Abstract
Derek Walcott (1930-2017), received the 1992 Nobel
Prize in literature. This paper offers textual analysis of three of his plays
from the point of identity politics. The works discussed are Remembrance
(1977), Pantomime (1978), and The Last Carnival (1980). Derek Walcott
had shared lineage as he had European and African grandparents. Early
in his literary career, he grappled with the issue of identity in the
Caribbean context and tried to salvage a sense of identity from the multireligious, multi-cultural, and multi-ethnic diversity in his locale. In the
heyday of political decolonization campaigns in the Caribbean, Derek
Walcott, through his creative works, tried to sort out the identity
conundrum and in the end, presented a syncretic construction of
Caribbean identity. This paper, offers a reading of the afore-mentioned
works through the major characters depicted in the plays: Albert Perez
Jordan in Remembrance, Harry and Jackson in Pantomime, and Agatha
Willett in The Last Carnival to present an analysis of the dialogic
negotiations of identity that happen on stage.
Shahzeb Khan, Dr. Amra Raza. (2019) Dialogic Construction of Syncretic Identity in Derek Walcott’s Select Plays, Journal of Research ( Humanities), Vol LV, Issue 1.
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