Guyana

"Guyana: History and Literature examines Guyana’s growth as a nation over three hundred and fifty years. Sixty-four reviews of works of history, biography, memoirs, fiction, even a play and an interview, discuss politics, ethnicity, culture, African slavery, Indian indenture, and fortunes of the two best known Guyanese politicians – Dr Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham. The volume offers the variety and scope of an anthology, perceptions and insights of a literary critic, elegance and style of fine writing, and the thrill of fresh revelation and discovery. From travelogues by Dr George Pinckard and Henry Bolingbroke to books by James Rodway and the Roths, father and son, Guyana: History and Literature encompasses wide facets of Guyanese experience and specific studies such as Juanita de Barros’s spectacular evocation of Guyana’s capital city in Order and Place in a Colonial City: Patterns of Struggle and Resistance in Georgetown. African-Guyanese contributions by Eusi Kwayana and his wife Tchaiko also match a ground-breaking exposé of sexist violence against Indian indentured women by Giautra Bahadur, while a revealing biography of A.R.F. Webber confirms him as Guyana’s major political pioneer. Comments on Fred D’Aguiar’s fictional portrait of “Jonestown,” or novels by Sharon Maas and Ryhaan Shah exploring Hindu metaphysics, enhance Guyana: History and Literature, as do perspectives on diasporic fiction by Brenda Chester DoHarris and Barney Singh, one in New York and the other in Toronto, and unforgettable memoirs by Roy Heath and Charlotte Williams, daughter of Denis Williams."--Publisher.