Organic Intellectualism and Colonialism

Organic Intellectualism and Colonialism develops the practices of three organic intellectuals ¿ George Lamming, Paule Marshall and Elizabeth Cook-Lynn ¿ in the Gramscian sense of the word, locating them as oppositional intellectuals who represent a people struggling against the status quo of ongoing colonialism and neo-colonialism. Divided into five thematic parts, this collection explores their ideological and political views in relation to colonialism and its impacts on the colonized. While part I examines the concepts of intellectual and representation as well as their social roles, part II discusses Lamming's activist role in pulling down colonialism and its corrosive effects on "the wretched of the earth." Part III argues Marshall's weaving of Afrocentricity, spirituality and past into the tapestry of her fiction as a way of safeguarding the wholeness of Diasporan Blacks. Part IV reviews Lamming and Marshall's fight on behalf of the downtrodden and sheds light on their creative efforts to exorcise the dark spell laying over the colonized. The last part tracks Cook-Lynn's representation of the United States as a colonizing nation.