Caryl Phillips

by Helen Thomas

Helen Thomas examines the ways in which Caryl Phillips responds both creatively and critically to the psychological effects of cultural dispersal, racism and economic exploitation in the black Atlantic. Highlighting the continuing negotiations between Britain and its previous colonies, this study demonstrates the ways in which Phillips's fictional and non-fictional work reformulates contemporary and historical traumatic crises and corresponding agents of survival. Phillips's work is discussed not only in terms of critical emphasis upon past events, but also in terms of its vision of a more expansive dimension of collective experience.

144 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2004

About the author

Helen Thomas was a noted news service reporter, a Hearst Newspapers columnist, and member of the White House Press Corps. She served for fifty-seven years as a correspondent and, later, White House bureau chief for United Press International (UPI). Thomas covered every president from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama, was the first woman officer of the National Press Club, was the first woman member and president of the White House Correspondents Association, and the first woman member of the Gridiron Club.