In March, the great Caribbean poet Derek Walcott died.  Central to his work was a reckoning with the legacies of colonialism, but from a perspective that today is often derided, even seen as reactionary by some. Walcott insisted on placing the Caribbean and Caribbean writing within a much wider intellectual tradition, insisting that Homer and Dante and Shakespeare belonged to him as much as they did to any European. What is called the ‘Western canon’, he was adamant, was his […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: colonialism, derek walcott, poetry