Frank A. Collymore: A man of the threshold
Frank A. Collymore of Barbados, 1893–1980, was perhaps best known as the editor of Bim, the regional literary magazine in the English-speaking Caribbean. He was also a poet, short story writer, eminent amateur actor, school-teacher and artist. Between 1944 and 1971 Collymore published five collections of poetry and an often reprinted study of ‘Barbadian dialect’. In 1991, a collection of his short stories was published posthumously. In his later years he was often described as a ‘literary genius’ and as ‘The Grand Old Man of West Indian literature’. He won honorary awards and wide recognition in the English-speaking region for his role in the development of Caribbean literature. This journal article is available in Kunapipi: https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol26/iss1/17
“How You Mean?” Speech, Resistance, and the Contemporary Relevance of Paule Marshall
" This article centralizes Paule Marshall’s own conception of language and voice as vehicles of acculturation and resistance. Drawing from textual analyses of Brown Girls, Brownstones (1959), The Chosen Place, The Timeless People (1969), her own reflections upon language, and literary scholarship, this article contends that Marshall’s use of language seeks to give voice to the marginalized, pay homage to the “mother poets” who influenced her, and offer a rebuke to a Fanonian “white gaze” in its unapologetic embrace of culture and history. With specific attention to intricacies of Bajan Creole and African American Vernacular English, I show how Marshall preserves the intricate tapestry and potency of black speech as a political instrument. Her embrace of the “beautiful/ugly” offers a framework for understanding the grittiness and grace of the language she employs, a language which reflects the world it describes. This framework can be applied to better understand, for example, the black vernacular’s place (or lack thereof) within political/juridical spaces in the twenty-first century – such as Rachel Jeantel’s testimony in defense of her friend Trayvon Martin –, and digital spaces, such as Black Twitter. I locate her continued relevance in her intentional deployment of language as both resistance and refuge. "
Finding West Indian Identity in London
When I left Trinidad in 1950 I had been working as a journalist with the Trinidad Guardian for five years. During that time I started to write poems and short stories. The first payment I ever received for my writing was a cheque for two guineas from the BBC's Caribbean Voices programme produced by Henry Swanzy, which I treasured for months as a marvel before cashing it. This serial is available in Kunapipi: http://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol9/iss3/5 16. Edward Baugh, 'Friday in Crusoe's City: the Question of Language in Two West Indian Novels of Exile', in Satendra Nandan, ed., Language and Literature in Multicultural Contexts (Suva: University of the South Pacific, 1983), p. 51. 17. Samuel Selvon, Moses Ascending {l^ondon: Davis-Poynter, 1975), p. 122. All quotations are from this edition. 18. Sheila Roberts, 'Character and Meaning in Four Contemporary South African Novels', WLWE, 19, 1 (Spring, 1980), 19-36. 19. Daniel Defoe, The Life and Strange Adventures Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner, ed. J. Donald Crowley (London: O . U . P . World's Classics Series, 1981), p. 210. 20. J . M . Coetzee, Foe (London: Seeker and Warburg, 1986), p. 150. All quotations are from this edition. 21. J . M . Coetzee, 'Farm Novel and Plaasroman in South Africa', English in Africa, 13, 2 (Oct 1986), p. 8. 22. Ibid., p. 17.