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Context I.	Background of de Lisser II. Style III. Critics IV. De Lisser’s Jobs V.	De Lisser’s Novels and Periodicals VI. External Links VII. Notes (Revenge) VIII. Bibliography

Background of de Lisser

Herbert George de Lisser was born in Falmouth, Jamaica on December 9, 1878. de Lisser was mainly of Portuguese and Jewish ancestry. At this time, race and color were major factors that determined one’s social status. Because de Lisser was mainly a white male, he had more freedom and opportunities as compared to the blacks in the Caribbean. De Lisser attended a private educational institution in his home town and continued secondary school in the Kingston when his family moved there. By the time de Lisser became 14-years-old, his father died and the teenager was forced to join the workforce. Even though he could not attend school anymore, de Lisser obtained a job at the library of the Institute of Jamaica which allowed him to continue educating himself. Over the years, de Lisser’s professional career, H.G de Lisser joined the Daily Gleaner, the Jamaica Times, and the Daily Telegraph at different times and worked as a proofreader. In 1903, de Lisser went back to the Daily Gleaner to work as an associate editor. By the next year, de Lisser was promoted to chief editor. Throughout his time as editor, de Lisser regularly wrote a column called “Random Jottings” and published novels (please refer to “De Lisser’s works” for a list of his writings) such as Jane’s Career (1913) and Revenge (1919). Numerous works of de Lisser were about different themes such as oppression and resistance of Jamaican society. As Leah Rosenberg has noted, de Lisser’s works tended to “satiriz[e] the middle-class world of color hierarchy and anglophilia”. In 1920, the editor started an annual magazine called Planters’ Punch and which would typically contain one of de Lisser’s own stories such as The White Witch of Rosehall (1929). This periodical ran for 29 years, eventually ending when de Lisser died. In 1942, bad health forced de Lisser to retire and two years later, on May 18, 1944, the former editor died. de Lisser’s race color allowed him access to more jobs and recognition than other dark-skinned Caribbean writers. According to critic Biralsingh, “De Lisser’s role as editor of what became Jamaica’s chief newspaper gave him s vantage point from which to observe Jamaican Affairs”. Even after his death, four of his books were published or republished.

Style

De Lisser was well known to center his novels on Jamaican history and society. One such example of this is Jane’s Career which centers on a young woman who moves from the countryside to the city, follows her attempts of climbing the social ladder and securing financial independence. Also Jane’s Career is one of de Lisser’s works that carry his popular themes of oppression and resistance. Furthermore, de Lisser’s social standing and access to his own newspaper, allowed him to publish most of his works without the need of countless revisions that other West Indian authors had to face, consequently allowing him to write about a large range of issues without the fear of being rejected by  publishers. Also he tends to be non nationalistic in tone in his novels. Politically, he championed the Afro-Jamaican middle class, and supported strong ties with England for trade and other economic activities. His lack of nationalism was because his strong conservative political views were very close to contemporary Liberal Englishmen. Because of this some critics believe that de Lisser is not an important “West Indian” writer, since his anti nationalistic views were against the popular nationalistic movement of other Caribbean literary figures such as C.L.R. James. Some critics believe it s because a lot of his work is alien in tone and vey unsympathetic to his characters and their causes. Therefore, de Lisser tends to play the objective narrator role in his novels, causing him to focus on the context and actions that a character is faced with, instead of developing the characters themselves. Critics One of the critics that is against H.G. de Lisser’s work is Victor L. Chang. In his critical essay, The Historical Novels of Herbert G. De Lisser, Chang talks about how DeLisser’s publications should not be taken seriously because of his “safe” position. Being the author and his own editor, “[de Lisser] never had to submit his work to the critical scrutiny of anyone else and, as such, had a free hand to publish whatever he wanted” (Chang 12-13).With that, Chang goes on to say that de Lisser’s safe position eventually made his works very formulaic in the sense that each story was based upon the same general ideas, just with somewhat different characters – “de Lisser’s description of the black characters is just as repetitive” (Chang 15). Chang was very adamant that de Lisser’s own pressure of putting out a new novel a year forced him to use the same stock formula too much. This formula made his different works indistinguishable, in Chang’s eyes, in which “characters could be shifted from one novel to the next without any substantial loss.” (Chang 14). However, even with Chang’s dissent towards de Lisser, Birbalsingh believes “de Lisser’s role as editor of what became Jamaica’s cief newspaper gave him a vantage point from which to observe Jamaican Affairs.” (Chang 143) Not necessarily a “safe” one, as Chang would argue. Leah Reade Rosenberg is another critic who takes a positive perspective of de Lisser’s work throughout his life and sheds light to his success. Rosenberg speaks about de Lisser’s success in creating a “triangular relationship” in which there was a “white man who rejects a white woman in favor of a brown woman.” (Rosenberg 65). With this relationship, Rosenberg talks about how this one relationship can set up the three stereotypes of Creole identity. Rosenberg observed that de Lisser’s re-focus on romance during his time had an impact on the time by portraying a picturesque image of Afro-Caribbean rebellions not being brought about from animosity of their master, but instead out in search for the love they long for.“Nevertheless, de Lisser’s political and literary careers were characterized by extreme change. In the 1890s he identified himself as a brown man, but by the 1920s he had become part of the white elite.” It is evident that she believes de Lisser’s view changed over the years, and his works are testament to that change.

Jobs

Joined the Daily Gleaner Jamaica Times Daily Telegraph Rejoined Daily Gleaner in 1903 (Associate editor)

Novels and Periodicals In Jamaica and Cuba (1910) Twentieth Century Jamaica (1913) Jamaica the Blessed Island (1936) Jane: A Story of Jamaica (1913) Susan Proudleigh (1915) Triumphant Squalitone (1916) Revenge: A Tale of Old Jamaica (1919) The White Witch of Rosehall (1929) Planters’ Punch (1920) [Periodical] The Rivals (1921) Jamaica Nobility (1926) The Cup and the Lip (1931-1932) Haunted (1939-1940) The Crocodiles: A Striking Jamican Story of the Supernatural (1932-1933) Poltergeist: A Novel of Jamaica with Strange and Mysterious Occurrences (1933-1934) Under the Sun (1937) Myrtle and Money (1941 sequel to Jane’s Career) Psyche (1952) Republished Morgan’s Daughter (1953) The Cup and the Lip (1956) The Arawak Girl (1958)

Revenge

Unfortunately, one of de Lisser’s books on the Morant bay Rebellion is out of print and is unable to be found by normal means. However, from what we do know (gathered from reliable sources), it appears that Revenge is written from a white Creole perspective, Creole meaning a New World colonist. This in itself puts an interesting twist on the Morant Bay Rebellion because it isn’t told from the slave’s perspective. This book would help reveal de Lisser’s feelings toward the Morant Bay rebellion and possibly how it affected him. I implore you to attempt to find this book if you want to add more to this page in regards to the Morant Bay Rebellion. If you can find it, hoorah!

Bibliography

Ramchand, Kenneth. “Decolonization in West Indian Literature.” Transition. 22 (1965):48-49.

Ramchand, Kenneth. “New Bearings” The West Indian Novel and its Background. London: Heinemann, 1983.

Rosenberg, Leah. “Herbert’s Career: H. G. de Lisser and the Business of National Literature.” Nationalism and the formation of Caribbean Literature. NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Chang, Victor L. “The Historical Novels of Herbert G. De Lisser.” West Indian Literature and Its Social Context. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference on West Indian Literature, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Mona, St. Augustine, College of the Virgin Islands, University of Guyana. Ed. Mark McWatt. St. Michael, Barbados: Department of English, UWI Cave Hill, 1985.