The Eye of the Scarecrow
An unnamed diarist, writing in London, in 1963, reflects on episodes of his life in British Guiana that profoundly altered his vision and understanding of the world.
Price
£8.99
Author(s)
Wilson Harris
ISBN number
9781845231644
Pages
112
Price
£8.99
Classification
Caribbean Modern Classics
Fiction, Novel
Country setting
Guyana
Publication date
30 Aug 2011

There are childhood incidents, such as time he pushed his friend into a canal, but finds no blame is attached to his role; there is his youthful witnessing of a march of workers in 1948, protesting the killing of their comrades by the police during a bitter strike, and his momentary, but disconcerting perception that his friend is an empty scarecrow of a man, a vision that leaves him with “a curious void of conventional everyday feeling.”

There begins a radical exploration of the indeterminacy of memory and the capacity of the imagination to see beyond the everyday, to tap into the interplay between the material and the spiritual, the conscious and unconscious mind. Though Harris challenges the reader by removing the props of linear narration, he compensates by offering a poetic richness of sensuous association.

With an introduction by Michael Mitchell

Wilson Harris was born in New Amsterdam in British Guiana, with a background which embraces African, European and Amerindian ancestry. Unquestionably the Anglophone Caribbean’s most original and visionary writer, Harris has published an extensive body of fiction, poetry, and some of the most suggestive Caribbean criticism. Resident in the UK in 1959, since his retirement he has been in demand as visiting professor and writer in residence at many leading universities. He was knighted in 2010 for his services to literature.

Variations

Wilson Harris

We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Wilson Harris on 8 March 2018. One of the Caribbean's leading writers, Wilson Harris was born in New Amsterdam in British Guiana, with a background which embraces African, European and Amerindian ancestry.
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