Printing the West Indies: Literary Magazines and the Anglophone Caribbean 1920S-1950S Claire Catherine Irving
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Printing the West Indies: Literary magazines and the Anglophone Caribbean 1920s-1950s Claire Catherine Irving Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Newcastle University School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics December 2015 Printing the West Indies: Literary magazines and the Anglophone Caribbean 1920s-1950s Abstract This thesis uncovers a body of literary magazines previously seen as peripheral to Caribbean literature. Drawing on extensive archival research, it argues for the need to open up the critical consensus around a small selection of magazines (Trinidad, The Beacon, Bim and Kyk-over-al), to consider a much broader and more varied landscape of periodicals. Covering twenty-eight magazines, the thesis is the first sustained account of a periodical culture published between the 1920s and 1950s. The project identifies a broad-based movement towards magazines by West Indians, informed and shaped by a shared aspiration for a West Indian literary tradition. It identifies the magazines as a key forum through which the West Indian middle classes contributed to and negotiated the process of cultural decolonisation which paralleled the political movement to independence in the 1960s. Chapter One explores the broad ways in which the magazines envisioned a West Indian literary tradition, before focusing on the tensions between the oral folk tradition and emerging print culture. Chapter Two moves to a closer focus on the middle-class West Indians publishing the magazines and the Literary and Debating Society movement. It argues that through their magazines these clubs sought to intervene in the public sphere. Chapter Three considers the marginalised publications of three key women editors, Esther Chapman, Una Marson and Aimee Webster and identifies how the magazine form enabled these editors to pursue wider political agendas linked to their cultural aims. Chapter Four returns to a broader focus on the magazines’ paratextual elements including advertisements and commercial competitions, to explore the business of magazine publication and the ways in which this shaped their contents and compilation. Overall, the cultural and material history of the magazines mapped by this thesis sheds new light on what remains an under-explored but critical period of Caribbean literary history, on the cusp of cultural decolonisation and formal independence. i ii Acknowledgements My thanks go to the Arts and Humanities Research Council who granted me the doctoral studentship which made this project possible. I am grateful for the further support I received from the AHRC and the Postcolonial Studies Association which enabled me to undertake research that was central to this project in Trinidad and Jamaica in early 2013. Many thanks also to the School of English at Newcastle University which generously supported me to undertake additional research trips around the UK. I firstly want to thank my examiners, Sarah Lawson Welsh and Robbie McLaughlan for their thorough and insightful critiques of this thesis during my viva and the generous spirit with which they read and engaged with my research. Their approach made the examination a positive and, dare I say it, enjoyable culmination of my four years of work and for that I am very grateful. There are many people who have assisted me over those four years, and thanks here does not seem sufficient to acknowledge their professional and personal support. The successes of this project are due to them; its flaws, of course, are entirely my own. In the course this research I have visited and worked many libraries and archives across the UK and Caribbean, and received the assistance of numerous fantastic librarians and archivists, who have fetched material and answered my many queries and endless emails. I am thankful for the assistance of staff at the British Library, National Archives, National Library of Scotland and Leeds, Birmingham, Warwick, Cambridge, and Oxford Universities. The staff at the National Library of Jamaica, UWI Mona, UWI St Augustine, and the Trinidad National Archives all provided me with much needed assistance during my visit in 2013. I am grateful for the further assistance via email from these librarians and archivists and those at UWI Cave Hill and the New York Public Library. I must make particular mention of Genevieve Jones-Edman at the National Library of Jamaica and Aisha Baptiste at UWI St Augustine both of whom were incredibly helpful, they are a credit to their profession. Thanks also to Petra Arthur who assisted me with collecting material from Barbados. I am indebted to Michèle Levy, a fellow researcher who provided advice and guidance when I was in Jamaica, and put me in contact with Austin Nolte iii in Trinidad. Austin Nolte welcomed me into his home and kindly allowed me to read copies of his father’s magazines, for which I am very grateful. Much closer to home are the staff at the Robinson Library who have been so helpful during my time at Newcastle University; in particular, I would like to thank David and the interlibrary loans team who dealt with my numerous, and often hard to track-down, requests. The School of English at Newcastle University has been my home for eight years, during which I have been taught by, and worked alongside, many excellent academics. I am grateful for all the opportunities that the school and its staff have afforded to me. In particular, I would like to thank Kate Chedgzoy, who helped to steer me and my PhD back on track in my first year, and Jeff Wilson who fielded many gormless IT questions from me over the last few years. Above all, my thanks go to my supervisors, James Procter and Neelam Srivastava, whose academic and personal support has been invaluable. I suspect neither knew that when they taught me as a keen, vocal (read bolshie) undergraduate that they would have to put up with me for so long, but I am glad they did! Through their own research and teaching James and Neelam have been inspiring role models and their advice and friendship over the years has been very much appreciated. James, as my primary supervisor, has been particularly generous with his time and ideas in order to help me develop my own thinking. Most importantly both James and Neelam continued to believe in me, and my work, even when I did not. I have been very lucky to have them. My friends have made this journey possible and injected some much-needed fun. I could not have hoped for a better group of friends and colleagues than Helen, Bea, Sadek, Jon, Katie and Tom; their support, advice, conversation and good-humoured ribbing have made it an enjoyable four years in a windowless basement. Outside of the Percy Building they, and my wider group of friends, have ensured I had a life outside of work and, I hope, meant that I didn’t get too absorbed in myself and my tiny magazines! Their support has also been practical, answering many questions and dealing with my crises of confidence. In particular I want to thank Becca, Chris, Bea, Jon and Helen who helped me with proofing in the final few weeks. A special shout out goes to Katie, who I am so glad I serendipitously befriended, and Tom, without whom I know I would not have made it this far. iv Most importantly, I want to thank Leonard and my family whose love, support and unwavering belief I cannot begin to do justice to in words. Tom, in whose steps I followed, perhaps foolishly, by embarking on a PhD and David, whose teasing helps to remind me qualifications aren’t everything, even when they come with a title. My parents have been amazing, buoying me up when needed and always pushing me to do my best; making them proud has been a big motivator for getting to this point. My mum, Mary, also gave me invaluable practical help, undertaking hours of proof- reading without grumbling too much about my enthusiastic use of commas! Whereas Leonard has through this, as in life, been my rock; his love and faith in me has been so important. Leonard and my parents are owed the biggest thanks of all for living through this thesis with me and keeping me going. Here’s to them, with all my love. v vi Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................i Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... iii Contents ........................................................................................................................ vii List of Figures ................................................................................................................. ix Chapter One - General Introduction............................................................................. 1 1.1 Parameters and Methodological Approaches ................................................... 8 1.2 Accessing the Archive ...................................................................................... 15 1.3 An Underexplored Print Culture ...................................................................... 20 1.4 Thesis Structure ............................................................................................... 33 Chapter Two - Building a West Indian Literature ...................................................... 37 2.1 Local colour and ‘the birth of a literature essentially West Indian’ ................ 39 2.2 Folk culture and the literary magazines ........................................................... 54 2.3 Conclusion .......................................................................................................