Memory and Landscapes

Memory and Landscapes examines the impact of the literary and journalistic contributions of W. S. Arthur, Hilton Vaughan, Karl Sealy, and A. N. Forde, key contributors to the shaping of Barbadian and West Indian writing. Where the early works of Jamaican writers such as Thomas McDermott and H. G. deLisser and Trinidadians Alfred Mendes and Albert Gomes have been the subject of exploration and exposition, there has been little to no critical study on their Barbadian counterparts.

In addressing this gap, Zoanne Evans analyses the contributions of Arthur, Vaughan, Sealy, and Forde in laying the foundation for what is now known as West Indian Literature. Their challenge of the colonial norms in a creolized society that held fast to racial and class divides and the negative stereotyping of the Black working class was a precursor to the creation and development of a national literature and cultural identity.