Ashok Bery

• SOAS University of London

Etymologically, translation evokes an act of moving or carrying across from one place or position to another, or of changing from one state of things to another. This does not apply only to the words of different languages, but also to human beings and their most important properties. They too can be moved across all sorts of differences and border...

Despite his Irish birth, it may seem unusual, even eccentric, to include Louis MacNeice in a book with the word ‘postcolonial’ in its title. He has not, to my knowledge, been discussed in such a context. One reason for this is probably the Anglicized upbringing and public school education that, in Derek Mahon’s words, ‘has a way of ironing out diff...

Of the poets discussed in this book, Ramanujan is perhaps the most distinguished and influential as a translator. It is true that Seamus Heaney’s translations have been widely acclaimed, and since Heaney is better known amongst readers of poetry in the English-speaking world (and beyond), my claim on Ramanujan’s behalf may seem excessive. Heaney’s...

Creolization is usually taken to be an important and distinctive feature of the Caribbean. Edward Brathwaite defines the process in the case of Jamaica as involving the ‘formation of a society which developed, or was developing, its own distinctive character or culture which, in so far as it was neither purely British nor West African, is called “c...

It is difficult to reach any conclusions that will apply neatly to the diverse writers and cultures discussed in the previous chapters. Nevertheless, certain recurrent themes have seemed to emerge during the course of writing this book, occasionally taking me in directions that I had not expected when setting out. Some may feel that the term ‘trans...

The Ireland of Seamus Heaney’s imaginings, it has been argued by a number of critics, is something organic, autochthonous, mythical, beyond and outside history. It glosses over difference of various kinds, and both feeds from and feeds back into stereotypical notions, particularly a feminized version of the land. (My compressed summary, of course,...

Like Judith Wright, Les Murray has been concerned with Aboriginal peoples and with the Australian landscape; but his approach has been rather different from hers. There is less emphasis on the ravages which invasion brought to the Aborigines and he does not share Wright’s sense of incommensurability between white and Aboriginal cultures. Instead, h...

Many words have been expended on defining, defending and criticizing the term ‘postcolonial’ used in the title of this book.1 I do not want at this point to add very much to them apart from saying that I use it here as a flag of convenience, since, whatever the pros and cons of the term might be, it does at least have the minimum virtue of identify...

Two interlinked concerns have repeatedly pressed themselves on the attention of writers and commentators who have discussed the nature of Australian identities: one is the relationship between the Aborigines and white Australians, and the other is the meanings of the Australian landscape. These subjects are certainly of some importance in this chap...

This chapter has five sections: 1. Africa; 2. Australia; 3. Canada; 4. India; 5. New Zealand and the South Pacific. Section 1 is by Femi Abodunrin; section 2 is by Elizabeth Webby and Julieanne Lamond; section 3 is by Richard Lane; section 4 is by Ashok Bery; section 5 is by Nelson Wattie.

This chapter has six sections: 1. Africa; 2. Australia; 3. Canada; 4. The Caribbean; 5. India; 6. New Zealand. Section 1 is by Femi Abodunrin; section 2 is by Ian Henderson and Bernadette Brennan; section 3 is by Richard Lane; section 4 is by Chester St H. Mills; section 5 is by Ashok Bery; section 6 is by Nelson Wattie.