OWAD 6 OWAD utstanding issertations The monograph series Outstanding WA Dissertations FRĄTCZAK MARTA (OWAD) presents a selection of the most remarkable doctoral 6 theses defended in the Faculty of English, AMU. It covers linguistic, literary and cultural studies. The goal of the series is to promote the work of young scholars and to support original research which makes a significant contribution to scholarship and deserves to be disseminated. (R)evolution in the perception perception the in (R)evolution MARTA FRĄTCZAK (R)evolution in the perception Wydział Anglistyki of history, national identity and nature in the contemporary ISBN 978-83-232-3006-9 ISSN 2450-9817 Anglo-Guyanese novel WYDAWNICTWO NAUKOWE UAM (R)evolution in the perception of history, national identity and nature in the contemporary Anglo-Guyanese novel FACULTY OF ENGLISH ADAM MICKIEWICZ UNIVERSITY IN POZNAŃ Outstanding WA Dissertations OWAD 6 Marta Frątczak (R)evolution in the perception of history, national identity and nature in the contemporary Anglo-Guyanese novel Poznań 2016 ABSTRACT. Frątczak Marta. (R)evolution in the perception of history, national identity and nature in the contemporary Anglo-Guyanese novel. Adam Mickiewicz University Press. Poznań 2016. Pp. 282. OWAD 6. ISBN 978-83-232-3006-9. ISSN 2450-9817. Text in English with summary in Polish. The book presents an analysis of selected Anglo-Guyanese novels with a view to drawing a map of the Anglo-Guyanese fiction. The main aim of the monograph is to show the Anglo-Guyanese fiction as an intriguing literary discourse that deserves a separate place within the so called Caribbean literary canon. The book touches upon such topics as the relationship between History and historical novel, the impact of the novel on shaping the Guyanese national identity and the original eco-critical dimension the Guyanese discourse of Nature. The monograph may be of interest to those working in the fields of the Caribbean and postcolonial literatures and cultures. KEY WORDS: Caribbean fiction, Guyanese fiction, postcolonial studies, eco-criticism Marta Frątczak, The Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, al. Niepodległo- ści 4, 61-874 Poznań, Poland; email: [email protected] Publikacja sfinansowana ze środków Wydziału Anglistyki UAM Reviewer/Recenzent prof. dr hab. Mirosława Buchholtz © Marta Frątczak 2016 This edition © Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, Poznań 2016 Cover design/Projekt okładki: Agnieszka Frydrychewicz Typesetting and formatting/Skład i formatowanie: Pracownia Wydawnicza WA UAM ISBN 978-83-232-3006-9 ISSN 2450-9817 WYDAWNICTWO NAUKOWE UNIWERSYTETU IM. ADAMA MICKIEWICZA 61-701 POZNAŃ, UL. FREDRY 10 www.press.amu.edu.pl Sekretariat: tel. 61 829 46 46, fax 61 829 46 47, e-mail: [email protected] Dział sprzedaży: tel. 61 829 46 40, e-mail: [email protected] Wydanie I. Ark. wyd. 17,00. Ark. druk. 17,625. DRUK I OPRAWA: EXPOL, WŁOCŁAWEK, UL. BRZESKA 4 Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1 Towards the postcolonial poetics of the Guyanese fiction .............................. 33 1.1. Beyond postcolonialism: The methodological framework of the monograph ............................................................................... 38 1.2. The historical novel or meaningful visions of the Guyanese past ...... 41 1.3. (Trans)formations of Guyanese national identity .............................. 54 1.4. The aesthetics and ethics of the Guyanese landscapes ...................... 62 Chapter 2 From realism to allegorical realism: The (r)evolutions of the Guyanese historical fiction ............................................................................................... 73 2.1. Guiana – a (home)land of plantations in Children of Kaywana (1952) by Edgar Mittelholzer .............................................................. 76 2.2. History running like water in Weaving water (2013) by Ryhaan Shah ....................................................................................... 92 2.3. (Re)Writing (Afro)Caribbean histories in A love in bondage: Dedicated love in the eighteenth century (1991) by Beryl Gilroy ..... 108 2.4. Universal Guyanese history in Johnson’s Dictionary (2013) by David Dabydeen ........................................................................... 122 Chapter 3 Becoming Guyanese: Literary quests for (trans)national (non)belonging ............................................................................................... 135 3.1. Forging a hybrid national identity in The Shadow Bride (1987) by Roy Heath .......................................................................... 137 3.2. Hybrid(ized) identity negotiations in Disappearance (1993) by David Dabydeen ................................................................ 150 3.3. Reconstructing oneself, reconstructing the nation in Web of secrets (1996) by Denise Harris .................................................... 162 3.4. (Trans)national identity or running away from the past in Buxton spice (1999) by Oonya Kempadoo ........................................ 178 6 Contents Chapter 4 “Remarkable wilderness” and exotic Arcadia: Investigating the Nature of the Guyanese fiction .......................................... 191 4.1. Primeval utopia in Shadows move among them (1951) by Edgar Mittelholzer ........................................................................ 195 4.2. (Post)Human paradise in Children of paradise (2014) by Fred D’Aguiar ............................................................................... 213 4.3. (Post)pastoral landscapes in Heartland (1964) by Wilson Harris ..... 229 4.4. The (eco)pastoral reading of The ventriloquist’s tale (1997) by Pauline Melville ........................................................................... 236 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 251 (R)ewolucja postrzegania historii, tożsamości narodowej i natury we współczesnej powieści anglo-gujańskiej (Streszczenie) ............. 257 (R)evolution in the perception of history, national identity and nature in the contemporary Anglo-Guyanese novel (Summary) .............................. 261 References ...................................................................................................... 265 Introduction A Polish traveller, Arkady Fiedler, claims that the creation of Guyana resembles the story of Creation itself. In the beginning there was the Word, the marvellous story of El Dorado told to the English by Sir Walter Raleigh 1, but borrowed by him from the Spaniard named Juan Martinez2 (Fiedler 2010: cxcvi). The real story of Guyana, however, does not begin with Sir Walter Raleigh; he was not the first European to come to the country and he was by no means the one to have discovered its existence. As Jamaica Kincaid wrote, the New World was new only to the Europeans since “it had a substantial existence, physical and spiritual, before [they] became aware of it” (Kincaid 2011: 19).3 Nevertheless, Raleigh continues to linger in the Western collective imagination as the discoverer of Guyana and the history of Guyana itself 1 Raleigh came to Guyana twice. The first journey took place in 1594 and resulted in the publication of his The discovery of the large, rich, and beautiful empire of Guiana (1596); the second he undertook in 1616 and it ended in a total fiasco, bringing the death of Raleigh’s son, Walter (Ishmael 2013: 39-44). 2 Juan Martinez was probably a lone survivor of the expedition organized in 1530 by the Spanish and led by Don Pedro Malaver da Silva. The name da Silva has been also frequently used by Wilson Harris to name the protagonists who were to serve as the allegories of the colonizers pursuing El Dorados. Martinez could have also been part of the 1531 journey organized by Don Diego de Ordas. According to his own story, Martinez met the Caribs and begged them to save his life and then lived with them for around ten years. When he managed to escape by the Essequibo river and emerged in the regions of today’s Venezuela, he kept telling the story of having lived in the golden city near the lake Parima in the Guyanese Rupununi savannah. Thus he gave birth to the story of the Guyanese El Dorado, pursued not only by Raleigh but also by the Spanish in the three expeditions of 1584, 1585 and 1591 (Ishmael 2013: 37). More on Raleigh’s journeys may be found in V. S. Naipaul’s The loss of El Dorado (1969) reprinted in 2001 by Picador. 3 The first migrations into the Caribbean islands began seven thousand years ago and the people came from the continent, South America, and specifically from the areas of today’s Guyana. The second wave of migrations began around two thousand and five hundred years BC and it marked the beginning of the Ceramic Age, bringing the people from the regions of Orinoco and lower South America, who already practiced sedentary life- styles, farmed land and produced pottery (Heuman 2014: 1-11). Basil Reid in Myths and realities of the Caribbean history (2009) claims that the theories of migrations are now being disputed as the scientists and anthropologists put forward the thesis that the people of the islands whom Columbus met on his first journey did not come from the continent but were native to the islands themselves (2009: 58). 8 Introduction remains a testimony to the tangible power of words, myths and dreams, the three great