Derek Walcott

Cambridge Studies in African and Caribbean Literature

by Edward Baugh

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 a guide for students, scholars and readers of Walcott. Students of Caribbean and postcolonial studies will find this a perfect introduction to this important writer.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

270 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2006

Reviews

[Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

For readers for whom Bruce King's encyclopedic (but pre-death) biography is too long and detailed. As a short trot through the highlights of the life, this will do. It isn't much on analysis of the major works and perhaps focuses over-much on production dates of Walcott's many theatrical ventures. No doubt that's in part because such work puts him in a place at a particular time and thus is valuable from a chronological perspective. Those wanting deeper engagement with the major theatrical and poetic works will have to look elsewhere. But it does a nice job of summarizing key events in the life. The volume appeared in 2017, just when the metoo movement was taking off. One suspects that, in time, fuller lives are going to have to spend more than a page or two on the relevant allegations in Walcott's life as they take the measure of the man as well as the writer.

[Nnyeka Collette · Rating 3 out of 5]

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