Wilson Harris and the ‘cross-cultural sacred’

By Lori Shelbourn

There is unending curiosity about the way Wilson Harris writes.
This is an edited version of an article that was presented by Lori Shelbourn at an inter-disciplinary conference on the theme ‘Empowerment and the Sacred’ in June 2011.  Lori Shelbourn researches the work of Guyanese writer Sir Wilson Harris at the University of Leeds in the UK.  Harris is known for his deep interest in multi-culturalism and she explains the way he links the cross-cultural and cultural identity with the sacred in what is called the “cross-cultural sacred.”
This is only a part of the article, in which she explains Harris’s “artistic practice” – his “method of writing” and why this way of writing may be described as cross-cultural and “sacred.” – ALC

Throughout his writing career, Harris has repeatedly talked about his own work in terms of an exploration of ‘the cross-cultural imagination,’ and has consistently drawn a distinction between cross-culturalism  and multiculturalism.  So he says, for example, in an interview with the poet Fred D’Aguiar: “Cross-culturality differs radically from multiculturality.