Victor Ramraj

1941 – 1914

Victor Ramraj was always prepared to promote the appreciation of literature whether it was the literature of Guyana, the Caribbean, Canada or the wider world. In his work, covering several decades, Ramraj had presented papers and lectures on significant and established writers like Wilson Harris, Denis Williams, V. S. Naipaul, Derek Walcott, Samuel Selvon, Neil Bissoondath, Jean Rhys, Arundhati Roy, Timothy Mo, Salman Rushdie, Mordecai Richler, and Paul Theroux, portraying the range of his scholarship. On his final trip to Guyana, the land of his birth, Ramraj delivered a sterling presentation on Alice Munroe of Canada, Ramraj’s adopted home since the 1970s. Munroe is the first Canadian female writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Ramraj was born in British Guiana where he exhibited a leaning towards literature before migrating to North America. In the late 1950s, his imaginative writings were published in the Chronicle Christmas Annual at a time when it was a distinct honour to be published in that magazine. (That magazine now published under the title, ‘The Guyana Annual’, will celebrate its centenary in 2015, having being launched in December, 1915.) One of his stories, ‘The Dead Son’ performed at the Theatre Guild, Guyana, and earned him the Playwright of the Year Award. That was the first of many awards to crown his impressive literary output. In the 1960s, he taught English at one of Guyana’s most prestigious learning institutions, Queen’s College, eventually heading the Department of English.
That firm literary foundation he attained in Guyana was extended on with a B. A. in English (Honours) from the University College of the West Indies (London) – now UWI, Mona Campus – in Kingston, Jamaica. At that university, he also found his helpmate, wife, and lifelong friend, Ruby. Ruby Ramraj is attached to the University of Calgary. Victor Ramraj went on to gain his M. A. & Ph. D. from the University of New Brunswick. His dissertation was titled, ‘The Ambivalent Vision: Mordecai Richler and the Satirical Tradition in the Canadian Novel’. He was an authority on post-colonial studies including satire, comedy and humour. At the time of his passing, Ramraj was Professor of English at the University of Calgary, previously have served in the capacities of Assistant and Associate Professor.
While the University of Calgary was his base, Ramraj’s ambit of operation included the far reaches of the earth, supported by invitations to share his knowledge, sit on panels of judges, moderate at conferences, supported by numerous research grants and awards, and his devotion to family. Victory Ramraj served on the panel of judges for the Commonwealth Prize, the Annual Raja Rao Award (for most distinguished writer of the Indian Diaspora), New Delhi, and on more than one occasion he was elected to chair the panel of judges for the Guyana Prize for Literature. His contribution to world literature included securing grants for publication like the journal ARIEL and for researching Caribbean short fiction.
Ramraj was President of the Canadian Association of Learned Journals; Editor of ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature; President of CACLALS: The Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. He also served on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Federation for the Humanities; and was a Member of the Editorial Advisory Board (Humanities), Broadview Press, Peterborough, Ontario.
‘Concert of Voices: An Anthology of World Writing in English’, can be considered his Magnum Opus. ‘Concert of Voices’ was an ambitious project consummately executed by Ramraj who admitted it was a ‘formable task’ buffeted by numerous constraints which he overcame with his overriding concern for ‘human commonalities’. Ramraj took great pain and pleasure in highlighting the parameters within which he worked: ‘the selections can be used to show that literature alerts us to the common and shared in human experience, whatever our own particular cultural, ethnic, historical, national, or political attachments – “the old Adam is the same”’. Other endearing qualities of that massive anthology were the inclusion of writers whom may be slighted by specialised/formal anthologies and the inclusion of eight Guyanese writers who had to ‘define themselves in relation to current or residual imperial presences or to dominant cultures within their societies or to both’. ‘Concert of Voices combines poetry, fiction, drama, and essays in an anthology of world literature in English.
Victor Ramraj made an enormous contribution to literature, a legacy that will continue to benefit mankind for a long time.

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(By Petamber Persaud)