE GUYANA ANNUAL magazine, launched in 1915, deserves special mention mainly because it has outlived all other periodicals. The 2018 issue of this magazine was launched on May 24.
In due time, the liberation of the imagination in our writers was harnessed and streamlined with the formation of organisations like the PEN – Guyana Writers Group, the Annandale Group of Writers, the Pavement Group and the Messenger Group. The Culture Corp of the Guyana National Service also played a role in producing writers imbued with political and nationalistic fervour; much of what was published did not stand the test of time. Mahadai Das was perhaps the Service’s best known poetess.
As time went by, the convergence of writers through those organisations extended the debate/discussion on current issues to include a wide cross section of society for whom the writers were supplying new words/phrases to address new experiences.
New experiences of this era included restricted press freedom and political paramountcy, racial division and the quest for harmony, class discrimination, ethnic closures, questionable elections and estrangement which were dealt with by writers like Jan Shinebourne, Sasenarine Persaud, Harischandra Khemraj, Grace Nichols, Roy Heath and Narmala Shewcharan, among others.
The indigenous voice was supplying new nuances to mainstream literature as it became ‘A Merry Indian No More’. See the encroachment of the forest, its beauty and its destruction, in the poetry of David Campbell, Basil Rodrigues and Edwina Melville.
A glorious manifestation of this Post-Independence period was the emergence of women writing, enriching the literary landscape from a different perspective as women were able to ‘tease out the truth’ in many instances.
The Guyana Prize for Literature launched in 1987 was another defining moment in our literary heritage. The aim of this crucial project was to ‘provide a focus for the recognition of the creative writing of Guyanese at home and abroad’ and to ‘stimulate interest in, and provide encouragement for, the development of good creative writing among Guyanese…’
Academics from around the world, as far as India, have and are continuing to do dissertations on the our literature namely on the work of Martin Carter, Wilson Harris, Jan Carew, Edgar Mittelholzer, David Dabydeen, Cyril Dabydeen, Sasenarine Persaud, among others. And I am sure in the near future local resident academics will take such pride in our literature and do us proud. Now more than ever, it is imperative to have the scholarship alongside the creative literature. We must not diminish the import of literary criticism.
Five decades in life of a nation’s literature is not a very long time but we have achieved much, far too much to do justice to in this short paper.
And when we string these bits and pieces together, we would find, without a doubt, that we have indeed produced a solid core of writing that we can proudly call Guyanese Literature.
Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com (Guyana Times Sunday Magazine)
