The Commonwealth Novel Since 1960

276 Pages·1991·26.575 MB·English

by  Bruce King (eds.)

THE COMMONWEALTH NOVEL SINCE 1960
Also by Bruce King
DRYDEN'S MAJOR PLA YS
TWENTIETH-CENTURY INTERPRETATIONS OF ALL FOR LOVE:
A COLLECTION OF CRITICAL ESSAYS (editor)
DRYDEN'S MIND AND ART (editor)
INTRODUCTION 1'0 NIGERIAN LITERATURE (editor)
LITERATURES OF THE WORLD IN ENGLISH (editor)
ACELEBRATION OF BLACK AND AFRICAN WRITING (editor)
MARVELL'S ALLEGORICAL POETRY
"WEST INDIAN LITERATURE (editor)
"THE NEW ENGLISH LITERATURES: CULTURAL
NATIONALISM IN ACHANGING WORLD
"SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATURE
MODERN INDIAN POETRY IN ENGLISH
"CORIOLANUS
THREE INDIAN POETS
"CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN THEATRE (editor)
" Also published by Palgrave Macmillan
The Commonwealth
N ovel Since 1960
Edited by
Bruce King
© Macmlllan Academic and Professional Ltd., 1991
Editorial matter, selection and IntroducHon ©Bruce KIng 1991
Softcoverreprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1991978-0-333-48740-2
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First publlshed 1991
Publlshed by
MACMILLAN ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL LTD
Houndmills, Baslngstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companles and represenlatlves
throughout the world
British Library Catalogulng in Publlcatlon Data
The Commonwealth Novel Since 1960
1. Flctlon In EngUsh, 1945- Crltlcal Studles
I. King, Bruce, 1933-
823.91409
ISBN 978-1-349-64114-7 ISBN 978-1-137-08649-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-08649-5
Transferred to digital printing 1999
To the memory of
NICOLE
in Australia, Canada, India,
New Zealand, Nigeria,
Fiji and the West Indies
, Contents
Notes on O,e Contributors ix
1 Introduction 1
Bruce King
PART I NATIONAL AND REGIONAL LITERATURES 17
2 Australia 19
Michael Wilding
3 Canada 33
Leslie Monkman
4 East Africa 50
Jacqueline Bardolph
5 India 66
Syd Harrex
6 Malaysia and Singapore 87
Shirley Goek-lin Um
7 New Zealand 105
Roger Robins011
8 Oceania 120
Patrick Morrow
9 South Africa 125
Kirsten Holst Petersen
10 Sri Lanka 142
Rajiva Wijesinha
11 West Africa 147
Kofi Owusu
vii
vlli Contents
12 The West Indies 166
Frank Birbalsingll
PART Il MOVEMENTS AND DIRECTIONS:
COMPARATIVE ESSAYS 183
13 The Novel as National Epic 185
Mark Williams
14 Contracts with the World: Redefining Horne, Identity
and Cornrnunity in Four Wornen Novelists 198
Diana Brydoll
15 Post-Modernisrn: Hornesick for Hornesickness 216
Aritha vall Herk
16 Restoring Broken Houses: The Indigenous Novelists 231
Nall Bowmall Albinski
17 Horne Truths: Regional Fiction 247
Craig Tappillg
Index 263
Notes on the Contributors
Nan Bowman Albinski is an Australian who teaches in the EngJish
Department, Pennsylvania State University, USA and author of a
book on wornen's utopias, The Ordered Paradise.
}acqueline Bardolph is Professor of English, University of Nice,
France and author of several books, including Le Temps et l'histoire
ellez l'eerivaitl: Afrique du Nord, Afrique noire, Atltilles.
Frank Birbalsingh is Professor in the English Department, York
University, Canada and editor of Indo-Caribbean Literature.
Diana Brydon is Professor of English at Guelph University,
Ca na da and author of a book on Christitla Stead in the Wornen
Writers series.
Shirley Geok-Iin Um is a prize-winning poet frorn Malaysia who
teaches at the University of California-Santa Barbara. Her books
of poetry include No Matl's Grove and Crossitlg the Petlitlsula.
Syd Harrex is Professor of English, Flinders University of South
Australia, author of The Fire & the Offeritlg: The Euglish-Ltmguage
Novel 01 Itldia (two volurnes) and a book of poems, Atlantis and
Other Islatlds.
Aritha van Herk is Professor of English at the University of Calgary,
Canada. Her award-winning novel Judith has been followed by The
Tmt Peg and No Fixed Address.
Bruce King is author of Coriolanus, Dryden's Major Plays, Marvell's
Allegorieal Poetry, The Maemillan History 01 Seventeenth-Century Litera
ture, New English Literatures, Modern Indian Poetry ju English and
editor of Drydm's Mind and Art, Tweutieth-Century Interpretations 01
All For Love, West Indian Literature, Introduetion to Nigerian Literature,
Contemporary American Theatre and other books.
Leslie Monkman is Professor of English, Queen's University,
Kingston, Canada. His publications include A Native Heritage: Images
ix
x Notes on the Contributors
0/ tl,e Indian in English-Canadian Literature, Cafladian Novelists and the
Novel, Literature in Canada, Stories 0/ Quebec and Towards a Canadian
Literature.
Patrick Morrow is Professor of English at Aubum University. He
has written or edited five books including Bret Harte, Growing Up
in Nortll Dakota, Seventeen North Dakota Tales, Complex and Fomwla:
Shldies in 20th-Century American Fiction and Tradition, Undercut and
Discovery.
Kofi Owusu is a Ghanaian who has studied in Scotland and
Canada and who now teaches at Carleton College.
Kirsten Holst Petersen has written on J. P. Clark's poems and
edited various publications including A Double Colonization: colonial
and post-colonial womm's writing and Cowries and kobos: the West
African oral tale and short story. She has taught in Nigeria, Sweden
and Denmark and is an editor for Dangeroo Press, Aarhus,
Denmark.
Roger Robinson is Professor of English, Victoria University, Wel
lington, New Zealand and a well known long-distance runner.
Craig Tapping teaches at Malaspina University on Vancouver
Island. He is the author of Austin Clarke.
Rajiva Wijesinha is Cultural Affairs Officer with the British
Council, Colombo. Besides his novels, Acts 0/ Faitlt and Days
0/ Despair, he has published a critical study, The Androgynous
Trollope. He edits the New Lankan Review and the Liberal Review.
Michael Wilding i8 Reader in English, The University of Sydney,
Australia. He has written studies of Milton's Paradise Lost, Dragons
TeetlI: Literature in the English Revolution, Marcus Clarke and Political
Fictions. He has edited Marvell: Modem Judgements, The Portable
Marcus Clarke and The Tabloid Story Pocket Book. One of Australia's
leading post-modernist writers, he has published many novels
and books of short stories including Living Together, The Short
Story Embassy, Aspects 0/ the Dying Process, Pacific Highway, The
Paraguayan Experiment and The Man 0/ Slow Feeling: Selected Short
Stories.