Peter Nazareth is a major critic

Critic

A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...

 and writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 of fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

 and drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

. He was born in Uganda

Uganda

Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

 of Goan and Malaysian ancestry, and was educated at Makerere University

Makerere University

Makerere University , Uganda's largest and second-oldest higher institution of learning, , was first established as a technical school in 1922. In 1963 it became the University of East Africa, offering courses leading to general degrees from the University of London...

  (Uganda) and at the universities of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

 and Leeds

University of Leeds

The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...

 in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

While residing in Africa, he simultaneously served as senior finance officer in Idi Amin

Idi Amin

Idi Amin Dada was a military leader and President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Amin joined the British colonial regiment, the King's African Rifles in 1946. Eventually he held the rank of Major General in the post-colonial Ugandan Army and became its Commander before seizing power in the military...

's finance ministry until 1973, when he accepted a fellowship at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 (United States) and emigrated from Uganda.
He is currently professor of English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 and African-American World Studies at the University of Iowa

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

 (United States). Nazareth attracted major media attention for teaching that university's popular course "Elvis as Anthology," which explores the deep mythological roots of Elvis Presley's

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

roles in popular culture.

His literary criticisms have been enriched by his trenchant observations of the fate of diverse global economic and academic migrants, spanning the Asian, African and black American cultural histories.
This includes specifically, the Goan diaspora settled in Western countries, the post Idi Amin Asian emigration from Eastern Africa and of the cultural superstitions of the pre Obama presidency of American politics.

Books

• Edwin Thumboo: Creating a Nation Through Poetry, Singapore: Interlogue Series Vol. 7, Ethos Books, 2008.
• In the Trickster Tradition: The Novels of Andrew Salkey, Francis Ebejer and Ishmael Reed, London: Bogle-L'Ouverture Press, 1994.
• The General is Up, Toronto: TSAR Books, 1991
• A Feny Fele, Budapest: Europa Publishing House, 1984 (selected essays in Hungarian translation)
• Literature of the African Peoples, Study Guide for Independent Study with audiotape/CD, Center for Credit Programs, The University of Iowa, 1983.
• In a Brown Mantle, East African Literature Bureau, 1972; Nairobi: Kenya Literature Bureau, 1981.
• The Third World Writer: His Social Responsibility, Nairobi: Kenya Literature Bureau, 1978.
• Two Radio Plays, East African Literature Bureau, 1976.
• Literature and Society in Modern Africa, East African Literature Bureau, 1972; Kenya Literature Bureau, 1980; published as An African View of *Literature, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1974.

Anthologies Edited

• Uganda South Asians Exodus: Kololian Perspectives (co-edited), University of Toronto, 2002.
• Critical Essays on Ngugi wa Thiong'o, New York: G.K. Hall, 2000
• Goan Literature: A Modern Reader, issue of the Journal of South Asian Literature, East Lansing: Michigan State University, 1983.
• African Writing Today, special issue of Pacific Quarterly Moana, Hamilton, New Zealand: Outrigger Publishers, Vol. 6, No. 3/4, 1981.

Significant Essays

• "Path of Thunder: Meeting Bessie Head," Research in African Literatures, ed. John Conteh-Morgan, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, Vol. 37, No. 4, Winter 2006, pages 211-229.
• "Dark Heart or Trickster?" The Journal of The Korean Society Nineteenth Century Literature in English, Vol. 9-3, 2005, pages 291-321 on Conrad's Heart of Darkness).
• "The True Fantasies of Grace Ogot, Storyteller," Meditations on African Literature, ed. Dubem Okafor, Westport, Connecticut: London, Meditatios on African Literature, 2001, pages 101-117.
• "Elvis as Anthology," In Search of Elvis: Music, Race, Art, Religion, ed. Vernon Chadwick, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1997, pages 37-72 plus Endnotes 253-258.
• "Out of Darkness: Conrad and Other Third World Writers", Joseph Conrad: Third World Perspectives, ed. Robert Hamner, Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1990, pages 217-131.
• "Waiting for Amin: Two Decades of Ugandan Literature", The Writing of East & Central Africa, ed. G.D. Killam, London Nairobi / Ibadan : Heinemann, 1984 pages 1-35.
• "Bibliyongraphy, or Six Tabans in Search of an Author," ibid., pages 159-172.
• "The Narrator as Artist and the Reader as Critic in Season of Migration to the North," Tayeb Salih's Season of Migration to the North: A Casebook, ed. Mona Takieddine Amyuni, Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1985, pages 123-134.
• "Heading Them Off at the Pass," The Critical Response to Ishmael Reed, ed. Bruce Allen Dick, pages 140-148.