Gianluca Delfino's study is based on the assumption that Wilson Harris'
works as a whole show a remarkable unity of thought rooted in their
author's complex imagination. As a valuable contribution to Caribbean
Literature and Philosophy, Harris' imaginative approach to reality is
discussed in relation to the categories of history and time with
reference to several novels, from "Palace of The Peacock" to "The Mask
of the Beggar", with a special focus on "The Infinite Rehearsal",
"Jonestown" and "The Dark Jester", spanning more than forty years of his
vast literary production, encompassing critical perspectives ranging
from African philosophy to Jungian readings through historiography and
anthropology. As a result, the cross-cultural quality of Harris' thought
emerges as a healing outcome of the traumatic colonial encounter,
bringing together elements of Amerindian, African and European origin in
an ongoing dialogue with time, nature, and the psyche. The outcome of an
extensive research into Harris' world, Delfino's study stands in the
tradition of the late Hena Maes-Jelinek's critical enterprise by
expanding philosophical and psychological readings, with the addition of
anthropological perspectives that appeal to those who were captured by
Harris' intricacy and rescued by Maes-Jelinek's illuminating
interpretations. The attempt to reconstruct a unifying frame around
Harris' body of work suggests a new way of looking at one of the
Caribbean's most controversial authors.
