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World Literatures in English; course2000
Derek Walcott
Pin-chia Feng
photo taken from New York State Writers Insitutute--The Derek Walcott Page

Biographical Sketch
Major Themes
Slected Poems for Discussion
List of Works
Related Links


Biographical Sketch

  • 1930 1/23born in Castries, St. Lucia
  • 1950 founded the St. Lucia Arts Guild
  • 1953 BA from UWI--Mona
  • 1959-71 founded the Little Carib Theatre (later the Trinidad Theatre Workshop)
  • 1981 MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Award
  • 1992 Nobel Laureate
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Major Themes

  • binary oppositions: white and back, colonizer and colonizer, British and West Indian synthesis--working toward a resolution of his hybrid identity ¡@
  • Odyssey: voyaging, travel through cultures and space; Omeros(Homerus/Homer, Joyce, Dante--terza rima in The Divine Comedy)--Walcott's intention is to bring forth "the Homeric quality of Caribbean life"
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Selected Poems for Discussion

  • "Ruins of a Great House"
    1. formal aspect--uneven rhyme scheme--as a reflection of the state of the ruins
    ruins--literally means the plantation house of the slave master; metaphorically, England, the "mother country"
    2. physical movement of the narrator--looking at the house and around the house (to get an overiew)
    3. mental movement (ex) the last stanza depicts a movement from rage to humanistic sympathy-- allusion to John Donne--"No man is an island entirely of itself, every man is piece of the continent,a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less,as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or ofthine own were. Any man's death diminishes me because I am involvedIn mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."     --"Meditation XVII"

  • "Crusoe's Journal"
    1. Robinson Crusoe as a prototype colonilzer in the poem--the quote refers to his indifference to the environment around him; the islanders, on the other hand, are his "good Fridays"
    2. "Walcott's Crusoe is the emptied, receptive self. He is Columbus, byaccident discovering the New World; he is Adam in a second Eden, giving its names. Unlike Prospero, he is demotic, for 'Crusoe is no lord of magic, duke, prince. He does not possess the island he inhabits¡K.He acts, not by authority, but by conscience.'" --Louis James (Caribbean Literature in English. London: Longman, 1999. 179.)

  • "Exiles"
    1. refers to the migratory state of the former colonizled in the "mother country"--an illusionary "home"
    2. mixing the images of transportation with those of literary creation
    3. writing about East Indian immigrants in the UK in particular--references to the Ramayana, etc.--metaphorically taking a trip in reverse, moving back to the Caribbean (Trinidad) and then to India
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List of Works

  • POETRY:
  • Twenty-Five Poems, 1948
  • Epitaph for the Young: A Poem in XII Cantos, 1949
  • Poems, 1953
  • In a Green Night: Poems, 1948-1960
  • Selected Poems, 1964
  • The Castaway and Other Poems, 1965
  • The Gulf and Other Poems, 1969
  • Another Life, 1973
  • Sea Grapes, 1976
  • Selected Verse, 1976
  • The Star-Apple Kingdom, 1979
  • The Fortunate Traveler, 1981
  • Selected Poetry, 1981
  • The Caribbean Poetry of Derek Walcott, and the Art of Romare Beardon, 1983
  • Midsummer, 1984
  • Collected Poems, 1948-1984
  • The Arkansas Testament, 1987
  • Omeros, 1989
  • The Bounty, 1997
  • Contributor of poems to many periodicals, including New Statesman, London Magazine, Encounter, and Bim.
  • PLAYS:
  • Henri Christophe: A Chronicle in Seven Scenes, 1950
  • Harry Dernier: A Play for Radio Production, 1951
  • Wine of the Country, 1953
  • The Sea at Dauphin: A Play in One Act, 1954
  • Ione: A Play with Music, 1957
  • Drums and Colours: An Epic Drama, 1958
  • Ti-Jean and His Brothers, 1958
  • Malcochon: or, Six in the Rain, 1966
  • Dream on Monkey Mountain, 1967
  • Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays, 1970
  • In a Fine Castle, 1970
  • The Joker of Seville, 1974
  • The Charlatan, 1974
  • O Babylon!, 1976
  • Remembrance, 1977
  • Pantomime, 1978
  • The Joker of Seville and O Babylon!: Two Plays, 1980
  • Remembrance and Pantomime: Two Plays, 1980
  • The Isle Is Full of Noises, 1982
  • Three Plays (The Last Carnival, Beef, No Chicken, and A Branch of the Blue Nile), 1986
  • Steel, 1991
  • Odyssey: A Stage Version, 1993
  • The Capeman: A Musical, 1998 (with Paul Simon)
  • OTHER WORKS:
  • Franklin
  • A Tale of the Islands
  • Jourmand
  • To Die for Grenada
  • The Poet in the Theatre, 1990
  • Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory, 1993
  • What the Twilight Says: Essays, 1998
  • CONTRIBUTIONS:
  • Caribbean Voices, 1966
  • From the Green Antilles, 1966
  • Commonwealth Poems of Today, 1967
  • Caribbean Verse, 1968
  • The Sun's Eye: West Indian Writing for Young Readers, 1968
  • Is Massa Day Dead?, 1974
  • Oxford Book of Contemporary Verse, 1945-1980, 1980
  • Plays for Today, 1985
    ***list taken from Derek Walcott: An Overview
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Related Links

I. General
II. Nobel Prize
III. Reviews