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LITR 5734: Colonial & Postcolonial Literature Student Poetry Presentation, 2001 reading from Walcott: from Another Life: The Divided Child, (143-149)reader: Sylvia Krzmarzick "Another Life" is title of a series of poems that is divided into four parts. The facets that we will be focusing on are chapters 1 and 2 entitled "The Divided Child". After examining the beginning of the poem you will see that Walcott seems to be reflecting on his days in the West Indies or St. Lucia. On page 144 Walcott chose to begin "The Divided Child with a quotation by Malraux. "What makes the artist is the circumstance that in his youth he was more deeply moved by the sight of works of art than by that of the things which they portray." Walcott himself was a painter and one critic noted that he seems to be establishing a "relationship between poetry and painting and imagination and reality." Throughout this poem you will notice the references to books and art. Another critic, J. Edward Chamberlein, quoted Walcott in the following passage: "I wrote in one language while people spoke in another." A divided child, was how he described himself, remembering how "my generation looked at life with black skins and blue eyes". Divided to the vein . . . and to the voice. "What I wrote had nothing to do with what I saw. While I honoured and loved them in my mind, I could not bring myself to write down the names of villages, of fruits, in the way people spoke because it seemed too raw . . . And I found no lines that mentioned breadfruit, guava, plantain, cassava in literature." J. Edward Chamberlein. The Literary Manuscripts of Derek Walcott. The Halcyon. Issue 25 (June 2000). http://www.library.utoronto.ca/development/news/halcyon/june2000/article1.htm> June 20, 2001 As we examine the poem, please keep this quotation in mind as it will relate to my question. Read excerpts from the poem. In the first stanza Walcott seems to begin in another life until he can close the door or "book." In the second stanza he refers to the land that is "tired of empire" and seems to directly refer to the old adage "the sun never sets on the British Empire." In the third stanza Walcott makes direct reference to his mixed race when he states, "The dream / of reason had produced its monster: / a prodigy of the wrong age and colour." In the fourth stanza he explains that he is drawing a landscape that also contains a girl in it. The fifth stanza is chocked full of vivid images of a sunset that singles the end of something and a girl that "could feel its epoch" or new period "entering her hair." In the sixth stanza Walcott, once again, makes a reference to his race when he discusses "a generation [that] yearned / for whiteness, for candour, unreturned." The following stanza contains images of "gutted offices" and refers indirectly to the fall of Rome. This stanza also contains more art imagery. In the final stanza of Chapter 1, the young painter enters the house where an old man sits. "The man wafted the drawing to his face / as if dusk were myopic, not his gaze. / Then, with slow strokes, the master changed the sketch." What will the "master change?" The painting? The poem? Or will he change the future? At the end of this chapter, the reader is left with the feeling that something is dawning. The second chapter begins with "the sociological contours" of the drawing. Walcott draws an image of "patriarchal banyans. Banyans are an East Indian fig tree with branches that send out shoots, which grow down to the soil and root to form secondary trunks. This image aligns with the idea that Walcott is seeking a new identity that is ‘secondary’ or new. He also refers to the "schoolboys . . . crouched like whelk pickers on brown, spindly legs / scattering red soldier crabs." Whelks are larges snails that are a delicacy in Europe. In the second stanza, Walcott makes yet another reference to race: "he had prayed / nightly for his flesh to change, / his dun flesh peeled white by her lightning strokes!" It almost seems that he had a desire to be white. In the final stanza of Chapter 2, Walcott envisions a "new book." The child is "dead" and perhaps a new period can begin. I feel that he ends the poem with dark imagery that connotes a rebirth of sorts. Question: Walcott is a two-fold hybrid. He has two parent cultures and is of two races. Based on what he states in the quotation and in the poem, do you believe Walcott’s voice is that of the colonizer, colonized, or that of a divided child? Discussion: Jennifer: The poem is the voice of a divided child. This is seen in all of the poems we have read. You see the conflict. Dale: This is a blend of the colonized and the colonizer. I prefer a new child, not a divided child. Dr. White: Walcott learned poetry from the dominant culture. By reading a poem by a white poet about a black child, he can write about a white child. Dale: More than 28% of people born in this region will be of mixed race and Census takers are sensitive to this. Jennifer: You cannot put people in boxes anymore. Verena: One thing I find so amazing is that Hispanics and Whites are separate here. We don’t classify like that in Europe. Sylvia: We classify everything in our society, so how do we reconcile this fact? Dr. White: The weight of history follows us around. Dale: I think he wants to validate his European, African, and Caribbean identities. Sandra: I think he is tormented. Walcott is a self-colonizer. He went far beyond his education and curriculum. There is a freewill element to his poetry. He has fallen in love with the English language. He has gone beyond his education. You fall in love with something and you go with it. Dr. White: But this is also an act of betrayal. Jennifer: I want to read literature about people who are not like me. That is why I studied romantic legends and Stephan King. Now I want to get back to my roots and read Latin American literature. Dale: There are critics who study Caribbean literature who say that we could apply the phrase "tragic mulatto." This would be a stereotypical limited view. This is why I have an issue with calling him ‘tormented.’ Linton: Don’t you think he is caught between two worlds? He is not accepted by either side. I think he identifies with the colonized people because of his uncomfortable position. Our society has made us feel like we need to fit into these boxes. Walcott is tormented because he can’t fit into a box. He is in the middle. Sylvia: Torment can come into play here. Walcott is not always tormented, but he often has a tormented voice. Verena: As he grew older and grew up, he learned to accept himself. Brenda: You can’t put him into the categories you have here. In the West Indies, we don’t have boxes. You look at what you see. Verena: Race is a social construct in the U. S. Linton: Some blacks won’t date a dark-skinned person. There is a system going on within the race itself. Dale: This is only in the U. S. Dr. White: Walcott is separated from Europe by an ocean. Does the race dynamic change when he goes to Europe? Brenda: Yes, you become the colonized again. The dynamic changes when you prove yourself in academics. Sandra: The principle exists in every country. There is always an elite. Andrea: (In reference to his flesh changing) Is this line reflecting his experience in the U. S? Brenda: We have the same tension in the West Indies, but it is not the same umbrella effect that exists here. Dr. White: Then the answer to Sylvia’s question is "yes." |