Biography EssayWilson Harris is a modern version of the Renaissance humanist: his concern as an artist bears on all aspects of life, and, in his style of expression, he transcends all notions of genre...
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Critical Essay by Paul West
Mr Harris makes me feel cloddish and insensitive. [In Palace of the Peacock he's] taken a Christian-Creation sequence of seven days and piled it round with enough c...
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Critical Essay by Stanley Reynolds
The West Indies is surely one of the places the English novel may look to for plasma: to Andrew Salkey, Garth St Omer, Peter Marshall, and the wildly poetic Wilson ...
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Critical Essay by The Times Literary Supplement
[Wilson Harris] has argued against the common belief that there is no such thing as a West Indian personality: he would rather claim that study of �...
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Critical Essay by Louis James
The novels of Wilson Harris … form one ongoing whole. Each work is individual; yet the whole sequence can be seen as a continuous, ever-widening exploration of ci...
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Critical Essay by Michael Gilkes
Companions of the Day and Night, his most recent novel, is another addition to the "infinite canvas" of Wilson Harris' work. There is a remarkabl...
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Critical Essay by Michael Gilkes
The present need for what Nicholas Mosley called an "intelligent language of crisis" capable, through paradox and allusion, of holding apparent opposite...
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Critical Essay by Shirley Chew
In The Tree of the Sun, which is a sequel to Da Silva da Silva's Cultivated Wilderness, the central character attempts once again "to paint antecedents an...
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Critical Essay by Lloyd W. Brown
Wilson Harris has done most of his work in the novel form, but his second volume of poetry, Eternity to Season, published three years after the first [Fetish], demons...
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Critical Essay by Hena Maes-jelinek
Its constantly evolving character notwithstanding, a remarkable unity of thought informs [Wilson Harris's] considerable opus. Two major elements seem to hav...
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Critical Essay by Gary Crew
In his companion collections of short stories. The Sleepers of Roraima and The Age of the Rainmakers, Wilson Harris reaches through time and presents to the contemporary r...
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Critical Essay by Michael Gilkes
Harris's work, because of its syncretic approach to language and to the symbolic meaning of experience, is notoriously "difficult." Concerned mor...
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Critical Essay by The Times Literary Supplement
Palace of the Peacock is a 150-page definition of mystical experience given in the guise of a novel. It is a difficult book to read, yet it is the very...
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Critical Essay by The Times Literary Supplement
With Palace of the Peacock Wilson Harris staked out a corner of his own in the rich new field of Caribbean writing, and his third novel, The Whole Armo...
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Critical Essay by The Times Literary Supplement
In the first novel [of the "Guiana Quartet"], Palace of the Peacock, a man called Donne is going up-river to collect labour for his estat...
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Critical Essay by The Times Literary Supplement
The territory [in Heartland] is remote, but not quite remote enough for Mr. Harris's purposes, which are not naturalistic; the jungle becomes a ...
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Critical Essay by The Times Literary Supplement
The novelist, unlike the poet, uses words which must remain for him merely a vehicle of expression, a means to a greater end. The problems of the moder...
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Critical Essay by The Times Literary Supplement
[A study of Wilson Harris's early poems in Eternity to Season] reveals that his preoccupation throughout his career as a writer has been to reve...
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Critical Essay by John Hearne
It is from Yeats's great phrase about "the unity from a mythology that marries us to rock and hill" that we may, justifably, begin an examination of...
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Critical Essay by Joyce Adler
It is implicit in Tumatumari that man, if he is to survive the imminent danger of self-annihilation, will have to free and transform his imagination so that it will be a...
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In the following essay, Boxill argues that, with Palace of the Peacock, Harris brought a new type of novel to the body of West Indian fiction—the “poetical novel.”
When Wilson ...
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In the following essay, Sparer discusses Harris's complex use of language, symbolism, and multiple levels of consciousness to create “a vision of the possibility of a new conception of m...
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In the following essay, Russell examines the major thematic developments in Tumatumari as a complex expression of “the art of memory.”
In describing a new radical art which will go be...
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In the following essay, Mackey discusses the novel The Eye of the Scarecrow as a pivotal work in the development of Harris's self-reflexive narrative style.
But I experienced once more the r...
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In the following essay, Adams argues that Harris's early poetry acts as a key to understanding the images, themes, structures, and characters of his later novels.
Between 1951 and 1955 Wilso...
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In the following essay, Mackey explores the sense of geographical “place” in Harris's representations of the Caribbean.
… in a context such as the Caribbean and the Amer...
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In the following essay, Cobham examines the evolution of Eternity to Season from its initial publication in 1954 through its final edition in 1978, marking technical changes, reorganization of lines a...
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In the following interview, Harris discusses the setting, characters, and themes of The Secret Ladder, the evolution of his artistic vision, and his concept of the novel genre.
[Fabre:] How would y...
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In the following essay, Sander assesses Harris's early development as a writer by focusing on his contributions to the journal Kyk-over-al between 1945 and 1960.
Form and content are then in...
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In the following essay, Drake explores Harris's writing style in terms of the relationship between literature and society.
This paper is a brief and somewhat preliminary outline of a project...
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In the following essay, Durix provides an overview of major themes in Harris's novels, concluding that his art is “a deep exploration of the paradoxes of vision, for which a new approach...
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In the following negative review, Thorpe argues that The Angel at the Gate is only accessible to “seasoned” readers accustomed to Harris's “opaque” narrative style.
...
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In the following essay, Durix discusses the automatic writing and multi-layered narrative construction in The Angel at the Gate, describing the narrative as “a dream journey.”
The Ang...
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In the following positive review, Reinhard praises The Womb of Space as an attack on the traditional critical establishment.
The Guyanese writer Wilson Harris is a major contemporary novelist and t...
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In the following review, Dasenbrock asserts that Carnival is “even denser and more abstract” than Harris's previous novels, and that it is “less a narrative than a metanarr...
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In the following interview, originally conducted on 28 April 1986, Harris discusses “post-colonial allegory,” particularly in respect to Carnival.
[Slemon:] You have talked about how ...
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In the following essay, Drake explores the themes of conquest and desire in Palace of the Peacock.
Conquest is the greatest evil of soul humanity inflicts on itself and on nature.
—Wilso...
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In the following essay, Drake explores the feminist themes of family, society, and history in Tumatumari.
We play the game of history, my child
Henry Tenby, Tumatumari, p. 127
History never ...
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In the following positive review, McLeod describes The Infinite Rehearsal as an apparently simple yet deeply profound novella, asserting that it is “an allegorical political parable” tha...
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In the following review, Mannes-Abbot offers a positive assessment of The Four Banks of the River of Space, noting that the novel “almost perfects the fabulism” of the first two novels i...
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In the following essay, Webb compares Palace of the Peacock with Alejo Carpentier's Los passos perdidos (The Lost Steps), observing that both novels depict a symbolic quest for cultural and per...
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In the following essay, Webb compares Black Marsden with Alejo Carpentier's Concierto barroco, arguing that both novels narrate a journey in which “the protagonists confront questions of...
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In the following mixed review, Gurnah summarizes the main themes of Resurrection at Sorrow Hill and The Carnival Trilogy, noting that the trilogy's prose is “obstinate and difficult....
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In the following positive review, Morton focuses on the central themes of Resurrection at Sorrow Hill and The Carnival Trilogy.
Stephen Hawking is to the postmodern novel what J. W. Dunne and An Ex...
Read more
In the following essay, Thorpe argues that The Radical Imagination represents “the distillation of Harris's thought and art,” noting that Harris is at least as influential and imp...
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In the following review, Breslow discusses Resurrection at Sorrow Hill in terms of Harris's use of language and allegory.
Wilson Harris, the Guyanese-born, English-settled dreamer of South A...
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In the following review, Gurnah discusses how Jonestown addresses broad questions of culture and freedom in the context of Guyanese history.
On November 18, 1978, in the interior of the Cooperative...
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In the following review, Burnett offers a positive assessment of Jonestown, calling the novel a “mind-altering experience.”
Reading Wilson Harris is like staring into the luminous, fl...
Read more
In the following essay, López discusses the influence of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness on post-colonial fiction, particularly its representation of otherness, and argues that Harris ...
Read more
In the following essay, Adler provides a brief overview of Harris's works and career, highlighting his main themes and literary achievements.
Harris has done so much to unblock the Western m...
Read more
In the following essay, Raine discusses the role cultural preconceptions play in Harris's works, noting his reliance on imagination and beauty.
It is the mark of the new that we never know w...
Read more
In the following essay, Melville focuses on the emotional power of Harris's works, contrasting its impact with other works of contemporary fiction.
For those of us who are following Wilson H...
Read more
In the following essay, Murray discusses the ways Harris's works adapt and confront the methodologies of postcolonial theory.
The continuing theoretical debate over the shape and size, the r...
Read more
In the following essay, Cribb suggests an approach to analyzing the elements of narrative in the fiction of Harris, concluding that Harris is “both a modernist and a visionary.”
This ...
Read more
In the following essay, Steele explores the formal aspects of narrative in Palace of the Peacock, highlighting a number of boundaries that the narrative breaks down.
Palace of the Peacock, Wilson H...
Read more
In the following essay, James compares the transformative effects of Harris's imagination in Palace of the Peacock to similar ones in the poetry of William Wordsworth.
One of Wilson Harris&#...
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In the following essay, Maes-Jelinek examines Harris's geographical and metaphorical reconception of the Caribbean and the region's potential for artistic creativity, particularly as rep...
Read more
In the following essay, Emery discusses how Harris utilizes the imagery of Guyanese visual art as a metaphor for the problem of identity in The Four Banks of the River of Space and Resurrection at Sor...
Read more
In the following essay, Johnson focuses on Harris's concern with the body as a metaphorical locus of gendered identity and cross-cultural community in The Carnival Trilogy.
Vaguely alarming ...
Read more
In the following essay, Phillips demonstrates how Harris uses symbolism in Palace of the Peacock to express ideas of deep spiritual significance that can transform the human psyche.
Critics of Guya...
Read more
In the following review, Phillips offers a positive assessment of Selected Essays of Wilson Harris, praising the selections for elucidating the difficulties of Harris's fiction.
In a 1975 re...
Read more
In the following review, Paris offers a positive assessment of Selected Essays of Wilson Harris, noting that the collection provides a useful introduction to Harris's work.
After a useful ma...
Read more
In the following review, Tayler describes Harris's writing style in The Dark Jester as “romantic modernism,” observing that the characters are “the fragmentary manifestatio...
Read more
In the following essay, Boxill argues that, with Palace of the Peacock, Harris brought a new type of novel to the body of West Indian fiction—the “poetical novel.”
When Wilson ...
Read more
In the following essay, Drake explores Harris's writing style in terms of the relationship between literature and society.
This paper is a brief and somewhat preliminary outline of a project...
Read more
In the following essay, Durix provides an overview of major themes in Harris's novels, concluding that his art is “a deep exploration of the paradoxes of vision, for which a new approach...
Read more
In the following negative review, Thorpe argues that The Angel at the Gate is only accessible to “seasoned” readers accustomed to Harris's “opaque” narrative style.
...
Read more
In the following essay, Durix discusses the automatic writing and multi-layered narrative construction in The Angel at the Gate, describing the narrative as “a dream journey.”
The Ang...
Read more
In the following positive review, Reinhard praises The Womb of Space as an attack on the traditional critical establishment.
The Guyanese writer Wilson Harris is a major contemporary novelist and t...
Read more
In the following review, Dasenbrock asserts that Carnival is “even denser and more abstract” than Harris's previous novels, and that it is “less a narrative than a metanarr...
Read more
In the following interview, originally conducted on 28 April 1986, Harris discusses “post-colonial allegory,” particularly in respect to Carnival.
[Slemon:] You have talked about how ...
Read more
In the following essay, Drake explores the themes of conquest and desire in Palace of the Peacock.
Conquest is the greatest evil of soul humanity inflicts on itself and on nature.
—Wilso...
Read more
In the following essay, Drake explores the feminist themes of family, society, and history in Tumatumari.
We play the game of history, my child
Henry Tenby, Tumatumari, p. 127
History never ...
Read more
In the following positive review, McLeod describes The Infinite Rehearsal as an apparently simple yet deeply profound novella, asserting that it is “an allegorical political parable” tha...
Read more
In the following essay, Sparer discusses Harris's complex use of language, symbolism, and multiple levels of consciousness to create “a vision of the possibility of a new conception of m...
Read more
In the following review, Mannes-Abbot offers a positive assessment of The Four Banks of the River of Space, noting that the novel “almost perfects the fabulism” of the first two novels i...
Read more
In the following essay, Webb compares Palace of the Peacock with Alejo Carpentier's Los passos perdidos (The Lost Steps), observing that both novels depict a symbolic quest for cultural and per...
Read more
In the following essay, Webb compares Black Marsden with Alejo Carpentier's Concierto barroco, arguing that both novels narrate a journey in which “the protagonists confront questions of...
Read more
In the following mixed review, Gurnah summarizes the main themes of Resurrection at Sorrow Hill and The Carnival Trilogy, noting that the trilogy's prose is “obstinate and difficult....
Read more
In the following positive review, Morton focuses on the central themes of Resurrection at Sorrow Hill and The Carnival Trilogy.
Stephen Hawking is to the postmodern novel what J. W. Dunne and An Ex...
Read more
In the following essay, Thorpe argues that The Radical Imagination represents “the distillation of Harris's thought and art,” noting that Harris is at least as influential and imp...
Read more
In the following review, Breslow discusses Resurrection at Sorrow Hill in terms of Harris's use of language and allegory.
Wilson Harris, the Guyanese-born, English-settled dreamer of South A...
Read more
In the following review, Gurnah discusses how Jonestown addresses broad questions of culture and freedom in the context of Guyanese history.
On November 18, 1978, in the interior of the Cooperative...
Read more
In the following review, Burnett offers a positive assessment of Jonestown, calling the novel a “mind-altering experience.”
Reading Wilson Harris is like staring into the luminous, fl...
Read more
In the following essay, López discusses the influence of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness on post-colonial fiction, particularly its representation of otherness, and argues that Harris ...
Read more
In the following essay, Russell examines the major thematic developments in Tumatumari as a complex expression of “the art of memory.”
In describing a new radical art which will go be...
Read more
In the following essay, Adler provides a brief overview of Harris's works and career, highlighting his main themes and literary achievements.
Harris has done so much to unblock the Western m...
Read more
In the following essay, Raine discusses the role cultural preconceptions play in Harris's works, noting his reliance on imagination and beauty.
It is the mark of the new that we never know w...
Read more
In the following essay, Melville focuses on the emotional power of Harris's works, contrasting its impact with other works of contemporary fiction.
For those of us who are following Wilson H...
Read more
In the following essay, Murray discusses the ways Harris's works adapt and confront the methodologies of postcolonial theory.
The continuing theoretical debate over the shape and size, the r...
Read more
In the following essay, Cribb suggests an approach to analyzing the elements of narrative in the fiction of Harris, concluding that Harris is “both a modernist and a visionary.”
This ...
Read more
In the following essay, Steele explores the formal aspects of narrative in Palace of the Peacock, highlighting a number of boundaries that the narrative breaks down.
Palace of the Peacock, Wilson H...
Read more
In the following essay, James compares the transformative effects of Harris's imagination in Palace of the Peacock to similar ones in the poetry of William Wordsworth.
One of Wilson Harris&#...
Read more
In the following essay, Maes-Jelinek examines Harris's geographical and metaphorical reconception of the Caribbean and the region's potential for artistic creativity, particularly as rep...
Read more
In the following essay, Emery discusses how Harris utilizes the imagery of Guyanese visual art as a metaphor for the problem of identity in The Four Banks of the River of Space and Resurrection at Sor...
Read more
In the following essay, Johnson focuses on Harris's concern with the body as a metaphorical locus of gendered identity and cross-cultural community in The Carnival Trilogy.
Vaguely alarming ...
Read more
In the following essay, Mackey discusses the novel The Eye of the Scarecrow as a pivotal work in the development of Harris's self-reflexive narrative style.
But I experienced once more the r...
Read more
In the following essay, Phillips demonstrates how Harris uses symbolism in Palace of the Peacock to express ideas of deep spiritual significance that can transform the human psyche.
Critics of Guya...
Read more
In the following review, Phillips offers a positive assessment of Selected Essays of Wilson Harris, praising the selections for elucidating the difficulties of Harris's fiction.
In a 1975 re...
Read more
In the following review, Paris offers a positive assessment of Selected Essays of Wilson Harris, noting that the collection provides a useful introduction to Harris's work.
After a useful ma...
Read more
In the following review, Tayler describes Harris's writing style in The Dark Jester as “romantic modernism,” observing that the characters are “the fragmentary manifestatio...
Read more
In the following essay, Adams argues that Harris's early poetry acts as a key to understanding the images, themes, structures, and characters of his later novels.
Between 1951 and 1955 Wilso...
Read more
In the following essay, Mackey explores the sense of geographical “place” in Harris's representations of the Caribbean.
… in a context such as the Caribbean and the Amer...
Read more
In the following essay, Cobham examines the evolution of Eternity to Season from its initial publication in 1954 through its final edition in 1978, marking technical changes, reorganization of lines a...
Read more
In the following interview, Harris discusses the setting, characters, and themes of The Secret Ladder, the evolution of his artistic vision, and his concept of the novel genre.
[Fabre:] How would y...
Read more
In the following essay, Sander assesses Harris's early development as a writer by focusing on his contributions to the journal Kyk-over-al between 1945 and 1960.
Form and content are then in...
Read more
Wilson Harris
Critical Essay by Paul West
