Scottish Fiction as Gospel Exegesis: Four Case Studies Book

-what it takes to be considered a British writer?




Caryl Phillips has been called/labelled a: "British writer...a post-colonial writer...a West-Indian writer...a black writer...an Afro-American writer...". He seems to dislike any of those labels.He even jokes: if not seen his photo (on the book) he might be thought as being a "woman writer".

He was born in St Kitts, then moved to Leeds, UK: he was four months old. He's been, for many years, asked "where is he really from?". He thought "you don't live between cultures; you live with them"..."Back in the early 1990s there was this notion that suddenly you had all these darkies with strange names getting published and this was an anomaly". "But the very condition of Britain, as Daniel Defoe said, is a mongrel condition". "It has been for hundred of years".


(Daniel Defoe)

On May 10th 1999, CP got interviewed by Newsweek; he spoke about himself and the book "Extravagant Strangers".
He defined the book as "an anthology that covers more than 200 years of works by authors who were not born in Britain but are part of the British literary
tradition".


(Ignatious Sancho)


(R. Kipling)


(J. Conrad)


(V. S. Naipul)


(D. Lessing)


(G. Orwell)
...

This book is about Ignatious Sancho,Rudyard Kipling,Joseph Conrad,V.S Naipul,Doris Lessing,George Orwell, Salman Rushdie,Ben Okri,Anita Desai,and Kazuo Ishiguro...to name some. The fact that they were born "abroad" turns into a sort of literary advantage: "out of the tension between the individual and his or her society...the finest writing is often produced". And yet for many of these writers it was not easy attaining to the level of notoriety.

Trying to define where his home was, in that interview he said: "It's where my books are"; then in New York.

I got amazed when listening to a reading of Caryl's essay "Color me English" back in September 25, 2011 (at the
Central Library,Dr. S. Stevan Dweck Center), by himself*. His own biographical trajectory testifies in an absolute way the above mentioned difficulties.

Phillips spoke about "questions deeply personal",still pertinent,though he's now an American citizen,retaining British citizenship. Questions of "belonging,identity and participation". Questions about "the color of your passport" (after 9/11)...or of "your skin"...,acute questions.

Take a look at his years in UK:

1-he arrives to Leeds,a baby,still; at 5,he recalls attending a "strange school"...where he had to "stay on one side of the line", though he wished to belong to the other side; he was part of a "different" group; there were those "neatly dressed" and the "scruffy" one.

2-At 7 he changed school; no girls in.

3-At 8 he discovered a passion for books...from the local library, despite the limit "4 at a time";he loved "adventure stories" but then the "germ" talk led mother to make books "forbidden".

4-While 9 years old, parents divorced; Caryl wrote a story, but his father,an immigrant, a "subject of the British Empire", had no imagination; so, talent was not recognized.

...at 18...he studied Jung and Freud...;he wanted to understand people; his tutor told him:if you want to understand about people,study English Literature,not Psychology.

...At 20, he travels to the US; in a California beach, he reads Native Son by Richard Wright.Now he "knows" what to do about his life.

Literature and race;the Psychology of racial identity...and its literary aspects...a never-ending theme.
Talent has no borders.



By the way, I like the music of the "black Mozart": Le Chevalier de Saint-George (Joseph Bologne) was born in Guadeloupe




*

Am intrigued to read this. I went to university with Caryl Phillip's brother Tony, which I know isn't the best reason to read a book, but it's one reason!