Memory of a Landscape: Resurrection of the Past and a Community in the Works of Wilson Harris
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Ostrava Journal of English Philology |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://dokumenty.osu.cz/ff/kaa/ojoep/ostrava-journal-vol1-2016-full.pdf |
| Field | Mass media, audiovision |
| Keywords | memory; landscape; Wilson Harris; postcolonial |
| Description | In the early stages of political independence, nations in the regions formerly colonized by the European empires had to face a problematic situation. Trying to define their new independent identity, some of them had to deal with a complicated question of their origins. Shared cultural tradition and history belong to the main principles through which identification processes take place. In the absence of a clearly defined tradition and under the influence of existing, but ambiguous and misleading historical accounts formation of a strong individual as well as collective identity becomes very difficult. Guyanese author Wilson Harris explores the topic of history and the alleged ‘historylessness’ of postcolonial communities already in his early works which correspond to the time when Guyana gained political independence. Outrunning the postmodern theories of historiography, Harris questions the fixity of the representation of the past abiding by the enlightenment epistemic principles. Searching for alternative sources of the past and the way to capture it he discovers a powerful image of a landscape (geographical as well as psychological) which, for him, becomes a bearer of memory through which the past can be rediscovered. |