POSTCOLONIAL WRITING IN ENGLISH - 3º ESO

Postcolonial writing in English

PROJECT BY STUDENTS IN 3º ESO BILINGUAL - IES RIO NORA

MICHAEL ONDAATJE He was born the 12th of September 1943 in Sri Lanka in Colombo. His parents separated when he was a child, he then lived with his mother in England. Now he has two children. He is a poet, fiction writer, novelist, editor, and filmmaker. Michael recived some literary awards. Ondaatje is also an Officer of the Order of Canada, recognizing him as one of the most recognized living authors in the country. Significant works: The English Patient, Light of War, Light of war, The Ghost of Anil, Running in the family. In his works he talks about childhood memories. He won, The Golden Man Booker,Booker Award; the Literary Award for English-language fiction; the English patient Giller Award the 2000 Guggenheim Scholarship in Creative Arts, the Foreign Medici Award and the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry or drama.

JAMES BALDWIN (1924-1987) James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist who fought for African-American civil rights, he was born on the 2nd of August of 1924 and he died on the 1st of December of 1987. One of the 20th century's greatest writers, Baldwin broke new literary ground with the exploration of racial and social issues in his many works. He was especially known for his essays on the Black experience in America. His best books: Go Tell It Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) Notes of a Native Son (1955) Giovanni's Room (1956) Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes From a Native Son (1961) He won the Guggenheim Craft Scholarship as well as other prizes. “Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up”

JEAN RHYS (1890-1979) Her real name was Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams and she was an Anglo- Caribbean novelist from the first half of the 20th century. She was born on the 24th of August, 1890, in Dominica and she died in Exter, England, in 1979. Rhys had a Welsh father and a Creole mother. Jean Rhys had a difficult life and she was an alcoholic. When she turned 16, she was sent to London to live with her aunt as she didn’t get on well with her mother. She wanted to be an actress. A few years later, in 1920, she began to work as a bohemian artist. It was then when she discovered that what she really liked was modern art and literature. Rhys’ works were based on women who didn’t feel comfortable in the environment where they lived. She mixed modernist techniques with sensibilities about the Caribbean society. In 1967, she won the WH Smith Literary Award. The New York Times Book Review considered her one of the best living novelists. Some of the works that Jean wrote are, for example, Postures. Published in 1928, Good Morning, Midnight. Published in 1939 and Tales of the Wide Caribbean, published in 1985.

DEREK WALCOTT (1930-2017) Dereck Walcott was a poet and playwriter who was born on the 23rd of January, 1930 in Santa Lucia. He died in 2017, when he was 87 years old. He grew up in a volcanic island and this was important in his work years later. He studied at the University College of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. He published his first work when he was 18 years old. It was called 25 Poems. Later he published Epitaph for the Young. He worked as a teacher in the University of Boston. One of his most important works is Omeros. It is an epic poem that was translated to many languages and it is one of the basic works of modern literature. In his works, he spoke about economy, politics and social themes. He wrote more than 20 drama plays and many of them were about the period after Colon´s arrival. He won the Nobel Prize in 1992. Because all of that, he is one of the most important Caribbean poets.

ARUNDHATI ROY Her name is Suzanna Arundhati Roy. She is an Indian writer and she is also a political activist in human rights and environment causes. She was born on 24th November 1961 in Shillong, Meghalava, in India, so she is 59 years old. Her awards are: Booker Prize for her novel "The God of Small Things", National Film Award for Best Screenplay for "In which Annie gives it those ones"; Lannan Foundation's Cultural Freedom Award; Sydney Peace Prize; Sahitya Akademi Award; and Normal Mailer Prize for Distinguished Writing. Arundhati has lots of novels, but her main one is "The God of Small Things". It is a fictional story which tells as some twins' lives, Rahel and Esthappen. She is an ecologist who wants to save the environment. She also wants a world with no violence. In her country, India, she wants everybody to have the same human rights.

RAJA RAO (1908-2006) He was born on the 8th of November in 1908 and he died on the 8th of July in 2006. He received a degree in 1929 from the University of Madras. He later went to France to study literature. In 1933 he returned to India and he wrote the first stories. He became a teacher in 1966 at the University of Texas. He also participated in the movement for the Indian Independence and participated in clandestine activities against the British. He wrote “Kanthapara”, “The serpent and the rope”, “The cat and Shakespeare: A tale of India”, “On the Ganga ghat”, etc. In his work, “On the Ganga ghat”, he mixes two types of literary forms, “the spiritual” and “the narrative”. He talks about the events in a unique and simple style. And above all, the final message is “Man isn´t a beast of burden but a song to be sung, and the earth is the garden of temple where one sows prayers” I think that the final message means that the people don´t come to the earth to work but to enjoy life. In other books he talks about Gandhi’s ideas against the social pyramid.

SALLY MORGAN Biography: Sally Morgan was born in Australia on the 18th of January in 1951. During school she felt bad because she didn’t have white skin like her classmates. When Sally turned 15 she found out that she was of Aboriginal descent instead of Indian, like she was told. She worked as a clerk, as a laboratory assistant and she had a period of unemployment. She graduated in Psychology and she married Paul Morgan, but the marriage ended in divorce. Her most famous book is “My Place” but she wrote more than 45 books, which include “Dan’s Granpa”, “I love me” or “Hurry up Oscar!” She wrote about white atrocities and racism but also about getting to know her own identity and Aboriginal culture. She won a lot of awards including the “Human Rights Literature and Other Writing Award” twice or the “Winner, Order of Australia Book Price”.

HONE TUWHARE (21 October 1922 – 16 January 2008) He was born in New Zealand and he was one of New Zealand’s ten greatest writers, he took classes of maths, trade drawing and trade theory at the Seddon Memorial Technical College from ( 1939- 1941). He started writing in 1939 while he was working as an apprentice and in 1956 he began to write professionally. His first book was written in 1956 and it was the best know called “No Ordinary Sun”. Significant works: Come rain hail, Something Nothing, Making a First of It, Year of the Dog… In most of his works he spoke of the Maoris, he also talked about culture and politics. Later, his poems spoke of the landscapes of Catlins and sea food. Hone Tuware received the scholarship of Robert Burns from the University of Otago. In 2002 he was selected for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards