Time, history, and philosophy in the works of Wilson Harris / Gianluca Delfino.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Delfino, Gianluca, author.

Series:

Studies in English literatures ; Volume 18.

Studies in English Literatures, 1614-4651 ; Volume 18

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Harris, Wilson--Criticism and interpretation.

Harris, Wilson.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (255 p.)

Edition:

Second, revised and expanded edition.

Place of Publication:

Stuttgart, Germany : ibidem-Verlag, 2016.

Summary:

Gianluca Delfino's encounter with one of the Caribbean's most controversial authors illuminates Wilson Harris's imaginative approach to history and time. Delfino references several novels, with a special focus on The Infinite Rehearsal (1987), Jonestown (1996), and The Dark Jester (2001). His analysis encompasses critical perspectives from African philosophy to Jungian readings, refracted through historiography and anthropology, demonstrating the remarkable unity that binds four decades of Harris's work. As a result, the cross-cultural quality of Harris's thought emerges as a healing outcome of the traumatic colonial encounter, bringing together elements of Amerindian, African, and European origin in an ongoing dialogue with time, nature, and the psyche.

Contents:

Table of Contents; Acknowledgements; Foreword by Paget Henry; Preface; 1 - A Coherent Design: An Introduction; 1.1 C.L.R. James's Heideggerian Interpretation; 1.2 Hegelian Dialectics and Wilson Harris's Novels; 1.3 Imaginative Poeticism: A Caribbean Perspective; 1.3.1 Consciousness and Ego Dynamics; 1.3.2 Poetics of Consciousness; 1.4 Gnostic Tradition and Faustian Themes; 1.5 Further Philosophical perspectives; 1.5.1 Nietzsche's Creative Power and Hubris; 1.5.2 Benjamin's Messianic History; 1.5.3 Deleuze and Temporality; 2 - Time and History

2.1 Historiography and Contemporary Philosophies of History2.1.1 Western Historiography and Authoritarian Narratives; 2.1.2 Non-Western Traditions of History; 3 - Jungian and Pre-Modern Influences; 3.1 Jungian Influences; 3.2 Archetypal Images; 3.2.1 Archetypal Images in Earlier Novels; 3.2.2 Doctor Faustus and The Infinite Rehearsal; 3.2.3 Jonestown and the Shape of Evil; 3.2.4 The Mask of the Beggar and Ulyssean Images; 3.3 Archetypes, the Collective Unconscious, the World's Unconscious and the Quest for Unity; 4 - Pre-Columbian Legacies; 4.1 Amerindians; 4.1.1 Guyanese Society

4.1.2 Amerindians: Historical and Anthropological information4.1.3 Harris's Main Anthropological Sources; 4.1.4 The Amerindian Legacy: An Imaginative Reading; 4.2 Meso-American and South-American Main Civilisations; 4.2.1 The Maya; 4.2.2 The Inca and Atahualpan Void; 5 - Conclusions: The Perspective of Living Landscapes; Afterword: Tuning to the Music of the Earth; Bibliography

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed May 27, 2016).

ISBN:

9783838269054

3838269055