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Article: Derek Walcott: Politics and Poetics. (St. Lucia).
- Article from:
- World Literature Today
- Article date:
- June 22, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 University of Oklahoma. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Paula Burnett Derek Walcott: Politics and Poetics Gainesville. University Press of Florida 2000. xiii + 380 pages. $55 ISBN 0-8130-1882-X
IN HER STUDY of Derek Walcott, Paula Burnett reads his poetry and plays for their political content, and represents Walcott as an artist who simultaneously mounts a postcolonial critique of Northern hegemony and remains committed to traditional, even religious, values. Two of Burnett's general observations about Walcott stand out. First, she argues that apparent contradictions in Walcott's work reflect his Caribbean sensibility, which rejects binaries, esteems plurality, and recognizes that diversity can be an integral part of ...