Derek Walcott And The Creation Of A Classical Caribbean
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Derek Walcott and the Creation of a Classical Caribbean
"Derek Walcott's fascination with ancient Greece and Rome can be traced from his earliest poetry collection, self-published when he was just eighteen years old, to his most recent, White Egrets (2010). Scholarly attention has focused on his epic poem, Omeros, and its stage version. By adopting a thematic approach derived from Walcott's own theoretical concerns, this book situates these two works within the context of his wider oeuvre. It turns an analytic spotlight on his other poetry and drama, and reveals how embedded classical myth and literature are within his work as a whole. However, for Walcott, as for many contemporary Caribbean writers, assertions of indebtedness to the Western canon (which has been so dominated by European works) are politically problematic, laced as they are with suggestions of derivative imitation and a lack of originality. Walcott counters this with a trifold argument that pervades his work: firstly, that the temporal axis should be perceived as meaningless, thereby doing away with the oppressive power of history. Secondly, that 'hybridity' -- a term reclaimed for a modern, postcolonial era -- lies at the heart of Caribbean life and art, with influences from Africa and Europe being an innate part of West Indian identity. Thirdly, that the Caribbean prerogative is to rename, and thereby re-create, the world anew. This book examines Walcott's engagement with classical literature through this triple lens to reveal how integral Graeco-Roman antiquity is to his Caribbean vision."--
Derek Walcott's Encounter with Homer
Author: Rachel D. Friedman
language: en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date: 2024-03-23
Derek Walcott's Encounter with Homer puts Derek Walcott's epic poem Omeros in conversation with Homer, especially the Odyssey, to show how reading them against each other changes our understanding of the poems of both poets. It explores Walcott's conscious use of the Odyssey and the Homeric persona of Omeros to explore his own deepening relationship with his craft and his identity as a Caribbean poet. Walcott's ability to serve as the vessel of history for his people and their landscapes rests on his transformation into (and self-perception as) Homer's contemporary and equal. Central to the project of Omeros is thus an account of his shift from a diachronic to synchronic relationship with Homer: over the course of the poem his poetic persona, the "Poet", and Homer come to occupy the same temporality and creative space. By locating the poems of Walcott and Homer in a zone of vibrant and unexpected encounter, Rachel Friedman demonstrates how they can be seen as mutually informing texts, each made richer in the presence of the other. The argument follows two intertwined thematic threads. The first focuses on the poems' landscapes and seascapes and the ways in which Omeros reworks the Odyssey's affective geography. While the Odyssey represents the sea as a dangerous space and valorizes life on land, Walcott reverses this trajectory from sea to land, bearing witness to the painful histories carried in the St Lucian soil and relocating homecoming to the space of the Caribbean Sea, a space which accommodates diasporic histories and the imagining of fluid forms of emplacement. The second thread focuses on Walcott's poetic persona: his journey in and out of the poem and his positioning of himself as a "tribal poet" like Homer. Central to the project of Omeros is the Poet's account of the processes by which he becomes the poet who can adequately give voice to the histories of his people and the archipelago they inhabit.
Classics and Race
Classics and Race: A historical reader provides scholars and students with an exploratory intellectual history of the complex relationships between Classics and racist/anti-racist thought-systems. It collects together a series of readings of historical primary sources from the late medieval period until the mid-twentieth century, bringing to light how the classical tradition and post-ancient constructions of race have informed each other. Each reading is accompanied by an essay, written by a leading specialist who offers a discussion of the primary source. The volume is arranged chronologically, from the late medieval period to the Renaissance, crucial for understanding classical humanism, and on to the eighteenth century with texts foundational to the modern emergence of classical studies as a discipline and its relationship to the transatlantic slave trade. The essays show how the classical tradition has continuously been structured by debates about race, racism and anti-racism. Including voices from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and North and South America, the essays demonstrate why the primary text is important for understanding this intellectual and cultural history, and the global reach of the classical tradition.