Guyanese Literature - History of Guyanese Literature

History of Guyanese Literature

The first book written on Guyana, by Sir Walter Raleigh, was The Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Beautiful Empyre of Guiana (With a Relation of the Great and Golden Citie of Manoa (Which the Spanyards call El Dorado) and of the Provinces of Emeria, Aromaia, Amapaia, and Other Countries, with Their Riulers, Adjoyning (Robert Robinson: London, 1596).

One of the earliest and most famous Guyanese authors was Edgar Mittelholzer, author of Corentyne Thunder. His works often deal with issues of interracial relations, particularly the strain between European and non-European Guyanese.

Famous novelists include E. R. Braithwaite (author of To Sir, With Love), Roy Heath (author of the Georgetown Trilogy and The Shadow Bride), Wilson Harris (author of Palace of the Peacock), Jan Carew and Michael Gilkes.

They were succeeded by a new generation of writers from the 1980s onward, including Beryl Gilroy, John Agard, Grace Nichols, Jan Shinebourne, Cyril Dabydeen, and David Dabydeen.

Martin Carter is considered Guyana's greatest poet.

Michael Abbensetts is a noted playwright.

Vincent Roth wrote A Life in Guyana.

In recent years, Pauline Melville has written fiction including The Ventriloquist's Tale, Oonya Kempadoo has written Buxton Spice, and Sharon Maas has written Of Marriageable Age, Peacocks Dancing and The Speech of Angels.

The influential intellectual and historian Walter Rodney was Guyanese, his most important book being How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972). Travelling and teaching widely, he was a proponent of Pan-Africanism and a supporter of the downtrodden. Rodney returned to Guyana in 1974 and was active in the opposition movement, leading to his assassination in 1980.