Derek Walcott

by Edward Baugh

• ISBN13: 9780521553582
• ISBN10: 052155358X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-03-20
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott is one of the Caribbean's most famous writers. His unique voice in poetry, drama and criticism is shaped by his position at the crossroads between Caribbean, British and American culture and by his interest in hybrid identities and diaspora. Edward Baugh's Derek Walcott analyses and evaluates Walcott's entire career over the last fifty years. Baugh guides the reader through the continuities and differences of theme and style in Walcott's poems and plays. Walcott is an avowedly Caribbean writer, acutely conscious of his culture and colonial heritage, but he has also made a lasting contribution to the way we read and value the western literary tradition. This comprehensive survey considers each of Walcott's published books, offering the most up-to-date guide available for students, scholars and readers of Walcott. Students of Caribbean and postcolonial studies will find this a perfect introduction to this important writer.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	viii
Chronology	ix
List of abbreviations	xiii
Walcott, writing and the Caribbean: issues and directions	1	(28)
Connections and separations: from 25 Poems to The Gulf	29	(28)
`What a man is': Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays, The Haitian Trilogy and Franklin	57	(31)
`Is there that I born': Another Life, Sea Grapes, The Star-Apple Kingdom	88	(32)
The challenge of change: the dramatist after Dream	120	(33)
`Here' and `Elsewhere', `Word' and `World': The Fortunate Traveller, Midsummer, The Arkansas Testament	153	(32)
Narrative variations: Omeros, The Odyssey, The Bounty, Tiepolo's Hound	185	(37)
Homecoming: The Prodigal	222	(8)
Notes	230	(12)
Select bibliography	242	(7)
Index	249