The Africa of his ancestry, the Caribbean of his birth, the Britain of his upbringing, and the United States where he now lives are the focal points of award-winning writer Caryl Phillips’ profound inquiry into evolving notions of home, identity, and belonging in an increasingly international society.
At once deeply reflective and coolly prescient, A New World Ordercharts the psychological frontiers of our ever-changing world. Through personal and literary encounters, Phillips probes the meaning of cultural dislocation, measuring the distinguishing features of our identities–geographic, racial, national, religious–against the amalgamating effects of globalization. In the work of writers such as V. S. Naipaul, James Baldwin, and Zadie Smith, cultural figures such as Steven Spielberg, Linton Kwesi Johnson, and Marvin Gaye, and in his own experiences, Phillips detects the erosion of cultural boundaries and amasses startling and poignant insights on whether there can be an answer anymore to the question “Where are you from?” The result is an illuminating–and powerfully relevant–account of identity from an exceedingly perceptive citizen of the world.
Table of Contents
Introduction: A New World Order
The United States Introduction: The Burden of Race Native Son by Richard Wright Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin Marvin Gaye Fatheralong by John Edgar Wideman James Baldwin: The Lure of Hollywood Amistad
Africa Introduction: Dispatches from Africa The Fortunes of Wangrin by Amadou Hampaté Bâ Nadine Gordimer: The Beat of History J.M. Coetzee: Life and Times of John C. The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness by Wole Soyinka
The Caribbean Introduction: The Gift of Displacement St. Kitts: 19 September 1983 A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid The Arkansas Testament by Derek Walcott C.L.R. James: Mariner, Renegade and Castaway Edouard Glissant: Promiscuities V. S. Naipaul Patrick Chamoiseau: Unmarooned Following On: The Legacy of Lamming and Selvon
Britain Introduction: A Little Luggage Ignatius Sancho: A Black British Man of Letters Linton Kwesi Johnson: Prophet in Another Land The Pioneers: Fifty Years of Caribbean Migration to Britain White Teeth by Zadie Smith Extravagant Strangers Leeds United, Life and Me
Caryl Phillips was born in St. Kitts, West Indies, and brought up in England. He is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction. His novel Dancing in the Dark won the 2006 PEN/Beyond Margins Award, and an earlier novel, A Distant Shore, won the 2004 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. His other awards include the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and currently lives in New York.
View titles by Caryl Phillips
The Africa of his ancestry, the Caribbean of his birth, the Britain of his upbringing, and the United States where he now lives are the focal points of award-winning writer Caryl Phillips’ profound inquiry into evolving notions of home, identity, and belonging in an increasingly international society.
At once deeply reflective and coolly prescient, A New World Ordercharts the psychological frontiers of our ever-changing world. Through personal and literary encounters, Phillips probes the meaning of cultural dislocation, measuring the distinguishing features of our identities–geographic, racial, national, religious–against the amalgamating effects of globalization. In the work of writers such as V. S. Naipaul, James Baldwin, and Zadie Smith, cultural figures such as Steven Spielberg, Linton Kwesi Johnson, and Marvin Gaye, and in his own experiences, Phillips detects the erosion of cultural boundaries and amasses startling and poignant insights on whether there can be an answer anymore to the question “Where are you from?” The result is an illuminating–and powerfully relevant–account of identity from an exceedingly perceptive citizen of the world.
Table of Contents
Introduction: A New World Order
The United States Introduction: The Burden of Race Native Son by Richard Wright Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin Marvin Gaye Fatheralong by John Edgar Wideman James Baldwin: The Lure of Hollywood Amistad
Africa Introduction: Dispatches from Africa The Fortunes of Wangrin by Amadou Hampaté Bâ Nadine Gordimer: The Beat of History J.M. Coetzee: Life and Times of John C. The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness by Wole Soyinka
The Caribbean Introduction: The Gift of Displacement St. Kitts: 19 September 1983 A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid The Arkansas Testament by Derek Walcott C.L.R. James: Mariner, Renegade and Castaway Edouard Glissant: Promiscuities V. S. Naipaul Patrick Chamoiseau: Unmarooned Following On: The Legacy of Lamming and Selvon
Britain Introduction: A Little Luggage Ignatius Sancho: A Black British Man of Letters Linton Kwesi Johnson: Prophet in Another Land The Pioneers: Fifty Years of Caribbean Migration to Britain White Teeth by Zadie Smith Extravagant Strangers Leeds United, Life and Me
Caryl Phillips was born in St. Kitts, West Indies, and brought up in England. He is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction. His novel Dancing in the Dark won the 2006 PEN/Beyond Margins Award, and an earlier novel, A Distant Shore, won the 2004 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. His other awards include the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and currently lives in New York.
View titles by Caryl Phillips
