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Brenda DoHarris

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Estheim (talk | contribs) at 10:43, 30 December 2020 (I feel like the lede puts more weight on her birth than achievement. Could use more description of her works, but I'm not sure if/how I could use "feminist literature" since that's mentioned as her field of interest.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Brenda Chester DoHarris (born 9 June 1946) is a writer and academic from Guyana.[1]

Career

Doharris was born in Georgetown, British Guiana and attended Bishops' High School on scholarship. Her education and experience growing up in rural Kitty were a major influence on her writing.[1]

She is a professor of English at Bowie State University in Bowie, Maryland[2], and a graduate of Columbia University[2] and Howard University, where she received a B.A. (1970) then M.S. (1972) in English.[1] The first Guyanese woman to run in Guyana for office of presidency of a trades union,[citation needed] she became actively involved in the Guyanese political movement for democracy during the 1970s.[citation needed]

She has travelled widely in Africa, the Caribbean and China, where she attended the U.S./China Joint Conference on Women's Issues.[citation needed] Her area of scholarly interest is post-colonial women's literature.[citation needed]

Works

Her novel The Coloured Girl in the Ring: A Guyanese Woman Remembers (1997) is a fictional exploration of a young Black woman's coming of age in British Guiana of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Told against the backdrop of political and racial turbulence, the novel employs a first-person narrative format and proffers a well-defined portrait of the main character's recollection of her family life, her oppressive school teachers, her friends' doomed inter-racial romance and her thoughts on race and identity.

According to a review in the College Language Association Journal, "The story is remarkable for its picture of a Guyanese village, but it requires a sequel to truly explore the life of this nameless narrator, who remains more an onlooker and reporter than the central persona of this piece."[3] A review from Kaieteur News describes it as "...a bitter-sweet narrative, one that is poignant and deeply moving, and made even more so by a feminist perspective that rightly celebrates the sustaining role of women in colonised societies."[4]

Calabash Parkway (2005) is about Guyanese immigrant women in Brooklyn, New York, women who struggle against the odds to gain legal residence.

Doharris was a contributor for Walter A. Rodney: A Promise of Revolution by Clairmont Chung. 2012. (ISBN:9781583673287)[5]

Awards

Calabash Parkway won the Guyana Prize for Literature.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c "DoHarris, Brenda". Oxford African American Studies Center. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.001.0001/acref-9780195301731-e-73817. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
  2. ^ a b "Preserving our literary heritage". Guyana Chronicle. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
  3. ^ Dance, Daryl Cumber (September 1998). "Review of The Colored Girl in the Ring: A Guyanese Woman Remembers by Brenda Chester DoHarris". College Language Association. pp. 118–23. Retrieved 2020-12-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ "BOOK REVIEW". Kaieteur News. 2010-06-20. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
  5. ^ Chung, Clairmont. "Monthly Review | Walter A. Rodney: A Promise of Revolution". Monthly Review. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
  6. ^ "Calabash Parkway: A Novel" Reviewed by Gokarran Sukhdeo, Guyana Journal


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