Gordon Rohlehr (20 February 1942 – 29 January 2023)
''

Trinidad and Tobago Newsday ''Trinidad and Tobago Newsday'' is a daily newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago. ''Newsday'' is the newest of the three daily papers after the ''Trinidad and Tobago Guardian'' and the ''Trinidad and Tobago Express'' respectively. The newspaper was fo ...

'', 22 September 2007. was a Guyana-born scholar and critic of

West Indian literature Caribbean literature is the literature of the various territories of the Caribbean region. Literature in English from the former British West Indies may be referred to as Anglo-Caribbean or, in historical contexts, as West Indian literature. Most ...

, noted for his study of popular culture in the Caribbean, including oral poetry, calypso and cricket. He pioneered the academic and intellectual study of Calypso, tracing its history over several centuries, writing a landmark work entitled ''Calypso and Society in Pre-Independence Trinidad'' (1989), and is considered the world's leading authority on its development."Professor Gordon Rohlehr"
The Integrationist.

Life and career

Born in Guyana in 1942, Rohlehr was educated at Queen's College, Guyana, and at the

University College of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in the ...

Mona, Jamaica Mona is a neighbourhood in southeastern Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica, Saint Andrew Parish, approximately eight kilometres from Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica. A former sugarcane Sugar plantations in the Caribbean, plantation, it is the sit ...

, graduating in 1964 with a first-class Honours degree in English Literature.Gordon Rohlehr biography
at Arts & Humanities Research Council.

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

. He then wrote a doctoral dissertation entitled "Alienation and Commitment in the Works of Joseph Conrad" at

Birmingham University , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

(1964–67), before taking up an English Literature appointment in

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

at the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in th ...

(UWI),

St Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...

. Spending 40 years at UWI, St Augustine – he began as Assistant Lecturer in 1968 and achieved a personal Chair by 1985 – he established an international reputation for his ground-breaking work on Caribbean literature, calypso and culture, building an extensive opus that comprises books, hundreds of essays, interviews, lectures and broadcasts. He co-edited, with

Stewart Brown Stewart Brown (born 1951 in Southampton, UK) is an English poet, university lecturer and scholar of African and Caribbean Literature.

and

Mervyn Morris Mervyn Eustace Morris OM (born 21 February 1937) is a poet and professor emeritus at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. According to educator Ralph Thompson, "In addition to his poetry, which has ranked him among the top West In ...

, ''Voiceprint: An Anthology of Oral and Related Poetry from the Caribbean'' (Harlow: Longman Caribbean, 1989). Rohlehr had also been Visiting Professor to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

(September–December 1981); the

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

(September–December 1985);

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

(January–May 1997); Stephen F. Austin State University (January–May 2000);

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the 10 ...

Writers’ Workshop (June–July 1995);

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

(January–February 1996) and

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

(June–August 2004). Rohlehr died on 29 January 2023, at the age of 80.

Writing

Rohlehr is the author of several books on different aspects of Caribbean culture. He has said that his interest on researching and writing about

calypso music Calypso is a style of Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago during the early to the mid-19th century and spread to the rest of the Caribbean Antilles and Venezuela by the mid-20th century. Its rhythms can be traced back to We ...

dates back to his attendance of the

Caribbean Artists Movement The Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM) was an influential cultural initiative, begun in London, England, in 1966 and active until about 1972,Orlando Patterson Horace Orlando Patterson (born 5 June 1940) is a Jamaican historical and cultural sociologist known for his work regarding issues of race and slavery in the United States and Jamaica, as well as the sociology of development. He is the John Cowl ...

, when in response to discussion among the likes of Kamau Brathwaite,

George Lamming George William Lamming OCC (8 June 19274 June 2022) was a Barbadian novelist, essayist, and poet. He first won critical acclaim for ''In the Castle of My Skin'', his 1953 debut novel. He also held academic posts, including as a distinguished v ...

and Aubrey Williams about "the Caribbean aesthetic" Rohlehr was prompted to say: "The way to determine what this aesthetic might be is to look at what Caribbean people have done and to create, through a close dialogue with the material, some way of talking about their achievement and of distinguishing what is peculiarly Caribbean about it, if you employ that method, beginning with the work–Walcott’s poetry, Sparrow’s calypsoes, Selvon’s novels–you might then be able to recognise recurring features. If for example, you read Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners and short stories alongside Sparrow’s calypsoes you might discover something that was peculiarly Trinidadian in both of these people…..those were not my exact words, of course; only a paraphrase of the sense of what I said. Then someone, one of the big voices, said, 'If this is the way you feel, why don’t you do it? Since then, as

Raymond Ramcharitar Raymond R. Ramcharitar is a Trinidadian poet, playwright, fiction writer, historian and media and cultural critic. Early life Ramcharitar was educated at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, where he earned three degrees: a Bachelor ...

has noted, "Gordon Rohlehr’s accomplishments in mapping this territory are monumental." In particular, his 1990 book, ''Calypso and Society in Pre-Independence Trinidad'', describing the development of the Trinidad calypso from pre-emancipation times to the late 1950s, is considered a seminal work. His most recent book, launched in August 2015, is ''My Whole Life is Calypso: Essays on Sparrow''." Sparrow’s glory and turbulence"
''Trinidad and Tobago Newsday'', 14 August 2015.

Awards and honours

In 1995 Rohlehr received the

(UWI) Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in the combined fields of Teaching, Research, Administration and Public Service. His retirement from UWI in 2007 was marked by a conference in his honour, "for his sterling contribution to the development of West Indian literary and cultural criticism". Rohlehr's life and career are celebrated in a documentary film entitled ''Rivers of Sound''. In 2012, Rohlehr was awarded the Nicolás Guillén Outstanding Achievements in Philosophical Literature Award by the

Caribbean Philosophical Association The Caribbean Philosophical Association (CPA) is a philosophical organization founded in 2002 at the Center for Caribbean Thought at the University of the West Indies, in Mona, Jamaica. The founding members were George Belle, B. Anthony Bogues, ...

. At the 2014

NGC Bocas Lit Fest The NGC Bocas Lit Fest is the Trinidad and Tobago literary festival that takes place annually during the last weekend of April in Port of Spain. Inaugurated in 2011, it is the first major literary festival in the southern Caribbean and largest lit ...

, Rohlehr was honoured alongside Professor

Kenneth Ramchand Kenneth Ramchand (born 1939) is a Trinidad and Tobago academic and writer, who is widely respected as "arguably the most prominent living critic of Caribbean fiction". He has written extensively on many West Indian authors, including V. S. Naipau ...

with the Henry Swanzy Award for Distinguished Service to Caribbean Letters, which recognises the lifetime achievement of editors, publishers, critics and broadcasters.Michelle Loubon, "Enjoying every word"
''

Trinidad Express Newspapers The ''Trinidad and Tobago Express'', better known as ''Daily Express'' (and the weekend editions ''Saturday Express'' and ''Sunday Express''), is one of three daily newspapers in Trinidad and Tobago. The ''Daily Express'' as per its masthead is p ...

'', 21 March 2014. The Trinidad and Tobago government awarded Rohlehr the

Chaconia Medal The Chaconia Medal is the second highest state decoration of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Established in 1969, the medal honours long and meritorious service to promote national welfare or community spirit. It is awarded in three classes: ...

(Silver), for his work in Literature, Culture, History and Education, at the National Awards 2022.

Bibliography

* ''Pathfinder: Black Awakening in "The Arrivants" of Edward Kamau Brathwaite'' (Tunapuna: College Press, 1981) * ''Cultural Resistance and the Guyana State'' (

Casa de las Américas Casa de las Américas is an organization that was founded by the Cuban Government in April 1959, four months after the Cuban Revolution, for the purpose of developing and extending the socio-cultural relations with the countries of Latin America, ...

, 1984) * ''Calypso and Society in Pre-Independence Trinidad'' (Port of Spain, 1990; ) * ''My Strangled City and Other Essays'' (Longman Trinidad, 1992) * ''The Shape of That Hurt and Other Essays'' (Longman Trinidad, 1992) * ''A Scuffling of Islands: Essays on Calypso'' (Lexicon Trinidad Ltd, 2004) * ''Transgression, Transition, Transformation: Essays in Caribbean Culture'' (Lexicon, 2007) * ''My Whole Life is Calypso: Essays on Sparrow'' (2015; ) ;Editor * (with Stewart Brown and Mervyn Morris) ''Voiceprint: An Anthology of Oral and Related Poetry from the Caribbean'' (Harlow: Longman Caribbean, 1989)

References

External links

* Paula Morgan
"Interview with Gordon Rohlehr"
'' Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal'', Vol. 10, Issue 12, 20 November 2013.
"Professor Gordon Rohlehr"
''The Integrationist''.
''Rivers of Sound: Rohlehr's Life and Works''
Documentary directed by Jean Antoine-Dunne. The Alma Jordan Library.
Professor Gordon Rohlehr (1942 – 2023) - VA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rohlehr, Gordon 1942 births 2023 deaths 20th-century essayists 20th-century Guyanese historians 21st-century essayists 21st-century Guyanese historians Afro-Guyanese people Alumni of Queen's College, Guyana Alumni of the University of Birmingham Guyanese essayists Guyanese expatriates in Trinidad and Tobago Music historians Trinidad and Tobago academics University of the West Indies academics University of the West Indies alumni