Adeola James
Lecturer
Department of Languages and Cultural Studies
University of Guyana

"The Writer in Contemporay Caribbean Society: The Case of Guyana"

Early post-colonial writers have voiced their views on how they position themselves vis-a-vis the society within which they function- George Lamming, Wole Soyinka,and Martin Carter, to cite a few examples. A few decades later we want to examine how successful the artist has been in shaping his/her society or is it the other way round- that his society has shaped him.

The focus will be on Martin Carter's dictum on this subject through his poetry and by an examination of the poetry of frustrated genius of Mahadai Das. Both writers are representatives of the artist in a society that is perpetually in search of viable nationhood and peaceful co-existence.