Samuel Selvon

The first full-length study of Selvon to cover all aspects of his fictional world: poems, radio dramas, short fiction and novels. It traces the evolution of Selvon from fledging author of poems and short fiction to an established short-story writer and novelist. It argues that Selvon enjoys a special place in West Indian literature because of his celebration of the enormous struggle of the Indo-Trinidadian peasant out of the cane experience into every professional field and politics, of the glamorization of the West Indian immigrant (The Lonely Londoner), and of his daring use of the linguistic continuum of his island, establishing it as a dialect that meets every exigency of his artistry. He is the most democratic and predictive of Trinidadian writers, establishing the unlimited literary potential of the ordinary man and anticipating the concerns of politicians, linguists, and artists.