Derek Walcott: Quotes, Walcott As Playwright and Theorist, Padel Controversy, Works, Further Reading, and a List of Books by Author Derek Walcott

Search - List of Books by Derek Walcott

"Visual surprise is natural in the Caribbean; it comes with the landscape, and faced with its beauty, the sigh of History dissolves." -- Derek Walcott

The Hon. Derek Alton Walcott, OCC (born January 23, 1930) is a Caribbean poet, playwright, writer and visual artist. Born in Castries, Saint Lucia, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992.

His work, which developed independently of the schools of magic realism emerging in both South America and Europe at around the time of his birth, is intensely related to the symbolism of myth and its relationship to culture. He is best known for his epic poem Omeros, an allusive, loose reworking of Homeric story and tradition into a journey within the Caribbean and beyond to Africa, New England, the American West, Canada, and London (with frequent reference to the Greek Islands).

Walcott founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop in 1959, which has produced his plays (and others) since that time, and remains active with its Board of Directors. He also founded Boston Playwrights' Theatre at Boston University in 1981 with the hope of creating a home for new plays in Boston, Massachusetts. Walcott retired from teaching poetry and drama in the Creative Writing Department at Boston University in 2007. In fall 2009, he will commence a three year distinguished scholar in residence position at University of Alberta. He continues to give readings and lectures throughout the world. He divides his time between his home in the Caribbean and New York City.

Quotes more less

Walcott As Playwright and Theorist more less

Walcott has published more than twenty plays. The majority of these plays have been produced by the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, and have also been widely staged elsewhere. Many of them deal, either directly or indirectly, with the liminal status of the West Indies in the postcolonial period. Epistemological, ontological, economical, political, and social themes make regular appearances in Walcott's plays.

In his 1970 essay on art (and specifically theatre) in his native region, What the Twilight Says: An Overture (published in Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays; see bibliography), Walcott bemoans the lasting effects of over 400 years of colonial rule. He reflects on the West Indies as colonized space, and the problems presented by a region with little in the way of truly indigenous forms, and with little national or nationalist identity. He states: “...we are all strangers here (10). [...] Our bodies think in one language and move in another...”(31). In this manner, Walcott shifts his poetic language between formal English and patois to highlight the linguistic dexterity of the Caribbean people. While recognising the profound psychological and material wrongs of the colonial project, Walcott simultaneously celebrates the hybridisation of Antillean cultures. His epic poem Omeros exposes the complex cultural strains that converge in his native St. Lucia, celebrating at once the European, Amerindian, and African heritage shared by the islanders.

Discussions of epistemological effects of colonization inform plays such as Ti-Jean and his Brothers and Pantomime. One of the eponymous brothers in Ti-Jean and his Brothers (Mi-Jean) is shown to have much information, but to truly know nothing. Every line Mi-Jean recites is rote knowledge gained from the coloniser, and as such is unable to be synthesized and thus is inapplicable to his existence as colonised person.

Walcott's plays weave together a variety of forms; including those of the folktale, morality play, allegory, fable, ritual and myth; as well as using emblematic and mythological characters to address issues in non-realistic ways.

Padel Controversy more less

Works more less

Further Reading more less

Baer, William, ed. Conversations with Derek Walcott. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1996.
Baugh, Edward, Derek Walcott: Memory as Vision: Another Life. London: Longman, 1978.
Baugh, Edward, Derek Walcott. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006.
Breslin, Paul. Nobody's Nation: Reading Derek Walcott. Chicago: U. Chicago, 2001. ISBN 0-226-07426-9
Brown, Stewart, ed., The Art of Derek Walcott. Chester Springs, PA.: Dufour, 1991; Bridgend: Seren Books, 1992.
Burnett, Paula, Derek Walcott: Politics and Poetics. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2001.
Gazzoni, Andrea, Epica dell'arcipelago. Il racconto della tribù, Derek Walcott, "Omeros". Firenze: Le Lettere, 2009. ISBN 88-6087-288-X
Hamner, Robert D., Ed. Critical Perspectives on Derek Walcott. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents, 1993. ISBN 0-89410-142-0
Hamner, Robert D. Derek Walcott. Updated Edition. Twayne's World Authors Series. TWAS 600. New York: Twayne, 1993.
Heaney, Seamus, ‘The Murmur of Malvern’, in The Government of the Tongue: The 1986 T. S. Eliot Memorial Lectures and Other Critical Writings. London: Faber and Faber, 1988, pp. 23—29.
King, Bruce, Derek Walcott and West Indian Drama: ‘Not Only a Playwright But a Company’: The Trinidad Theatre Workshop 1959-1993. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.
King, Bruce, Derek Walcott, A Caribbean Life. Oxford: OUP, 2000.
Lennard, John, 'Derek Walcott' in Jay Parini, ed., World Writers in English. 2 vols, New York & London: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004, II.721—46.
Parker, Michael and Roger Starkey, Eds. New Casebooks: Postcolonial Literatures: Achebe, Ngugi, Desai, Walcott. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan, 1995. ISBN 0-333-60801-1
Sinnewe, Dirk, Divided to the Vein? Derek Walcott’s Drama and the Formation of Cultural Identities. Saarbrücken: Königshausen und Neumann, 2001 [Reihe Saarbrücker Beiträge 17]. ISBN 3-8260-2073-1
Terada, Rei, Derek Walcott’s Poetry: American Mimicry. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992.
Thieme, John, Derek Walcott. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1999.
Walcott, Derek. Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays. New York: Farrar, 1970. ISBN 0-374-50860-7

Total Books: 114

2016 - Morning Paramin (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9780374213428
ISBN-10: 0374213429
Genres: Arts & Photography, Literature & Fiction

2015 - The Poetry of Derek Walcott 19482013 (Paperback) → Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780374535087
ISBN-10: 0374535086
Genre: Literature & Fiction

2014 - O Starry Starry Night a Play (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780374227074
ISBN-10: 0374227071
Genre: Literature & Fiction

2012 - Weie Reiher (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9783446238671
ISBN-10: 3446238670

2011 - White Egrets Poems (Paperback) → Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780374532703
ISBN-10: 0374532702
Genre: Literature & Fiction

2011 - Omeros [Em Portugues do Brasil] (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9788535919561
ISBN-10: 8535919562

2010 - Queen and Country Steve Mcqueen (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9780863556364
ISBN-10: 0863556361
Genre: Arts & Photography

2009 - Francesco Clemente Three Rainbows (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9788881587452
ISBN-10: 8881587459
Genre: Arts & Photography

2008 - Saint Lucia Portrait of an Island [Say It in Scots] (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9780230022263
ISBN-10: 023002226X
Genre: Travel

2008 - Collected Poems 19481984 (Other)
ISBN-13: 9781439510131
ISBN-10: 143951013X

2007 - Selected Poems (Paperback) → Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780374531119
ISBN-10: 0374531110
Genre: Literature & Fiction

Currently 5/5 Stars.

2007 - La Voz Del Crepusculo / the Voice of Twilight [Alianza Literaria - Spanish Edition] (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9788420643830
ISBN-10: 8420643831
Genre: Literature & Fiction

2007 - Der Verlorene Sohn (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9783446207578
ISBN-10: 3446207570

2006 - The Prodigal a Poem (Paperback) → Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780374530167
ISBN-10: 0374530165
Genre: Literature & Fiction

2006 - The Prodigal (Paperback) → Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780571226528
ISBN-10: 0571226523

2005 - Mappa Del Nuovo Mondo [Italian Edition] (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9788845909603
ISBN-10: 8845909603
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Nonfiction