| Derek Walcott | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 23, 1930 Castries, Saint Lucia |
| Occupation | Poet, Playwright |
| Notable award(s) | Nobel Prize in Literature 1992 |
Derek Alton Walcott (born January 23, 1930) is a West Indies poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who writes mainly in English. Events 393 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius co-emperor Year 1930 ( MCMXXX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Castries (ˈkæstriːz population 10634 aggl 37963 (2001-05-12 is the Capital city of Saint Lucia, a country in the West Indies. Saint Lucia (ˌseɪnt ˈluːʃɪə is an Island nation in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. A poet is a person who writes Poetry. Etymology From the Ancient greek: ποιέω, poieō: "I make or compose" A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or Drama. The Nobel Prize in Literature (Nobelpriset i litteratur is awarded annually since 1901 to an author from any country who has in the words from the will of Alfred Events 393 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius co-emperor Year 1930 ( MCMXXX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Caribbean (ˌkærəˡbiən kæ'rəbiən Cariben|Caraïben or Caraïben; Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Caribe is a Region consisting English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Born in Castries, St. Lucia, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992. Castries (ˈkæstriːz population 10634 aggl 37963 (2001-05-12 is the Capital city of Saint Lucia, a country in the West Indies. Saint Lucia (ˌseɪnt ˈluːʃɪə is an Island nation in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. The Nobel Prize in Literature (Nobelpriset i litteratur is awarded annually since 1901 to an author from any country who has in the words from the will of Alfred Year 1992 ( MCMXCII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar)
His work, which developed independently of the schools of magic realism emerging in both South America and Europe at around the time of his birth, is intensely related to the symbolism of myth and its relationship to culture. Magic realism, or magical realism, is an artistic Genre in which magical elements or illogical scenarios appear in an otherwise realistic or even "normal" South America is a Continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore" Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic He is best known for his epic poem Omeros, a reworking of Homeric story and tradition into a journey around the Caribbean and beyond to the American West and London. " Omeros " is a 1990 poem by Derek Walcott. Many consider it the finest work of this Nobel Prize winning author Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the The Caribbean (ˌkærəˡbiən kæ'rəbiən Cariben|Caraïben or Caraïben; Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Caribe is a Region consisting
Walcott founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop in 1959, which has produced his plays (and others) since that time, and remains active with its Board of Directors. Trinidad Theatre Workshop was founded by 1992 Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott in 1959. He also founded Boston Playwrights' Theatre at Boston University in 1981 with the hope of creating a home for new plays in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1981 by poet playwright and Nobel Laureate, Derek Walcott, Boston Playwrights' Theatre is an award-winning small professional theatre dedicated to promoting For similarly-named academic institutions see Education in Boston MA. Walcott continues to teach poetry and drama in the Creative Writing Department at Boston University and gives readings and lectures throughout the world. For similarly-named academic institutions see Education in Boston MA. He divides his time between his home in the Caribbean and New York City.
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Walcott as playwright and theorist
Walcott has published more than twenty plays. The majority of these plays have been produced by the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, and have also been widely staged elsewhere. Trinidad Theatre Workshop was founded by 1992 Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott in 1959. Many of them deal, either directly or indirectly, with the liminal status of the West Indies in the postcolonial period. Epistemological, ontological, economical, political, and social themes make regular appearances in Walcott's plays. Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge In Philosophy, ontology (from the Greek, genitive: of being (part Economics is the social science that studies the production distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions Definition In the absence of agreement about its meaning the term "social" is used in many different senses referring among other things to attitudes
In his 1970 essay on art (and specifically theatre) in his native region, What the Twilight Says: An Overture (published in Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays; see bibliography), Walcott bemoans the lasting effects of over 400 years of colonial rule. Year 1970 ( MCMLXX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. He reflects on the West Indies as colonized space, and the problems presented by a region with little in the way of truly indigenous forms, and with little national or nationalist identity. He states: “. . . we are all strangers here (10). [. . . ] Our bodies think in one language and move in another. . . ”(31). In this manner, Walcott shifts his poetic language between formal English and patois to highlight the linguistic dexterity of the Caribbean people. Patois is any language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in Linguistics. While recognising the profound psychological and material wrongs of the colonial project, Walcott simultaneously celebrates the hybridisation of Antillean cultures. His epic poem Omeros exposes the complex cultural strains that converge in his native St. Lucia, celebrating at once the European, Amerindian, and African heritage shared by the islanders. Saint Lucia (ˌseɪnt ˈluːʃɪə is an Island nation in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean.
Discussions of epistemological effects of colonization inform plays such as Ti-Jean and his Brothers and Pantomime. One of the eponymous brothers in Ti-Jean and his Brothers (Mi-Jean) is shown to have much information, but to truly know nothing. Every line Mi-Jean recites is rote knowledge gained from the coloniser, and as such is unable to be synthesized and thus is inapplicable to his existence as colonised person.
Walcott probes the colonial dialectic in his two-hander Pantomime. In the play, Walcott revisions the story of Robinson Crusoe / Man Friday in an effort to destabilize the colonial power constructs. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (of York Mariner Who lived Eight and Twenty Years all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America near the Mouth This article is about the fictional character For the film see Man Friday (film. Reversing the roles of master / servant, Walcott temporarily lends to Trinidadian Jackson, a guest house factotum and calypso singer, the role of Crusoe, with Harry, a British ex-patriate and owner, the identity of “Thursday,” thus resetting Daniel Defoe's legend in pre-colonial days. Daniel Defoe (1659/1661 — April 24, 1731 was an English Writer, Journalist, and Pamphleteer, who gained enduring fame for Recalling his fascination with the Edenic concept on naming ("Muse" 3-5), Walcott highlights the problem that faces the Caribbean writer by having Jackson re-appropriate the material objects around him, re-christening them in a pseudo-African language, calling the table “patamba,” the chair “banda,” etc, recalling the poesía negra's use of jitanjáfora (jitanjáfora is a term for the use of onomatopoeia in Spanish) mentioned earlier. Onomatopoeia (also spelled onomatopœia, from Greek: ονοματοποιΐα is a Word or a grouping of words that imitates the sound it is describing The scene at first reflects Jackson’s agency: he has the ability to resurrect the language of his ancestors and regain ownership of the material of his island, teaching his minion Harry, the Anglo Thursday, his new tongue and establishing authority over his surroundings. The impossibility of his mission surfaces, however, as Jackson immediately forgets the words he had just spoken: Harry: You never called anything by the same name twice.
Jackson's inability to resurrect a dead language reflects the Caribbean's lack of a single, discernible cultural history; Harry's retort reveals the violence inherent in the linguistic indoctrination of the colonial powers: language through the barrel of a gun. Walcott writes in English, the language of Trinidad, but he also makes full use of the local dialects, or what Barbadian writer Edward Kamau Brathwaite calls “nation language,” and portrays Jackson as code-switching throughout the play to reveal his culture’s linguistic dexterity. Edward Kamau Brathwaite (born May 11, 1930) is one of the major voices in the Caribbean literary canon
Walcott's plays weave together a variety of forms; including those of the folktale, morality play, allegory, fable, ritual and myth; as well as using emblematic and mythological characters to address issues in non-realistic ways. History The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of Romantic nationalism, leading to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological Morality Play is a detective story by Barry Unsworth, a Man Booker Prize -winning author for his book Sacred Hunger Published in 1996 by An allegory (from αλλος allos "other" and el αγορευειν agoreuein "to speak in public" is a figurative mode of representation A fable is a succinct story in prose or verse that features Animals Plants inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are A ritual is a set of actions often thought to have Symbolic value the performance of which is usually prescribed by a Religion or by the Traditions The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore"
Works
Poetry collections
- 1948 25 Poems
- 1949 Epitaph for the Young: Xll Cantos
- 1951 Poems
- 1962 In a Green Night: Poems 1948—60
- 1964 Selected Poems
- 1965 The Castaway and Other Poems
- 1969 The Gulf and Other Poems
- 1973 Another Life
- 1976 Sea Grapes
- 1979 The Star-Apple Kingdom
- 1981 Selected Poetry
- 1981 The Fortunate Traveller
- 1983 The Caribbean Poetry of Derek Walcott and the Art of Romare Bearden
- 1984 Midsummer
- 1986 Collected Poems, 1948-1984
- 1987 The Arkansas Testament
- 1990 Omeros
- 1997 The Bounty
- 2000 Tiepolo's Hound
- 2004 The Prodigal
- 2007 Selected Poems (Edited, selected, and with an introduction by Edward Baugh)
Plays
- (1950) Henri Christophe: A Chronicle in Seven Scenes
- (1951) Harry Dernier: A Play for Radio Production
- (1953) Wine of the Country
- (1954) The Sea at Dauphin: A Play in One Act
- (1957) Ione
- (1958) Drums and Colours: An Epic Drama
- (1958) Ti-Jean and His Brothers
- (1966) Malcochon: or, Six in the Rain
- (1967) Dream on Monkey Mountain
- (1970) In a Fine Castle
- (1974) The Joker of Seville
- (1974) The Charlatan
- (1976) O Babylon!
- (1977) Remembrance
- (1978) Pantomime
- (1980) The Joker of Seville and O Babylon!: Two Plays
- (1982) The Isle Is Full of Noises
- (1986) Three Plays (The Last Carnival, Beef, No Chicken, and A Branch of the Blue Nile)
- (1991) Steel
- (1993) Odyssey: A Stage Version
- (1997) The Capeman (lyrics, in collaboration with Paul Simon)
Further reading
- Baer, William, ed. Events Sometime this year Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase Beat Generation to describe his friends and as a general term describing the underground Events Yannis Ritsos, incarcerated in a Greek concentration camp writes poems which will finally be published in 1975 in the book Petrinos khronos Events Poet Cid Corman began Origin magazine in response to the failure of a magazine that Robert Creeley had planned Events Writers in the Soviet Union this year were allowed to publish criticism of Joseph Stalin and were given more freedom generally although many were severely Events Among the many books of poetry published this year Robert Lowell 's For the Union Dead is greeted with particular acclaim Events Meic Stephens founds Poetry Wales Russian poet Anna Akhmatova was allowed to travel outside the Soviet Union Events FIELD magazine founded at Oberlin College Charles Bukowski quits his day job as a Post Office clerk in Los Angeles to Events Canadian poet and author Michael Ondaatje adapts his 1970 book of poetry The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, into a play which Events Two poems written in 1965 by Mao Zedong just before the Cultural Revolution including "Two Birds A Dialogue" are published on January 1 Events The Kenyon Review is restarted by Kenyon College 10 years after the original publication was closed Events Final issue of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Magazine published First issue of Conjunctions literary journal published Events Final issue of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Magazine published First issue of Conjunctions literary journal published Events Works published in English Australia Les Murray, The People's Otherworld, winner of the 1984 Kenneth Slessor Events December 19 - Philip Larkin turns down the British Poet Laureateship and Ted Hughes becomes Poet Laureate Events New American Writing, an annual literary magazine concentrating on poetry is founded in Chicago Illinois. Events Charles Bukowski, fictionalised as alter ego Henry Chinaski becomes the subject of the film Barfly starring Mickey Rourke Events Allen Ginsberg crowned "Majelis King" in Prague on May Day Works published in English Australia " Omeros " is a 1990 poem by Derek Walcott. Many consider it the finest work of this Nobel Prize winning author Events January 20 &mdash Miller Williams of Arkansas reads his poem "Of History and Hope" at President Clinton's inauguration Events Griffin Poetry Prize is established with one award given each year for the best work by a Canadian poet and one award given for best work in the English Events April 1 &mdash Foetrycom Web site is launched for the announced purpose of "Exposing fraudulent contests Events March 5: a car bomb was exploded on Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. Edward Alston Cecil Baugh (born 10 January, 1936) is a Jamaican poet and scholar recognised as an authority on the work of Derek Walcott. The Capeman is a Musical play written by Paul Simon and Derek Walcott based on the life of Salvador Agron. Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13 1941 is an American Songwriter, Musician, and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Conversations with Derek Walcott. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1996.
- Baugh, Edward, Derek Walcott: Memory as Vision: Another Life. London: Longman, 1978.
- Baugh, Edward, Derek Walcott. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006.
- Breslin, Paul. Nobody's Nation: Reading Derek Walcott. Chicago: U. Chicago, 2001. ISBN 0-226-07426-9
- Brown, Stewart, ed. , The Art of Derek Walcott. Chester Springs, PA. : Dufour, 1991; Bridgend: Seren Books, 1992.
- Burnett, Paula, Derek Walcott: Politics and Poetics. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2001.
- Hamner, Robert D. , Ed. Critical Perspectives on Derek Walcott. Washington, D. C. : Three Continents, 1993. ISBN 0-89410-142-0
- Hamner, Robert D. Derek Walcott. Updated Edition. Twayne's World Authors Series. TWAS 600. New York: Twayne, 1993.
- Heaney, Seamus, ‘The Murmur of Malvern’, in The Government of the Tongue: The 1986 T. S. Eliot Memorial Lectures and Other Critical Writings. London: Faber and Faber, 1988, pp. 23-29.
- King, Bruce, Derek Walcott and West Indian Drama: ‘Not Only a Playwright But a Company’: The Trinidad Theatre Workshop 1959-1993. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.
- King, Bruce, Derek Walcott, A Caribbean Life. Oxford: OUP, 2000.
- Lennard, John, 'Derek Walcott' in Jay Parini, ed. John Lennard is Professor of British and American Literature at the University of the West Indies, Mona and a freelance academic and writer , World Writers in English. 2 vols, New York & London: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004, II. 721–46.
- Parker, Michael and Roger Starkey, Eds. New Casebooks: Postcolonial Literatures: Achebe, Ngugi, Desai, Walcott. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan, 1995. ISBN 0-333-60801-1
- Sinnewe, Dirk, Divided to the Vein? Derek Walcott’s Drama and the Formation of Cultural Identities. Saarbrücken: Königshausen und Neumann, 2001 [Reihe Saarbrücker Beiträge 17]. ISBN 3-8260-2073-1
- Terada, Rei, Derek Walcott’s Poetry: American Mimicry. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992.
- Thieme, John, Derek Walcott. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1999.
- Walcott, Derek. Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays. New York: Farrar, 1970. ISBN 0-374-50860-7
External links
- Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott
- Postcolonialweb.org on Walcott
- Trinidad Theatre Workshop
- Lannan Foundation Reading and Conversation With Glyn Maxwell
- International Poetry Forum Readings (scroll down)
- Boston Playwrights' Theatre
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