Hello everyone. I attended the Thursday and Friday conference days and found them all to be incredibly informative and interesting. I really enjoyed Nicholas Laughlin's presentation about his edition of the book of letters between VS and Seepersad Naipaul. It gave an interesting exploration into the history and family dynamic of VS Naipaul. What really struck me was that in one letter, Laughlin describes it as VS beginning to see his father as a character. Another interesting note on the presentation was his question on the consequences of having let VS' sister Kamla write and encouraging her career as an author. What would that mean for the literary community in Trinidad? Dr. Dix's presentation on the development of late career fiction using the career theory further developed on this presentation for me. The evolution of a writer throughout his lifetime and the continuum of identity that is established between works as well as the change in narrative techniques such as a conclusive ending in House for Mr. Biswas and an open one in Magic Seeds.
Jim Hannon's presentation on the inefficiency of postcolonial theory to Naipaul due to his distancing himself from any one particular location was of great interest. He showed Naipaul as being a 'global citizen' not limiting himself to one particular cultural identity. Another panel I particularly enjoyed was Sharon Millar's feminist reinterpretation of Guerillas and especially her statement that coming to a country and not understanding the culture can be very dangerous.
All the panels were quite good in spite of the bad audio and interruptions by people about this problem. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Anand Bhavan as well as it helps to set the scene for House for Mr. Biswas.
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