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Gordon Rohlehr (born 20 February 1942)[1] is a Guyana-born scholar and critic of West Indian literature, who is noted for his study of popular culture in the Caribbean, including oral poetry, calypso and cricket.[2] He pioneered the academic and intellectual study of Calypso,[3] tracing its history over several centuries, writing a landmark work entitled Calypso and Society in Pre-Independence Trinidad (1989), and is considered the world's leading authority on its development.[4]

Biography[edit]

Born in Guyana in 1942, Rohlehr was educated at Queen's College, Guyana, and at the University College of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, graduating in 1964 with a first-class Honours degree in English Literature.[1][5] He then wrote a doctoral dissertation entitled "Alienation and Commitment in the Works of Joseph Conrad" at Birmingham University (1964-67),[4] before taking up an English Literature appointment in Trinidad at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine.

Spending 40 years at UWI, St Augustine – he began as Assistant Lecturer in 1968 and achieved a personal Chair by 1985[6] – he established an international reputation for his ground-breaking work on Caribbean literature, calypso and culture, building an extensive opus that comprises books, hundreds of essays, interviews, lectures and broadcasts.[1][4][7] He co-edited, with Stewart Brown and Mervyn Morris, Voiceprint: An Anthology of Oral and Related Poetry from the Caribbean (Harlow: Longman Caribbean, 1989).

Rohlehr has also been Visiting Professor to Harvard University (September-December 1981); the Johns Hopkins University (September-December 1985); Tulane University (January-May 1997); Stephen F. Austin State University (January-May 2000); Miami University Writers’ Workshop (June-July 1995); York University, Toronto (January-February 1996) and Dartmouth College, New Hampshire (June-August 2004).[4]

Awards and honours[edit]

In 1995 Rohlehr received the University of the West Indies' Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in the combined fields of Teaching, Research, Administration and Public Service.[5][8]

His retirement from UWI in 2007 was marked by a conference in his honour,[9][10] "for his sterling contribution to the development of West Indian literary and cultural criticism".[11]

Rohlehr's life and career are celebrated in a documentary film entitled Rivers of Sound.[12]

At the 2014 NGC Bocas Lit Fest, Rohlehr was honoured alongside Professor Kenneth Ramchand with the Henry Swanzy Award for Distinguished Service to Caribbean Letters, which recognises the lifetime achievement of editors, publishers, critics and broadcasters.[13]

Bibliography[edit]

  • Pathfinder: Black Awakening in "The Arrivants" of Edward Kamau Brathwaite (Tunapuna: College Press, 1981)
  • Cultural Resistance and the Guyana State (Casa de las Américas, 1984)
  • Calypso and Society in Pre-Independence Trinidad (Port of Spain, 1989; ISBN 978-9768012524)
  • My Strangled City and Other Essays (Longman Trinidad, 1992)
  • The Shape of That Hurt and Other Essays (Longman Trinidad, 1992)
  • A Scuffling of Islands: Essays on Calypso (Lexicon Trinidad Ltd, 2004)
  • Transgression, Transition, Transformation: Essays in Caribbean Culture (Lexicon, 2007)

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "UWI Conference in honour of Rohlehr", Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, 22 September 2007.
  2. ^ Anu Lakhan, "Crossing over", The Caribbean Review of Books, No. 16, May 2008.
  3. ^ "Feature Speakers: Gordon Rohlehr", Interlocking Basins of a Globe: Honouring Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.
  4. ^ a b c d "Professor Gordon Rohlehr", The Integrationist.
  5. ^ a b Gordon Rohlehr biography at Arts & Humanities Research Council. University of Leeds.
  6. ^ Barbara Lalla, "Profile – Gordon Rohlehr", Tout Moun, Vol. 2, No. 1, October 2013, p. 7.
  7. ^ "Key Figures in Creole Studies - Gordon Rohlehr", Department of Sociology, Warwick University.
  8. ^ Contributors, Tout Moun, Vol. 2, No. 1, October 2013.
  9. ^ "Rohlehr launches book on Caribbean culture", Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, 2 October 2007.
  10. ^ "From Apocalypse to Awakenings – Conference in Honour of Professor Gordon Rohlehr, October 4th-6th 2007", Faculty of Humanities and Education, Department of Liberal Arts, UWI, St Augustine.
  11. ^ "From Apocalypse to Awakenings", Campus News, UWI St Augustine Campus.
  12. ^ "Rivers of Sound". Director: Jean Antoine-Dunne.
  13. ^ Michelle Loubon, "Enjoying every word", Trinidad Express Newspapers, 21 March 2014.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151029200848/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Rohlehr

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