A New World Order Essays

by PHILLIPS, CARYL

• ISBN13: 9780375714030
• ISBN10: 0375714030
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-04-30
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

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 identitiesgeographic, racial, national, religiousagainst 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 illuminatingand powerfully relevantaccount of identity from an exceedingly perceptive citizen of the world.

Author Biography

Caryl Phillips lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A New World Order	p. 1
The United States
Introduction: The Burden of Race	p. 9
Native Son by Richard Wright	p. 18
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin	p. 28
Marvin Gaye	p. 35
Fatheralong by John Edgar Wideman	p. 60
James Baldwin: The Lure of Hollywood	p. 66
Amistad	p. 75
Africa
Introduction: Dispatches from Africa	p. 89
The Fortunes of Wangrin by Amadou Hampate Ba	p. 94
Nadine Gordimer: The Beat of History	p. 99
J. M. Coetzee: Life and Times of John C.	p. 109
The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness by Wole Soyinka	p. 122
The Caribbean
Introduction: The Gift of Displacement	p. 129
St. Kitts: 19 September 1983	p. 135
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid	p. 144
The Arkansas Testament by Derek Walcott	p. 147
C. L. R. James: Mariner, Renegade and Castaway	p. 152
Edouard Glissant: Promiscuities	p. 172
V. S. Naipaul	p. 187
Patrick Chamoiseau: Unmarooned	p. 220
Following On: The Legacy of Lamming and Selvon	p. 232
Britain
Introduction: A Little Luggage	p. 241
Ignatius Sancho: A Black British Man of Letters	p. 247
Linton Kwesi Johnson: Prophet in Another Land	p. 253
The Pioneers: Fifty Years of Caribbean Migration to Britain	p. 264
White Teeth by Zadie Smith	p. 283
Extravagant Strangers	p. 288
Leeds United, Life and Me	p. 298
Conclusion: The High Anxiety of Belonging	p. 303
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