[John Robert Lee and Kendel Hippolyte, Editors, Saint Lucian Literature and Theatre: An Anthology of Reviews, Castries: Cultural Development Foundation, 2006. 356 pp.]
The Caribbean region established itself as a community of nations with the signing of The Treaty of Chaguaramas in Trinidad and Tobago on July 4, 1973. This was further formalised with significant advancements and a deepening of the agreements when the nations signed the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas on July 5, 2001. This set up “the Caricom Community, including the Caricom Single Market and Economy” (the CSME), which was ratified by 15 member states in order to achieve “sustained economic development based on international competitiveness, co-ordinated economic and foreign policies, functional co-operation and enhanced trade and economic relations with third States”.
We celebrate Caricom Day on the first Monday of July each year – the virtual anniversary of these treaties, to mark the CSME and preserve the memory of this economic, political and cultural unity among states. We should further take advantage of the occasion to celebrate the literature of the Caribbean, that has been a constant companion to CSME throughout these years and has served the sense of a community somewhat better than any economic or political cooperation.
This literature has a long association with social and cultural development in the region, commenting on human progress and adversity, illuminating the effects of the technological and scientific factors affecting the life of the people.
To mark the literature of Caricom, we therefore take the opportunity to celebrate one of the most impressive and invaluable documents that have been compiled to support and preserve the literature in recent times. It is a great monument of St Lucian literature and drama, the result of extensive archival research and a sensitivity to what is essential in the writing, the art and the theatrical performance of St Lucians covering a period of more than 50 years. It is also an important beacon for West Indian literature and theatre since it documents the output of a highly productive member state. But it transcends the island of St Lucia because of the prominence and the place of much of this work in the wider area of West Indian letters. It has been around for many years, but it is well worth revisiting, to praise it, and as a reminder of the value of the work it has done.
Saint Lucian Literature and Theatre: An Anthology of Reviews is compiled and edited by John Robert Lee and Kendel Hippolyte and published by the Cultural Development Foundaton in Castries, St Lucia in 2006. It first made its appearance at Carifesta in Trinidad and Tobago in August, 2016, a fitting place to introduce itself to the rest of the region. It was a part of the artistic products of the nation and featured quite appropriately in the Caricom regional Festival of the Arts, highlighting its necessary place in the advancement of West Indian literature.
The editors are renowned in the field of culture . Hippolyte made his first appearance as a student at the UWI Mona Campus in Jamaica, where he also started his career as a poet, playwright and director. He later went on to be one of St Lucia’s foremost poets and cultural activists, decorated with a St Lucia Medal of Merit (Gold) for Contribution to the Arts. He has produced seven collections of poetry, one of which, Fault Lines, (2013), was the best entry in Poetry in the OCM Bocas awards of 2013. Other collections include Islands in the Sun Side Two (1980), The Labyrynth (1991), and Night Vision (2005) and Wordplanting. His major plays include The Drum Maker (1976), Song of One, (1995), and Tryptich (2000). Hippolyte was co-founder of the Lighthouse Theatre in St Lucia in 1984 and has been the winner of several fellowships for creative writing. He twice won the Literature Section of the Minvielle and Chastanet Fine Arts Award in St Lucia.
Lee is a St Lucian poet, editor, anthologist, short story writer and cultural activist. He is a librarian, which might account for his very keen interest in archival work and his long-standing association with research and records of the arts in his homeland. He has also opened up a permanent correspondence via e-mail, keeping West Indian writers and academics informed of developments in the arts and in touch with each other. His published collections of poetry include Elemental, (2008), Collected Poems 1975-2015, (2017), and Pierrot, (2020). He has been endorsed by Derek Walcott who described him as “a scrupulous poet” and “a fine poet”.
The anthology of reviews that they compiled brings together in a single volume dozens of reviews of poetry, fiction, art, plays, productions and performances published in diverse places by many different writers over a long period. It is the documentation of a virtual history of St Lucian literature and theatre, covering the period 1948 all the way up to 2006. Among the early works receiving attention is Derek Walcott’s first published collection, 25 Poems (1948), which may be regarded as the beginning of modern St Lucian literature. It has been able to cover to a considerable degree, the march of Walcott’s work since then, paying special attention to his plays performed in St Lucia, including early work like Malcauchon up to Dream on Monkey Mountain, The Joker of Seville and Haytian Earth.
The history of the modern literature and the theatre reflect the rise and development of those prominent in the field since 1948 and the more than 50 years of activities over the period covered by the reviews. There were many important movements during that time. The fine arts was dominated by Dunstan St Omer, a contemporary of Walcott, with whom he shared his first exhibition of paintings. St Omer became the country’s major artist famous for the outstanding murals including work in cathedrals.
The collected reviews allow an insight into the literature of the leading novelist Garth St Omer and a long line of poets.
There is documentation of a variety of published poetry that informs an understanding of the national literature. This work is mainly reflected in publications by Lee and Hippolyte, but also by Jane King Hippolyte, McDonald Dixon, Dawn French and Portia Marshall. There is even the occasional articles touching on Walcott’s work, such Eddie Baugh’s comment on The Prodigal.
The tale told by the collected reviews of theatre is powerful as criticism of the work and as a revelation of the St Lucian stage. This has been fortified by such institutions as the St Lucia Arts Guild for which Roderick Walcott was the prime mover while he was active in St Lucia, and the more recent Lighthouse Theatre. A virtual history of the drama is contained in the collection which has invaluable archival importance.
In addition to the Walcott twins, the most famous national dramatists, readers of this anthology will learn of the real importance of other playwrights such as Stanley French and Hippolyte. These foremost playwrights have had productions of their pays in other countries, notably Jamaica, and critical attention to these have added to the dialogue about St Lucian theatre. Meanwhile, at home in Castries, there is documentation of other theatrical performances such as the work of George “Fish” Alphonse, Kennedy Samuel and performances based on the oral traditions like “Tim-Tim” and “Papa Diable: the Devil at Christmas”. When this is put with the several productions in the output of the St Lucia Arts Guild and Lighthouse Theatre the arts of the island assumes even greater interest.
One learns as much about the criticism, the critics and reviewers as about the productions. They are very much a part of the dialogue and are able to put the stage in its social and political contexts. There is a range that goes from Jamaicans Mervyn Morris, Harry Milner, Verena Reckord and others, as well as St Lucians George Odlum, Kennedy Samuel, Hippolyte, Lee, Stanley Reid, McDonald Dixon, and Jane King. At the same time a number of very elite directors like the legendary Dennis Scott become involved.
But in the other literature the circle is even wider, perhaps because written and published literature can travel much further than stage performances. One of the important historical records is the inclusion of Harold Simmons who may be regarded as the founder of modern St Lucian criticism. He starts of with his criticism of the fledgling Walcott at the very beginning of this era. The list of critics for poetry and fiction is much longer than that for drama and is drawn from a wider geographical area. Baugh and Morris are joined by Michael Gilkes, Cliff Lashley, Gordon Rohlehr, Patricia Ismond, Wyck Williams and Curwen Best.
There is even greater enhancement of the archival value of this anthology because of the dozens of priceless photographs that are collected in the volume. Mention is made of institutions like the Folk Research Centre of Castries, a source of a depth of literary and historical material.
But the richness of the anthology is also contained in its Foreword by Chairman of the Cultural Development Foundation Patricia Charles, who set out the aims of the three year project that culminated in this publication. Added to that is the Introduction by Jane King who produces quite a critical analysis of the material and their sources.
The editors dedicate Saint Lucian Literature and Theatre: An Anthology
of Reviews to “All the writers, all the theatre people: playwrights, produces, directors, actors, set designers, dancers, musicians, technicians, all the newspaper and magazine editors, the reviewers, and all others, who have contributed to the development of Saint Lucian literature and theatre.” Only the photographers responsible for the several pictures are left out; but all those contributors, as well as the editors of this collection of reviews are to be commended for the addition of this informative and comprehensive critical document to the West Indian literature that we celebrate on the Eve of Caricom Day.
