Caribbean Poetry: Derek Walcott & Marlene NourbeSe Philip
David Wachter
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This seminar approaches Caribbean poetry by focusing on two fascinating, but very different authors: The St. Lucian poet, essayist and playwright Derek Walcott and the Trinidadian-Canadian experimental writer Marlene NourbeSe Philip. We comparatively read selected works ranging from Walcott’s famous poem “A Far Cry from Africa” (1962) to Philip’s “Zong!” (2008). In closely examining their strategies of writing, we explore topics such as the remains of empire, the relationship between home and diaspora, or challenges of cultural hybridity. From an intertextual perspective, we address Walcott’s re-writing of literary traditions, e.g. Defoe’s colonial imagination of the West Indies (“Crusoe’s Island”), and Philip’s combination of European and African cultural heritages. We look at performance and ritual in both oeuvres, and we examine how they negotiate the traumatic memory of the Middle passage (the deportation of several million Africans to the Americas as part of the transatlantic slave trade).
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Suggested reading
Introductory Reading:
The Poetry of Derek Walcott (1948-2013), selected by Glyn Maxwell, London: Faber & Faber, 2019; Marlene NourbeSe Philip: Zong!, Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2008.
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Regular appointments