Indian Characters Research Articles

La traducción del discurso de los personajes indios en A Passage to India de E. M. Forster

La última novela publicada en vida por el autor británico E. M. Forster, A Passage to India, que transcurre en la India colonial de principios del siglo xx, ha sido traducida a nuestro idioma en tres ocasiones. En el presente trabajo analizaremos la traducción del discurso de los personajes indios de la novela.

The Delineation of the Complicated Marital and Extra- Marital Affairs in R. K. Narayan's Novel The Guide

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami who is one of the most versatile and prolific novelists in the history of the Indian English Literature, has presented the typical Indian characters and the true Indian atmosphere to show the contemporary Indian society in his works. The most distinguished fact of his novel is that he has dealt with essentially the middle class characters and has created a fictional South Indian Malgudi town like Thomas Hardy’s Wessex or William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County. His fictional world has projected an exploration of the conjugal relationship in the domestic world and the themes of marital and extra marital relationships have always been the focus of many literary works in the Indian English Literature. However, his novels are deeply rooted in customs, traditions, beliefs, and superstitions of the Indian society and are preoccupied with the theme of family relationship, East- West encounter, education etc. Here in this paper an attempt has been made to reveal his portrayal of marital and extra marital affairs and at the same time it also aims to find out the reasons of extra marital relationship. However, through this exploration, we can observe that he has vividly presented the contemporary scenario of the Indian society which always follows the stream of conventional and unconventional way of life. Keywords: R.K. Narayan, marital relationship, Indian English Literature, fiction, etc.

Between Stereotypes and Resistance: The Politics of Identity in Sherman Alexie's The Toughest Indian in the World

This paper aims at demonstrating that the portraits of contemporary American Indians in his works resist the fossilized and stereotypical images of Indians, and even go beyond the ethnical boundaries set by ‘traditional’ American Indian literature. After sketching out the lines of criticism on seemingly stereotypical characters by some American Indian writers and scholars, this paper examines how the Spokane writer engages with the controversial idea of ‘Indian’ and ‘Indianness’ in his fiction, especially in The Toughest Indian in the World (2000). As this paper proposes, Alexie’s unflinchingly bold representation of new, unexpected Indian characters informs his serious quest for Indian identity. It should be also considered as a literary strategy because they illustrate ways of resisting any easy definitions or colonial labels of contemporary Native people in the US. For example, Etta Joseph in “Dear John Wayne” is subversive in that her story twists a colonial relationship between a white man and an ‘Indian princess.’

THE PLIGHT OF COMMON PEOPLE IN THE PARTITION LITERATURE OF INDIAN SUBCONTINENT

The sources of history and literature witnessed that few people on the name of religion divided the subcontinent and created severe problems in all regions of the subcontinent that people still are facing even after seventy years of partition. If we go through the pages of Indian History and Partition Literature many admirable characters will come alive in front of us. About numerous events and disasters we can learn from the books of historians and literary giants who portrayed all the situations, disasters and predicaments faced by the people before, during and after partition. Partition of India is still a darkest period in the history of subcontinent and it has left indelible marks on the pages of Indian history. Many writers have attempted to represent the trauma of partition skilfully through their writings. Britishers before leaving the subcontinent tried to break the unity of religions on the name of partition, many people were shocked as they were aware about the consequences of this division. After partition, the people who earlier were friends, neighbours, colleagues were labelled as Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians and became thirsty of each others’ blood. They acted as savages; they forgot the respect for elders and women, love towards children. To represent the people who on the name of religion killed millions of precious lives, many writers of the Indian subcontinent produced a literature called Partition Literature. The partition led to huge movements and disastrous conflicts across Indo-Pak border. About ten million Hindus and Sikhs were expelled from Pakistan and nearly seven million Muslims from India to Pakistan and thousands of people were killed in this conflict. Though, independence for Indian subcontinent was an event of celebration, but it was celebrated in the shape of mourning, tears, separation, exile, crying, bloodshed, abduction, rape, murder etc. India was the one of the largest colonies of Great Britain and was granted freedom after a long period of subjugation, however resulted into the partition of country which caused a big destruction to the subcontinent in the form of ethnic and religious riots. This paper aims to explore the voice of people and their plight, who badly suffered during the cataclysmic event of partition.

The Delineation of the Complicated Marital and Extra-Marital Affairs in R.K. Narayan's Novel THE GUIDE

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami who is one of the most versatile and prolific novelists in the history of the Indian English Literature, has presented the typical Indian characters and the true Indian atmosphere to show the contemporary Indian society in his works. The most distinguished fact of his novel is that he has dealt with essentially the middle class characters and has created a fictional South Indian Malgudi town like Thomas Hardy‘s Wessex or William Faulkner‘s Yoknapatawpha County. His fictional world has projected an exploration of the conjugal relationship in the domestic world and the themes of marital and extra marital relationships have always been the focus of many literary works in the Indian English Literature. However, his novels are deeply rooted in customs, traditions, beliefs, and superstitions of the Indian society and are preoccupied with the theme of family relationship, East- West encounter, education etc. Here in this paper an attempt has been made to reveal his portrayal of marital and extra marital affairs and at the same time it also aims to find out the reasons of extra marital relationship. However, through this exploration, we can observe that he has vividly presented the contemporary scenario of the Indian society which always follows the stream of conventional and unconventional way of life.

Metamestizaje and the narration of political movements from the south

This article analyzes the use of the “Indian” in three Chicana texts involved in romantic couplings that point to what I term as a “mestizaje” naturalized in the Southwest that necessitates a "metamestizaje" reading. A naturalized mestizaje allows the writers to interpellate Indian characters or racialized others from the south into the larger Latino family. I argue that by doing so, the novelists unwittingly erase Indigenous autonomy, language, and cultural histories, privileging a US brand of mestizo identity popularized in political discourse and cultural productions. Indeed, I conclude that, ultimately, these novels are about Chicano and Latino disenfranchisement and not about solidarity and horizontal relationships with Indigenous communities in the south.

Racial Accents, Hollywood Casting, and Asian American Studies

Racial Accents, Hollywood Casting, and Asian American Studies Shilpa Davé (bio) In the episode "Indians on TV" of the Netflix comedy series Master of None (2015–present), Emmy Award–winning cocreators Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang chronicle the trials and tribulations of an Indian American man auditioning for acting jobs in the American television and film industry. The protagonist, Dev Shah (Ansari), who is an actor in New York City, questions himself and others about whether or not he should do a "funny Indian accent" to land a role. In discussions with his friends, his agent, casting directors, and network industry decision makers, he muses about why Indians and Asians are sidekicks in most Hollywood plotlines and why there can't be two Indian characters who are friends and talk to each other in a mainstream comedy. The show also brings up the role of Asian American representations compared to representations of other racialized groups, and how nonwhite entertainers and actors operate when confronted with racism in the industry. The decision to use or not to use the constructed Indian accent translates into a cultural and professional crisis of identity for Dev. To perform the accent means success and recognition in standard Hollywood narratives, but it also denies the individuality, variety of experiences, and diversity of the actors who long to challenge the preexisting character stereotypes. While representations of Asian Americans in the US media are dependent on visual politics, casting choices, and acting performances on-screen, another factor that marks Asian Americans, South Asians, and in particular Indian Americans as a racially identifiable and distinct group is the presence and performance of vocal and racial accents. Increasingly, as cultural and social debates proliferate about language and word usage, communication and political correctness, and racial, gendered, and class rhetoric, the study of the relationship between race and language and accent offers a lens through which to examine the complex and variable nature of racial hierarchies presented in and by mass media. Master of None's narrative offers a frank appraisal of the racial representations of Indians and Asians in a complex hierarchy of racial and gendered relationships and depictions and specifically points to the prolific representation of Indian and Asian accents of English as a particular racializing trope for South Asian Americans and Asian Americans.1 [End Page 142] The accent is representative of stereotypical roles that have enjoyed longevity and commercial success in Hollywood. The animated character, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, (from The Simpsons [Fox, 1989–present]) has been on television since 1990 and has been followed by other incarnations of Indians speaking English with an accent on TV, including the popular Raj Koothrappali (played by Indian actor Kunal Nayyer) on the long-running comedy The Big Bang Theory (CBS, 2007–present). As I have previously argued, representations of Indians and South Asians have been racialized by their accents or "brown voices" in American TV and film.2 "Brown voice" is the act of speaking in accented English associated with Indian nationals and immigrants and is a combination of linguistic and phonetic markers that include stress points on particular words, cultural references, and words out of order. The performance of brown voice is adopted and used by South Asians and non–South Asians (most famously by Hank Azaria as the voice actor of Apu). More significant, brown voice operates as a racializing characteristic among South Asians that suggests both foreignness and familiarity in a US context. Historically, industry executives, producers, and casting agents tend to privilege physical difference or the visual contrast with the dominant white characters in their casting practices. In her book on colorblind television casting, Kristen J. Warner concurs, pointing out that "Hollywood logic discourse suggests progress in diversity is at the level of skin color."3 And yet although the casting process may be called colorblind, Warner points out that most of the roles are written as "race neutral" or characters who are written as white, so when a nonwhite actor is cast, the backstory or dialogue does not reflect ethnic or racial experiences. When race or ethnic roles are needed or emphasized, there is an inevitable exaggeration of racialized characteristics, or what I have called an...

Hollywood Indian Sidekicks and American Identity

The Hollywood movie industry has often employed non-Indian actors to portray Indian characters, and reduced Indian characters to villains or secondary roles. In the wake of centuries of misperceptions and misrepresentations, Hollywood has invented a new form of the “white man’s Indian”, the Indian sidekick. Drawing examples from a dozen movies, this paper attempts to analyze how the Indian sidekick is a symptom of the ambiguous place Native Americans have in the American psyche. Without the Indian sidekick, would the typical American hero be complete?

Silenced: Voices Taken from American Indian Characters in Children’s Literature

Silenced: Voices Taken from American Indian Characters in Children’s Literature

Identity Dilemma in Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable and Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss: A Strategic Essentialist Reading

This essay explores selected Indian characters depicted in Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable (1935) and Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss (2006). This study finds that these characters are struggling with an identity dilemma which induces their inner-conflicts: double-consciousness, resistance and othering, due to the dominance of the caste and colonial systems. This study observes that both of these hegemonic influences have created the privileged and less-privileged status of the Indian individuals, which have concealed their true natures. Thus, these Indian individuals are confined and recognised through their essentialised identity, as connoted by the caste and colonial systems. Therefore, the objective of this essay is to de-contextualise the selected characters from their essentialised identity, exposing their true nature without the influence of their privileged and less-privileged status. To achieve the targeted objective, this essay discusses the identity dilemma of the selected characters through a Strategic Essentialist reading, a term coined by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (1987). This is to detach the Indian individuals from their identity which is defined and structured by the caste system which segregates them under the formation of social hierarchy, as well as detaching them from their post-colonial condition. In the conclusion, this essay discloses the ability of the term Strategic Essentialism to unveil the disguised nature of the privileged members and the hidden nature of the less-privileged members, conveying their identity dilemma which fails their assimilation in their own homeland and foreign land.

Transcending the reservation borders in Sherman Alexie’s work

The article analyzes the theme of transcending borders in the selected works by Sherman Alexie. In my analysis the borders are understood literally, as geopolitical constructs, as well as symbolically, as social, cultural, and racial lines that separate individuals, communities, and nations. It is in the presence of these borders that individuals’ world-view and self-perception are formed. The process of transcending the real and metaphorical reservation borders observable in Alexie’s work reflects his gradual distancing from Indian-centric and racially charged themes. Explored extensively in his early writing, the reservation represents Indian homeland, and is portrayed as a place which, although embraced as home by his Indian characters, entails also geographical and mental confinement. Yet Alexie’s post-2000 work demonstrates that he has expanded the borders of his fictional world. This change is manifested in the author’s progressive detachment from the reservation-centered themes, and his growing interest in the multiethnic American setting. Accordingly, his recent work centers on “a mental and emotional landscape” of human relations in American society.

La representación del indio en La aurora en Copacabana de Calderón

The article analyzes the onomastics of the Indian characters, the portrayal of the Inca Empire of Huascar and Atahualpa, and the Christianization of Guacolda and Yupangui in Calderon’s La Aurora en Copacabana. Rational and proactive, these two characters realize the illegitimacy of the Inca idolatry and embrace the true religion, long before the formal start of Peru’s christianization. Thus, it is argued that this specific representation of the Indian may have been influenced by the close circles indianos of Miguel de Aguirre, who allegedly patronized this comedy.

La representación del indio en La aurora en Copacabana de Calderón

The article analyzes the onomastics of the Indian characters, the portrayal of the Inca Empire of Huáscar and Atahualpa, and the Christianization of Guacolda and Yupangui in Calderón’s La Aurora en Copacabana. Rational and proactive, these two characters realize the illegitimacy of the Inca idolatry and embrace the true religion, long before the formal start of Perú’s christianization. Thus, it is argued that this specific representation of the Indian may have been influenced by the close circles indianos of Miguel de Aguirre, who allegedly patronized this comedy.

A Nation of Speechifiers: Making an American Public after the Revolution by Carolyn Eastman (review)

Reviewed by: A Nation of Speechifiers: Making an American Public after the Revolution by Carolyn Eastman Betsy Verhoeven A Nation of Speechifiers: Making an American Public after the Revolution. By Carolyn Eastman. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2009; pp. xi + 304. $37.50 cloth. ANation of Speechifiers convincingly demonstrates that there was a broad participatory culture among non-elites at the beginning of the Republic. In an important addition to our understanding of educational history, which has long associated language studies with nationalism, Eastman argues that “print and oral media helped lay Americans think of themselves as a unified body before nationalism had cohered and could be buttressed by institutions” (4; emphasis added). As education spread and nationalism was grafted onto an earlier version of public behavior based on civility, refinement, and sensibility, citizen subjectivity was shaped to become more passive. [End Page 789] Chapter 1 explores rhetorical education for non-elites. Researchers of rhetoric in the early Republic have struggled to examine non-elite education because of a lack of standardized curricula or widely printed textbooks to provide evidence. Eastman helpfully shows uniformity across small prints because the book publishers often reprinted each others’ material in much the same way newspaper editors did during the Revolutionary period. Furthermore, even very disparate schools (in terms of expense, region, rural or urban) often took part in speech exhibitions, which were then further distributed via newspaper and broadside reprints. But with the rise of education for the poor, the low student-to-teacher ratio that was necessary to teach toward the exhibition disappeared. Consequently, an active view of oratory as something that one practiced oneself gave way to a passive view of oratory as something that instead happened to the auditor. Chapter 2 illustrates, using an impressive array of letters, commonplace books, diaries, and women’s exhibition speeches, that a period existed before the consolidation of the ideal of the Republican mother when women’s oratory was acceptable. In a moment when “heterosociab[ility]” (60), rather than domesticity or nationalism, was expected of women, oratory education was justifiable. Although women still felt compelled to justify their public speaking, “most . . . rules” for oratory “were strikingly gender neutral” (61). Just as her first chapter demonstrates that we incorrectly read back onto the early Republic’s educational system a nationalism that probably arose later, so her second chapter shows that the public and private were not as clearly demarcated as public sphere theorists have assumed. Eastman next turns to Indian (her term) oratory. Early on, speeches by Native Americans reproduced in textbooks “provided ordinary Americans with emotional frameworks and imagined narrative outcomes for considering policies, and . . . thus had profound political implications” (86). Invoking the elocutionary requirement that a speaker should actually experience the emotions emulated in a speech, Eastman argues that Indian speeches encouraged Americans to recognize “generations of white betrayal” and to feel “a collective responsibility” (85). Indian oratory, despite provoking discomfort, advantageously gave “Americans a history that marked their uniqueness from Europeans” and that “obfuscated how far [nationality] was a contemporary construct” (99). Eastman’s work insightfully attends to the effects of peripheral factors, rather than consistent policy or authorial intention, on the formation of gender, race, and class identities. [End Page 790] For instance, she argues that the “vanishing Indian” trope may have appealed in part as “a far more consistent narrative than was otherwise available” to make sense of the “picture of Indian affairs,” because each tribe and region worked out its policies separately (101). As time passed, the movement (especially through the rewritings of the Pocahontas story) to paraphrase Indian eloquence silenced Indian characters and obscured related policy issues. Likewise, later anthologies and oratory textbooks tended to reproduce speeches out of context, thus removing any connection to government policies. With these changes, Eastman posits, the potential for guilt to result in responsible policymaking evaporated. The book’s second half offers three case studies showing how non-elites championed their right to public participation; the ensuing debates were less about gender or class than about how active the public should be in forming policy and what forms public discussion should take. The first chapter of this second half offers...

Representations of Power Shifts Between Great Britain and India in The Jewel in the Crown (ITV, 1984)

Focusing on the last years of the British presence in India, this 14-episode TV serial is itself the embodiment of a first form of transfer since it is the adaptation of Paul Scott’s Raj Quartet, i.e. four English novels published between 1966 and 1975 telling the stories of British and Indian characters living through the last days of the Raj. Yet this paper chooses to study how this shift of power between Great Britain and emerging India is staged in a serial which is now regarded as one of the best examples of the 1980s “heritage films”, in which the necessary departure of the British from India is constantly backgrounded by a nostalgic view of the British colonial enterprise. However, since The Jewel in the Crown is also described as one of the most critical representations of the presence of Great Britain in India in the 1940s, I will also focus on the ways the serial refers to Great Britain as a privileged vantage point but also as a locus of ambivalent attitudes, particularly so as it is seen by characters living in India but appearing on television screens at a moment when British television was trying to represent the British colonial past through various kinds of programs (documentaries, fiction, serials). Several key examples are discussed along those lines: the role of the opening and end credits, the use of excerpts from British newsreels in a work of fiction, the predominance of the British gaze and the way it is visually staged in the shots, some disturbing visual intrusions and conflagrations of unexpected shots. It thus leads me to show that if the year 1947 was generally constructed as a moment of reasonable “transfer of power” from Great Britain to India, such a TV serial unsettles some of the assumptions underlying the historiographical myth which depicted India’s independence as “a gentleman’s agreement”.

Tempted by the Big Apple: The fantasy of western spaces in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

The 2006 romantic Hindi movie Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna/Never Say Goodbye (Johar) is set in New York, with the city acting as the classic urban space in cinema that provides anonymity and permits characters to depart from expected norms. Since the movie's transgressive romance could have been set in any sprawling Indian metropolis, however, this article explores the choice of this American city as the setting. The movie 'produces' a New York where the Indian characters start to question their marital choices but without referring to the Indian nationalist rhetoric that is common in stories of the diaspora. New York provides not just the necessary urban space but a safe distance from which one can explore the institution of marriage as it currently exists in the home country – both arranged marriage as well as the 'love marriage' that has traditionally been the teleology of romance movies in India.

<i>Red Gentlemen and White Savages: Indians, Federalists, and the Search for Order on the American Frontier</i> (review)

Reviewed by: Red Gentlemen and White Savages: Indians, Federalists, and the Search for Order on the American Frontier Isaac J. Emrick David Andrew Nichols. Red Gentlemen and White Savages: Indians, Federalists, and the Search for Order on the American Frontier. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008. Pp. xi, 268, index. Cloth $39.50.) From the moment of reading the title, the reader is jolted awake and forced to reevaluate many misconceptions about the early development of the United States. Nichols reinvigorates the detailed historiography of early United States policies toward Native Americans with a discussion of a complicated web of government, settler and Indian characters, each with their own self-interests and human motivations. More broadly, Nichols analyzes the political culture of the United States from the point-of-view of three divergent groups: elected federal officials in the east, white settlers in the backcountry, and various Indian groups in the west. In many ways, the narrative focuses on the odd and frequently unstable alliances between eighteenth century Indians and the fledgling United States government and the problems [End Page 355] both had dealing with white settlers in the west. The contradictions and mixed messages sent by Native Americans, government officials and so many other people suggest a political landscape devoid of cooperation as each faction fought for dominance. As David Nichols points out, the story is even messier, as it “illustrates the political and social divisions within both white and Indian communities, and the challenges facing leaders within each” (2). The federal government initiated early political influence by supporting the dominant party in each region, largely in an attempt to gain a political foothold in the frontier. In the Southeast, they supported Creek and Cherokee negotiations against the problematic states of Georgia and North Carolina. In the Old Northwest, they took a much harder line against the weaker federationist Indians of the Ohio region. The overall effects of federal efforts throughout the western frontier were the weakening of Native American resistance, limitations of state control, and increased political control of the new federal government elite in the east. Their actions, though, rarely won them favor among westerners, Indian or European. In the Old Northwest, pan-Indian federations attempted to push back against faulty treaties like Fort Stanwix, and sought both military and political resolution while self-interested federal representatives attempted to codify beneficial treaties. The Southeast was characterized by much stronger Indian political and military intervention against both the Federal government and the settlers of the attempted state of Franklin. Nichols’ narrative explains the slow decline of Native American power and the rise of federal control over both Indians and whites along the frontier by the beginning of the nineteenth century. As populations of whites overtook those of Indian groups, and the federal government became better able to control both groups with military and political power, the balance of power shifted entirely in the favor of European descendants. Though Native Americans play a primary role in Nichols’ text, the author is clearly focused on the development of the United States’ Indian policies and their implementation. The egocentric motivations and interests of historical characters play a major part in Nichols’ understanding of the constantly shifting political landscape of the trans-Appalachian frontier, including George Washington, Timothy Pickering, Joseph Brant, and John Sevier. The narrative ambitiously encompasses a large geographic region and a diverse body of actors. Yet the author manages to treat each region and cultural group with sensitivity to the internal factions that complicated and steered intercultural political interactions. This is most noticeable in the detailed explanations of the condolence ceremonies performed at treaty conferences. Far from taking [End Page 356] the ceremonies at cultural face-value, the author shows the theatrical nature of the displays and interprets the intentions of the actors, both Indian and white. As in the case of the Treaty at Greenville of 1795, the United States paternal political relationship with Northwestern Indians “was to be a provider and mediator, not a punisher of wrongdoers” (176). Equally as important, Nichols recognizes the mutual misunderstandings stemming from such conferences and the bloody conflicts that ensued. Rather than using indigenous people as passive critiques of western society...

Children’s Literature in Emerging Indian Markets

Children’s literature is essentially different from textbooks used in classrooms. It was primarily developed in India after the establishment of Children’s Book Trust and National Book Trust in 1957. A truly multilingual phenomenon, Amar Chitra Katha was developed by India Book House and has sold over 80 million copies in some 30 years. The Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan programme started by the Government of India, has done exceptionally well in developing and encouraging the development of children’s literature in regional languages. English being the language of communication is understood in all parts of the country so more books have been published in this language. Reading habits of children have been developed through reading campaigns by Non Government Organisations (NGOs), Children Literary Festivals, Book Fairs, School Book Fairs and Book Clubs. International and Indian Characters have also increased the publishing of children’s books and reading habits of children.

‘C-Men’ and Tricksters in Smile Orange

Mention Jamaican cinema and inevitably, one thinks of The Harder They Come, the Perry Henzell film that marked the country's entry into feature film production in 1972. Indeed, The Harder They Come enjoyed such critical and popular success, both at home and abroad, that it created unrealistically high expectations for the future of film production in Jamaica. So that, although the following decade saw the emergence of a small number, but some notable films, the years following The Harder They Come were popularly regarded as a period of disappointment when the films that did emerge - Smile Orange (1975), Rockers (1978), Children of Babylon (1980) and Countryman (1982) - failed to achieve either the critical acclaim or box office success of their forerunner. However, the publication of Ex-Iles1 in 1992, a collection of essays on Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean cinema, and Keith Q. Warner's On Location2 in 2000, signalled new interest in a body of work that had previously been largely eclipsed by Henzell' s now iconic film. These publications notwithstanding, omissions and oversights still occur. Milton Vickerman's 1999 article, Representing West Indians in Film: Ciphers, Coons, and Criminals, which examines stereotypes of West Indians, mainly in films made outside the region, lists in an appendix, 1 13 films with West Indian characters or themes released between 1 92 1 and 1993 3 The list makes note of The Harder They Come (which is also briefly referred to in the body of the article), Rockers, Countryman and The Lunatic (1992), but fails to mention two Jamaican films that fall within that period, Smile Orange and Children of Babylon. An omission of this type may unwittingly help to cement the invisibility of lesser known works: a listing of 113 films suggests an exhaustive and complete accounting, and eventually becomes a point of reference and source of information. One of the objectives of this article, therefore, is to draw critical attention to one of those early films, Smile Orange. Lacking The Harder They Corners major marketing asset - a reggae soundtrack - Smile Orange did not successfully penetrate overseas markets, despite initial favourable reviews and screenings at film festivals outside of Jamaica. Thanks to the release of the film on DVD, however, it is known in Jamaica and Jamaica diaspora communities. Directed by Trevor Rhone, whose achievements in the Jamaican theatre are well known, but whose work in the cinema is not sufficiently celebrated, Smile Orange is an adaptation of his immensely popular play of the same name. Rhone's first big hit as a playwright, Smile Orange enjoyed an unprecedented run of 245 performances when it was first staged in Jamaica in 1971 under the direction of Dennis Scott.4 Rhone, along with David Ogden, wrote the screenplay for Smile Orange and directed the film himself. Rhone has actually worked on a number of films; in addition to co-writing the screenplay for The Harder They Come, with Director, Perry Henzell, he also co-wrote the sceenplay for Milk and Honey (1986), a Canadian production that was partly filmed in Jamaica (for which he won a Genie Award), and more recently, he wrote the screenplay for One Love (2003). As Rhone's first and, so far, only attempt at film directing, Smile Orange is visually uninspiring; the sensibility and aesthetic of the playwright rather than the cinematographer is evident. But the talented cast's strong performance, in particular Carl Bradshaw in the lead role as Ringo, brings to life a screenplay that is layered with irony and hilarious from beginning to end. The film adaptation is faithful to the original work, retaining much of the original plot, as well as much of the original dialogue, and it reflects the concerns and themes of the play. Mervyn Morris's description of the play as, Funny and deadly serious... a devastating comment on attitudes the tourist industry harbours or can breed,5 is equally applicable to the movie. …

William Eastlake's Trilogy: The Southwestern Landscape as Truth and Revelation

William Eastlake's first three novels, Go in Beauty (1956), The Bronc People (1958), and Portrait of an Artist with Twenty-Six Horses (1963), are generally regarded as constituting a trilogy not only because they have a common setting the Checkerboard region of northern New Mexico, with its landscapes, languages, and people but also because of the genealogical cohesion represented by the Bowmans, a white family whose stories as ranchers and traders merge with the destinies of a number of Indian characters. Despite these converging elements, however, it must be acknowledged that these novels do not share the diegetic continuity and the consistency of plot structures commonly associated with a trilogy. Specifically, their narrative organization appears to be less the result of Eastlake's response to the rich mixture of cultures and experiences he finds in Indian Country than a comprehensive frame for different, scattered stories. The editorial history of Portrait of an Artist with Twenty-Six Horses bears out this impression. It is well known that the central episode of the narrative, concerning Ring Bowman's thoughts as he is sinking in quicksand, actually derives from a short story published a few months earlier under the title A Long Day's Dying.1 Although the functional segmentation of this story provides the framing event and, consequently, the unifying plot and a central formal order to the entire narrative, still Portrait strikes the reader as less a novel than a collection of short sto-