Brenda Chester DoHarris (born 9 June 1946) is a writer and academic from Guyana.[1]
Career
editDoharris 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
editHer 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
editCalabash Parkway won the Guyana Prize for Literature.[6]
References
edit- ^ a b c "DoHarris, Brenda". Oxford African American Studies Center. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.73817 (inactive 1 November 2024). Retrieved 2020-12-30.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link) - ^ a b "Preserving our literary heritage". Guyana Chronicle. 7 March 2010. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "BOOK REVIEW". Kaieteur News. 2010-06-20. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
- ^ Chung, Clairmont (30 September 2008). "Monthly Review | Walter A. Rodney: A Promise of Revolution". Monthly Review. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
- ^ "Calabash Parkway: A Novel" Reviewed by Gokarran Sukhdeo, Guyana Journal