Living in paradise: The ecological conscience of contemporary Anglo-Guyanese fiction as seen through the examples of Dark Swirl, The Ventriloquist’s Tale and The Timehrian

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the ecocritical dimension of contemporary Anglo Guyanese fiction and the challenge it poses to anthropocentric philosophy and economic exploitation of the land and minorities, as well as to the environmental insensitivity of today’s world. Through a reading of novels by Cyril Dabydeen (Dark Swirl, 1996), Pauline Melville (The Ventriloquist’s Tale, 1997) and Andrew Jefferson-Miles (The Timehrian, 2002), the article explores the differences in the anthropological and holistic conceptualization of nature and looks into the (im)possibility of reconciling the interests of the urban Guyanese population with the world view of the Amerindian inhabitants. The article underscores the characteristic features of a Guyanese discourse on Nature that mark it out as being unique within Caribbean literatures. It presents each novel as an individual call for ecological justice for the Guyanese interior and shows contemporary Guyanese fiction as a potent ground for future ecocritical literary investigations.