Selected Essays Of Wilson Harris: The Unfinished Genesis Of The Imagination (readings In Postcolonial Literatures, 1)

SELECTED ESSAYS OF WILSON HARRIS Wilson Harris is one of the outstanding literary innovators of the century. His novels date from Palace of the Peacock (1960) to Jonestown (1996). This long-awaited volume matches Harris’s career in the novel with his critical writings: from 1961 to the present day. Selected Essays of Wilson Harris brings together nineteen lectures, addresses and essays to make available in a single comprehensive reader Harris’s full range of writings on subjects encompassing: • the literate imagination; • traditions of fable and legend in Central and South America; • the North American literary imagination, from Poe and Melville to Toomer, Ralph Ellison, Faulkner, and Jean Rhys; • inheritances and legacies of writers of the postcolonial diaspora. This collection comes complete with: • an extensive editorial introduction providing valuable historical and theoretical contexts for the essays; • a detailed map of British Guiana to indicate the fictional dream territory created by Harris in his novels; • bibliographies of Harris’s fiction and non-fiction; • appendix on the legends of El Dorado and the Holy Grail. A.J.M.Bundy is at the University of North London. Readings in Postcolonial Literatures is published in collaboration with the Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Research, University of Kent at Canterbury. POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURES In collaboration with the Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Kent at Canterbury This series aims to present a wide range of scholarly and innovative research into postcolonial literatures by specialists in the field. Volumes will concentrate on writers and writing originating in previously (or presently) colonised areas, and will include material from non-anglophone as well as anglophone colonies and literatures. The series will also include collections of important essays from older journals, and re-issues of classic texts on postcolonial subjects. It comprises two strands: Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures is a forum for innovative new research intended for a high-level specialist readership. The titles will be available in hardback only. Titles include: MAGICAL REALISM IN WEST AFRICAN FICTIONBrenda Cooper THE AESTHETICS OF POSTCOLONIAL EMANCIPATIONLuis Madureira Readings in Postcolonial Literatures aims to address the needs of students and teachers. Titles will be published in hardback and paperback. Titles include: SELECTED ESSAYS OF WILSON HARRISEdited by A.J.M.Bundy SELECTED ESSAYS OF WILSON HARRIS The Unfinished Genesis of the Imagination Expeditions into cross-culturality; into the labyrinth of the family of mankmd, creation and creature; into space, psyche and time Introduced and edited by A.J.M.Bundy London and New York For Margaret and to my daughter, Denise First published 1999 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1999 edited by Andrew Bundy All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publ