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Edgar Mittelholzer (1909-1965) and the Shaping of His Novels

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Edgar Mittelholzer (1909-1965) and the Shaping of His Novels EDGAR MITTELHOLZER (1909-1965) AND THE SHAPING OF HIS NOVELS by JUANITA ANNE WESTMAAS A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Centre of West African Studies School of Historical Studies University of Birmingham June 2013 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis is a response to the critics of the pioneering novelist Edgar Mittelholzer whose second novel was instrumental in paving the way for other Caribbean novelists during the 1950s. Critics of Mittelholzer have accused him of fascism, racism, an unhealthy interest in sexually sensationalist topics and death. He has until the recent centenary of his birth been marginalised and understudied. The first chapter of this thesis outlines the areas of study that have thus far been focused on and explores the underlying methods and theoretical framework of this thesis. The second chapter focuses on the author’s background, career and contribution to the Caribbean. The third explores the genesis of Mittelholzer’s creativity with a view to revealing how intertextuality is key to an understanding of his novels. It also discusses his creative use of the Middle Eastern notion of the Jinnee. The fourth chapter offers a critical analysis of The Life and Death of Sylvia and demonstrates how Mittelholzer employed the themes of sex, race and death. The fifth Chapter establishes that the texts of Yogi Ramacharaka were his primary source of inspiration and that Mittelholzer’s novels can be best understood in terms of the Oriental Occultist’s teachings. The sixth chapter explores Mittelholzer’s racial identity and finds that his mixed ancestry was a key source of creative inspiration. The final chapter concludes that further research is needed into his work and that an exploration of the intertextual references serves to clarify the author’s objectives. DEDICATION To the ‘Shadowed Breathing in the Room’ & To my husband, Roderick Westmaas - This thesis would never have been completed without your support - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to record my especial gratitude to Dr Stewart Brown for supervising my thesis; to Dr Peter Fraser for generously setting aside time to encourage, guide and advise me; to Prof. Clem Seecharan and Rita Christian for encouraging me to persevere; to the Arts and Humanities Research Council and to the University of Birmingham for their financial assistance; to Ruth Windebank, Anna Mittelholzer, Dr Michael Gilkes, and the late Lucille Mittelholzer for allowing me to consult and quote from their private collections of Edgar Mittelholzer memorabilia including the author’s manuscripts, newspaper cuttings, personal correspondence and unpublished diary; to Jacqueline Ward for her support, years of friendship and invaluable insights into the life of her late husband, Edgar Mittelholzer; and to the many acquaintances, fellow-novelists, friends and family of Edgar Mittelholzer who willingly endured all my questioning. Special thanks are also due to the library staff and archivists of the following institutions: Barbados National Archives Beinecke Rare Books & Manuscript Library, Yale University British Library National Library of Guyana Princeton University The British Newspaper Archives (Colindale branch) University of Guyana University of Reading University of Sussex University of the West Indies (Cave Hill & St Augustine’s campuses) TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page No No. 1 INTRODUCTION 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Who was Edgar Mittelholzer? 1 MITTELHOLZER’S NEW LEASE OF LIFE 4 THE OBJECTIVES OF THE THESIS 5 KEY CRITICAL ASSESSMENTS 6 The 1960s 6 The 1970s 12 The 1980s 14 The 1990s 15 The 2000s 19 METHODOLOGY 20 A SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTERS TO FOLLOW 27 2 THE MAN, THE WRITER & HIS CAREER 32 INTRODUCTION 32 PUBLICATION HISTORY 33 The Prolific Novelist 33 Novels set in a Caribbean Locale 35 Novels set in an English Locale 38 MITTELHOLZER’S CAREER 40 Formation of the Man 40 The Pioneer: A Quiet Revolutionary 46 The Writer: Awaiting Fame 51 Success at Last 57 A Caribbean Voice 62 A Caribbean Exile 67 A Darkening Cloud of Opprobrium 70 Writing An Essay in Freedom 75 Re-Membering the Man 78 3 MITTELHOLZER’S CREATIVE GENES(IS) & THE GENI(US) 81 BEHIND IT INTRODUCTION 81 A MORNING AT THE OFFICE & MITTELHOLZER’S JEN 83 A Synopsis of A Morning at the Office 83 A Synopsis of “The Jen” 85 “The Jen” & the Critics 86 Unmasking the Jen 89 Who is the Jen’s Dreadful Friend? 95 Establishing a Literary Agenda 97 Subverting Negative Representations of Race 101 CORENTYNE THUNDER – A QUIET REVOLUTION 104 Corentyne Thunder: The Critics 104 A Swarthy Boy in the Corentyne 106 Corentyne Thunder & its Dialogic Intertexts 107 The Jinnee’s Release 121 4 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF SYLVIA 124 PUBLISHING SYLVIA 124 SYLVIA: A CRITICAL RECEPTION 126 SYLVIA’S GEORGETOWN SETTING 129 RADICAL BILDUNGSROMAN 143 THE TRAGIC MULATTO 147 Racial Constructs of the Social Self 150 The Theme of Sex: A Freudian Metaphor 155 The Sex-Sea Leitmotif 160 Music & Death: Sylvia’s Georgetown Symphony 162 Music as Metaphor 164 Music as a Structuring Device 166 Philosophy of Death 170 5 RELIGION & SEX 174 INTRODUCTION 174 MITTELHOLZER’S ‘RELIGIOUS’ BACKGROUND 175 Christian Childhood 175 Occult Entities in Guianese Folklore 175 The Appeal of Switching Faiths 177 Oriental Occultist Adulthood 179 Sex: normal physical function versus the demands of 182 religion MITTELHOLZER: THE PREACHER MAN 186 Intertextual Signposts 186 There is no God 188 The Laws of Nature 190 Life is Brutal 193 Eternal Man 196 A Quite Explicit Fuhrer? 199 Beyond Psychology: Psychic Projections/Phenomenon 201 THE SPIRIT – FLESH DIALECTIC 205 The Pair of Opposites 205 Achieving Balance 207 Bound by Rajas (or Passion) 209 Materialist, Romanticist, Crusader or Dilettante? 213 The Death of a ‘Free-Thinking’ Yogi 218 6 HOO-ARE-YOU? 222 INTRODUCTION 222 What I’m Not… 222 Shape-shifting: Tragic Mulatto, Human Mongrel or 223 Swarthy Boy? MITTELHOLZER’S NOVELS: CONSTRUCTING AN IDENTITY 226 A Morning at the Office (1950) 226 My Bones and My Flute (1955) 228 The Kaywana Trilogy – Children of Fire 233 CHOOSING SIDES 245 The Black Race: Creating a New Future 250 German to the Middle of his Soul 253 THE TRAGIC ‘MANQUE’ 256 Was Mittelholzer a Racist? 261 7 CONCLUSION 267 BIBLIOGRAPHY 271 APPENDICES 299 Appendix 1 – Creole Chip No. 9 300 Appendix 2 – Mittelholzer and Music 301 Appendix 2 – Publication History: Novels & Non-Fiction 302 Books CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION “[It] is the complex nature of […] social origins, and the conflicting loyalties involved in the scheme of […] race, class and economic status, which dictate that each must tread his own lone-wolf path of literary expression.”1 INTRODUCTION Who was Edgar Mittelholzer? Of Guianese2 birth, Edgar Austin Mittelholzer (1909-1965) was the first of the Caribbean literati to make a professional career out of writing novels. Several of his 22 novels were translated into at least six European languages with one – A Morning at the Office – being published by Penguin. Other published works include an anti-capitalist novella, a travel journal, an autobiography, numerous articles, short stories and poems. According to A J Seymour, he was known at the height of his career to millions of English- speaking people across the world, whilst others claimed that his novels were the “hottest sellers in the paperback market” and that his books would sell an average of 8,000 copies.3 The importance of his objectives as a novelist and success as a writer was recognised soon after the publication of Shadows Move Among Them (1952), when he became the first Caribbean to be awarded the esteemed Guggenheim Fellowship. The aforementioned novel, dramatised by Moss Hart, as The Climate of Eden, became the first Caribbean play to be staged 1 Mittelholzer, E. “Color, Class and Letters” in The Nation (New York: 17 January 1959) p. 57. 2 It should be noted that this thesis refers to the territory of Mittelholzer’s birth as British Guiana or Guiana as a means of underlining the colonial context into which the author had been born. British Guiana became independent from the United Kingdom in the year after Mittelholzer’s death (on 26th May 1966) and was named the Co-operative Republic of Guyana on 23rd of February 1970. The term Guyana is used to refer to events after his death or to critics whose works appear after 1966. 3 Cited in Lewis P, “Mittelholzer Found Dead” in Guiana Graphic (Georgetown: 7th May 1965) p. 6. 1 on Broadway (at the Martin Beck Theatre, New York) in 1953. The play, according to Wagner, secured a national television showing in the United States six years later.4 His novel, My Bones and My Flute was described in the Daily Telegraph as equal to the novels written by Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873), the leading ghost story writer of the 19th century.5 It was later dramatised for radio by Frances Farrier and is still remembered with awe and trepidation by many Guyanese listeners. At the time of his death, Mittelholzer was the most important literary figure that British Guiana had produced. But this was not just in terms of writing entertaining novels. In a tribute to the author on 10th May 1965, the Guianese Prime Minister, L S F Burnham referred to him as: “a great author who had done much to bring our art to the eyes of the world.
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