This article examines three poems by Derek Walcott on Robinson Crusoe: “The Castaway”, “Crusoe’s Island”, and “Crusoe’s Journal”. The three texts are interpreted as an implicit sequence which, starting from the critique of the strong identitarianism of the white coloniser and of the black nativist poet, produces a ‘weak’ version of Caribbean identity based on the dialogic synthesis of nature and culture, matter and discourse, the beauty of Western poetry as finally represented by Dante’s language and the physical splendour of Tobago’s black girls.
‘Weak’ Encounters: Walcott’s Refiguring of Crusoe in “The Castaway”, “Crusoe’s Island”, and “Crusoe’s Journal”
Fausto Ciompi
2021-01-01
Abstract
This article examines three poems by Derek Walcott on Robinson Crusoe: “The Castaway”, “Crusoe’s Island”, and “Crusoe’s Journal”. The three texts are interpreted as an implicit sequence which, starting from the critique of the strong identitarianism of the white coloniser and of the black nativist poet, produces a ‘weak’ version of Caribbean identity based on the dialogic synthesis of nature and culture, matter and discourse, the beauty of Western poetry as finally represented by Dante’s language and the physical splendour of Tobago’s black girls.File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
