Wilson Harris: Imagination Global Imagine
and
Caribbean Writers in Performance: Grace Nichols, Pauline Melville, John
Agard, David Dabydeen, and Fred D'Aguiar
Friday 10 May and Saturday 11 May 2002
In May the University of Newcastle will host an exciting two-day event of
Caribbean writing. There will be a one-day conference on Saturday 11 May
2002, focusing on the work of one of the most important writers of our
times, Wilson Harris, and assessing the relationship between individual
creativity, cross-cultural imagination and the complex phenomenon of
globalisation.
The conference day will be preceded by an evening of Caribbean literature
in performance on Friday 10 May, when award-winning writers - Grace Nichols
(Commonwealth Poetry Prize), Pauline Melville (Whitbread First Novel
Award), David Dabydeen (Commonwealth Poetry Prize), John Agard (Casa de las
Americas Prize) and Fred D'Aguiar (Whitbread First Novel Award) - will read
from their works. We hope this evening will set the tone for an occasion
which will celebrate writing, culture and the critical spirit.
The one-day conference will be both a tribute to Harris's extraordinary
creativity, and a critical forum where the emergence of a 'global'
imagination within the context of 'old' and 'new' empires will be
discussed. Wilson Harris was born in Guyana in 1921; he worked in the
Guyanese interior as a land surveyor until emigrating to Britain in 1959.
His first novel, Palace of the Peacock, was published by Faber and Faber in
1960, and it established his reputation as a Caribbean writer with an
uncompromising vision of postcolonial freedom. From his earliest work to
his latest novel, The Dark Jester, Harris's fiction and critical writing
have offered a profound interpretation of the nature and role of
imagination. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of the
West Indies, the University of Kent at Canterbury, the University of Liege
and the University of Essex.
Wilson Harris will read from work in progress. The panel of speakers will
include writers and academics: Fred D'Aguiar (University of Miami), Hena
Maes-Jelinek (University of Liege), David Dabydeen (University of Warwick),
Tim Cribb (University of Cambridge), Louis James (University of Kent at
Canterbury), Stuart Murray (Univeristy of Leeds). The two-day event is
organised by the Newcastle University Department of English and the
Postcolonial Research Group.
ALL ARE WELCOME
Friday May 10th, 7.30pm
Caribbean Writers in Performance
Combined Honours Room, Old Library, University of Newcastle
?6 (?3 student/concession)
NB Price includes wine reception
Saturday May 11th, 10am-4.30pm
Wilson Harris Conference: Imagination Global Imagine
Combined Honours Room, Old Library, University of Newcastle
?35 (?15 student/concession)
NB Price includes entry to Caribbean Writers in Performance on Friday 10th
May
For further information contact [log in to unmask]
For booking details contact Mrs Rowena Bryson ([log in to unmask]),
Administrative Secretary, Department of English Literary and Linguistic
Studies, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 7RU
(please make cheques out to 'Department of English').
Booking details and further information are also available at
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/english/colloquia/seminars/wilson.htm
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