Poetry Criticism | Walcott, Derek - James Wieland (essay date 1998)

James Wieland (essay date 1998)

SOURCE: Wieland, James. “Adam's Task … : Myths and Fictions in the Poetry of Derek Walcott.” In The Ensphering Mind: History, Myth, and Fictions in the Poetry of Allen Curnow, Nissim Ezekiel, A. D. Hope, A. M. Klein, Christopher Okigbo, and Derek Walcott, pp. 165-88. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents, 1998.

[In the following essay, Wieland explores recurring allusions to mythological and fictional themes and characters in Walcott's body of work.]

On the dust jacket of Another Life, George Lamming is quoted as having said:

This is not the first time that Walcott has given a hint that his first passion is art as the indispensable language for interpreting reality. He is a colonial who has spent a life trying to dismantle and re-define the cultural apparatus of his imperialist tutelage.

This redefining of which Lamming speaks draws attention to Walcott's...

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