Studies in Literature in English – serie

Literature in English is a term that has recently appeared to include both English literature in the traditional sense of the word and all the newly emerging literatures written and published in English whose authors may represent various ethnic and cultural backgrounds. This series as well as the yearly Literature in English Symposium (LIES) organized by the Department of English Literature and Literary Linguistics, the School of English at Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań (Poland), respond to the current interest in wider mapping of English literature. Each year the symposium is devoted to a particular topic linked with the interests of an invited writer, whose presentation we also publish. The volume is devoted to the discourses of/on history as is the main area of interest of Adam Thorpe.

Empty treasure chests dumped from departed ships is a quotation taken from David Dabydeen’s poem The Old Map in which the hope of a new world is green but green symbolizes also the gangrene of the sailors. Such rather unsavory paradoxes can be found in the works of contemporary (post)postcolonial writers, who engage in a dialogue with literary history while actively re-shaping contemporary culture. Far from seeking easy reconciliations, the contemporary (post)postcolonial writers rewrite the colonial experiences in relation to art and literary works. The theme of this volume are the works by and about David Dabydeen, a Guianese British writer, poet and literary scholar, whose efforts have always been directed toward re-creating the lives forever lost; those of nameless slaves and coolies of the West Indies. His inspiration, in turn were, among others, the paintings of William Hogarth and Joseph Mallord William Turner. Accordingly, the papers collected in this book address the question of (post)colonialism in a contemporary (post)postcolonial reality.