The following event taking place in London this week may be of interest to Caribbean Studies scholars:
KCL Comparative Literature Research Seminar
4.30pm, Wednesday 19 October 2016
Room 6.01 Virginia Woolf Building
King’s College London
22 Kingsway
London WC2B 6LE
Dr Maria del Pilar Kaladeen (Associate Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study) will speak on the following topic:
‘Rebel, Rebel’? Interrogating ‘Archival’ Representations of the South Indian Community of Guyana
The purpose of this talk is to analyse and question textual representations of the South Indian community of Guyana in colonial documents from the 19th and early 20th centuries and in contemporary works of literature by Guyanese writers. The term ‘archival’ is used in the title in its broadest sense; this talk will also include references to the author’s personal archive of interviews with members of the South Indian community of Guyana. In many countries that sought indentured labourers, South Indians formed a majority. However, in Guyana and Trinidad this group continually constituted a minority against an overwhelming North Indian majority, making up around five percent of the total of indentured labourers who came to Guyana. Planter prejudice was one of a number of factors that played a part in the low number of labourers recruited from the Madras Presidency between 1838-1917. In colonial Guyana, South Indians were largely presented in official documents as rebellious non-conformists who were unable to respect the hierarchical nature of the plantation system. Guyanese writers such as David Dabydeen, Peter Kempadoo, Moses Nagamootoo and Jan Lowe Shinebourne have perpetuated and played with these ideas in their novels, celebrating South Indian characters as heroic, anti-colonial figures. This paper will interrogate the representations highlighted above and seek to examine why the same series of stereotypes simultaneously served both colonists and postcolonial writers. It will also suggest how we might helpfully look beyond these stereotypes to understand the fascinating history of this community in Guyana.
We look forward to welcoming you on Wednesday!
Best wishes,
Catherine
Dr Catherine Gilbert
Teaching Fellow in Comparative Literature
King's College London
Room 6.12 Virginia Woolf Building
22 Kingsway
London WC2B 6LE
Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7848 7152
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