26 KIM DISMONT ROBINSON

representational void; there is very little written by Bermudians during
that time that would act as a counterpoint to the images of Bermuda
and Bermudians found in The Painted Lily. The literary violence of the
text, therefore, has an even more significant impact. The most
significant texts produced in this century by black Bermudians have
taken the form of histories and historical memoirs rather than fiction;
most notably texts such as Second Class Citizens, First Class Men by Dr.
Eva Hodgson in 1963, Freedom Fighters: From Monk to Mazumbo by Ira
Philip in 1987, and Chained on the Rock by Cyril Packwood in 1975.
However, two of the most important texts of creative fiction produced
by Bermudians in the twentieth century were both published in the
1990s. The two books, Palmetto Wine published in 1990 and the literary
sequel An Isle So Long Unknown published in 1993, are collections of
short stories produced by The Bermuda Writers' Collective, a local
group comprised mostly of a few friends attempting to nurture the
island's budding literary talents. The short stories written by three
Bermudian women in these two books illuminate aspects of the island's
culture through the medium of literature: Angela Barry, an educator
and former English lecturer at the Bermuda College; Nelda Simons,
manager of the Liberty Theatre in Bermuda; and Meredith Ebbin, a
longstanding journalist and managing editor of The Bermudian
magazine.
 George Lamming states in the introduction to An Isle So Long
Unknown that "the function of a national literature is to return the
society to itself; to illuminate for public scrutiny those intimate areas
of thought and feeling which habit and the fear of powerful conventions
have forced us to conceal"(xvi).8 The Tempest and The History of Mary
Prince offer insight into ideologies from both sides of the literary coin
during the colonial era; The Painted Lily provides some clues as to
perceptions of Caribbean society during the post-Emancipation, pre-
desegregation era. The contemporary literature written by Simons,
Barry, and Ebbins certainly begins to fill a void in literary
representation. Perhaps more importantly however, their work also
offers clues as to the trajectory of the culture presently developing in
Bermuda since they use the construction of literature as a tool for
deconstructing Bermudian society. Their work can also be considered
a continuation of the conversation that Mary Prince began almost 170


 8 Lamming, George. "Introduction." An Isle So Long Unknown. Devonshire,
Bermuda: The Bermuda Writers' Collective, 1993. xiii-xvi.