From nation to diaspora : Samuel Selvon, George Lamming and the cultural performance of gender

This book is the first comprehensive treatment of gender in the works of Samuel Selvon and George Lamming, two important West Indian writers who are rarely analysed together. It demystifies nationalist discourses and discourses of creolization showing that these have masked gender inequalities and complexities in West Indian society, and that the maskings are in turn part of a larger masking of neocolonial threads within nationalism. Forbes situates the fictions of Selvon and Lamming within the wider field of West Indian social thought and practice, and she demonstrates that gender is foundational within West Indian revolutionary action - a fact consistently ignored in mainstream discourses, including feminist ones. These two West Indians' treatments of gender belong to a revolutionary poetics of liberation in West Indian culture but are deeply compromised by the nationalist engagements and the nationalist context of the 1950s-1970s. The unorthodox character of West Indian gender, as seen in Selvon's and Lamming's treatment of it, anticipates and problematizes the concepts of ''postmodernity'' and ''postmodernism'', which have entered West Indian discourse via postcolonial discourse and the work of migration on West Indian theory and criticism. The book concludes by looking towards these discourses that are now playing major roles in West Indian thought. Forbes links West Indian nationalism and the fictions of Selvon and Lamming into a dialogue with the concepts of diasproa, postmodernity and postmodernism, raising the issue of how the latter have impacted on the representation and formation of West Indian gender identities. She then considers the implications of these discourses for West Indian writing, West Indian theory and, above all, West Indian survival and identity in a postmodern, essentially neocolonized world. This book is the first comprehensive treatment of gender in the fictions of Samuel Selvon and George Lamming, two West Indian writers who are rarely analysed together. It demystifies discourses of creolization and nationalism, showing that these have masked complexities of gender in West Indian society, and that the maskings are in turn part of a larger masking of neocolonial threads within the nationalist project.Situating Selvon's and Lamming's work within the wider field of West Indian social thought and practice, Forbes demonstrates that gender is foundational within West Indian revolutionary action from slavery onwards, and that these writers' treatment of gender belongs to a revolutionary poetics compromised by the nationalist engagements of the 1950s-1970s.The unorthodox character of West Indian gender, as seen in Selvon's and Lamming's treatment of it, anticipates and problematizes the concepts of "postmodernity" and "postmodernism" which have entered Caribbean discourse via postcolonial studies and the work of migration on Caribbean theory and criticism. Forbes links Selvon's and Lamming's work into a dialogue with the concepts of diaspora, postmodernity and postmodernism. She raises the issue of how the latter have impacted on West Indian gender identity, and considers the implications for West Indian writing, theory and survival in a neocolonial, postmodern world. Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 10 Introduction: The Necessity of Gender: Selvon, Lamming and the Re-imagination of Culture......Page 12 1. Representations of Gender in the Nationalist Period: Images, Foundations and Performances......Page 40 Part 1: Manhood, Masquerade and Social Order......Page 86 2. Representing Exile: The Flight from Gender in Selvon's The Lonely Londoners, Moses Ascending and The Housing Lark......Page 88 3. Going Home: Performing Masculinity in A Brighter Sun and Turn Again Tiger......Page 120 Part 2: Resisting the Voyeuristic Gaze......Page 154 4. The Construction of Gender as Anti-colonial Discourse: Lamming's Of Age and Innocence and Season of Adventure......Page 156 5. Theorizing the Feminine and the Body in Natives of My Person and The Emigrants......Page 193 6. Conclusion: All This, the Diasporic and the Postmodern......Page 225 Notes......Page 268 References......Page 287 B......Page 301 C......Page 302 D......Page 303 E......Page 304 G......Page 305 H......Page 306 K......Page 307 L......Page 308 M......Page 309 N......Page 310 O......Page 311 R......Page 312 S......Page 313 W......Page 315 Y......Page 316 The Necessity Of Gender: Selvon, Lamming And The Re-imagination Of Culture -- Representations Of Gender In The Nationalist Period: Images, Foundations And Performances -- Representing Exile: The Flight From Gender In Selvon's Lonely Londoners, Moses Ascending And The Housing Lark -- Going Home: Performing Masculinity In A Brighter Sun And Turn Again Tiger -- The Construction Of Gender As Anti-colonial Discourse: Lamming's Of Age And Innoncence And Season Of Adventure -- Theorizing The Feminine And The Body In Natives Of My Person And The Emigrants -- All This, Diasporic And The Postmodern. Curdella Forbes. Includes Index And Bibliography. This book is a discussion of gender in West Indian culture. It undertakes the discussion through a revisionary reading of gender in selected novels written by Samuel Selvon and George Lamming from the 1950s to the 1970s. This was a period in which nationalism in the West Indies (anglophone Caribbean) reached its highest level of consolidation.