Albert Laveaux gave a memorable account of his experiences in the Trinidad Theatre Workshop. Hospitality and informative conversation on Walcott and Trinidadian culture during my first visit in 1990. In Trinidad, my thanks to Kenneth Ramchand for his vii Lucia National Trust Archives, and to Lady Suzette Simmons for showing me several paintings by Harold Simmons from her own collection. I also am grateful to Robert Deveaux for his assistance in my research at the St. Lucia, I benefited greatly from conversations with MacDonald Dixon, Hunter Franc¸ois, Kendel Hyppolyte, Arthur Jacobs, Jane King, John Robert Lee, Richard Montgomery, and George Odlum. Gregor took me the length of the island, with stops and detours along the way, sharing his knowledge as he drove. Dunstan showed me his church murals at Jacmel, Monchy, and Gros Iˆlet, concluding the day with a stop at Pigeon Island. Omer, John Robert Lee, and the Williamses, Gregor, Deirdre, and their daughter Abbie-not only shared their insights into Walcott’s life and work, but took me to important places. Lucia, when I interviewed him at their house. And I am grateful to him and Sigrid Nama for their hospitality during my 1995 trip to St. Lucia, and for permitting me to read and photocopy archival materials at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica and St. “Pulling in the Seine / of the Dark Sea”: “The Schooner Flight”įirst of all, I want to thank Derek Walcott himself for talking with me several times during the course of my work, for putting me in touch with his friends in St. Post-Homeric Derek: The Bounty and Tiepolo’s Houndīiographical Sketch “Fishing the Twilight for Alternate Voices”: The Early Poems and Henri Christophe PR9272.9.W3 Z545 2001 811⬘.54-dc21 2001002128 o The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.Īdam’s Amnesia: The Uses of Memory and Forgettingĭead Ends and Green Beginnings: Dream on Monkey MountainĪnother Life: West Indian Experience and the Problems of Narrationĭerek Sans Terre: The Poetry of the 1980sĮpic Amnesia: Healing and Memory in Omeros Literature and history-West Indies-History-20th century. Nobody’s nation : reading Derek Walcott / Paul Breslin. Published 2001 Printed in the United States of America 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 54321 ISBN (cloth): 6-9 ISBN (paper): 7-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Breslin, Paul. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London 䉷 2001 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. He is the author of The Psycho-Political Muse: American Poetry since the Fifties, published by the University of Chicago Press, and You Are Here, a collection of poems. Paul Breslin is professor of English at Northwestern University. The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London Linking extensive archival research and new interviews with Walcott himself to detailed critical readings of major works, Nobody's Nation will take its place as the definitive study of the poet. What is most vexed and inspired in Walcott's work can be traced to this quixotic struggle. In his poems and plays, West Indian history becomes a realm of necessity, something to be confronted, contested, and remade through literature. Walcott sees this lack not as impoverishment but as an open space for creation. Paul Breslin argues that Walcott's poems and plays are bound up with an effort to re-imagine West Indian society since its emergence from colonial rule, its ill-fated attempt at political unity, and its subsequent dispersal into tiny nation-states.Īccording to Breslin, Walcott's work is centrally concerned with the West Indies' imputed absence from history and lack of cohesive national identity or cultural tradition. Lucian, Nobel-Prize-winning writer, Derek Walcott, and grounds his work firmly in the context of West Indian history. Nobody's Nation offers an illuminating look at the St.
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