Poets in the Kitchen...Paule Marshall

Paule Marshall is not the only notable author from the West Indies that writes in English / lives in America.  What other American authors have a West Indian heritage?  Do a researched blog on that author, making connections to Marshall’s essay.  

           

West Indian poet and dramatist, Derek (Alton) Walcott writes in both English and West Indian dialect. Most of his life was spent living in Trinidad, however he was given the Nobel Prize for literature in the year 1992. It is said that “his poems are characterized by allusions to the English poetic tradition and a symbolic imagination that is at once personal and Caribbean.” Walcott was born in Castries, St. Lucia. His father was a Bohemian artist and his mother was a teacher from Dutch St. Maarten.

            Like Marshall’s essay mentions, Walcott describes himself as being “raised in this obscure Caribbean poet…” They both acknowledge the fact that their literary upbringings began at home within the family circle. Walcott attended St Mary’s college in Castries, then went on to further his education at the University College of the West indies in Kingston, Jamaica. His move to Trinidad in 1953, found him working for the Trinidad Guardian, focusing on features and drama critics, then later spending a year in New York to study theater. He has three recorded marriages and divorces throughout his lifetime. Prior to his studies in New York, Walcott took up teaching in many schools on different Caribbean islands. 1950 was the marking of a great year for Walcott; this is the year that he founded the St. Lucia Arts Guild, a notable accomplishment and considered a great achievement for not only him, but the St. Lucia community.

            Not only did Walcott teach in the Caribbean islands, but he also worked as a professor of poetry at the University of Boston. At this point in his life, it was necessary for Walcott to divide his time between Trinidad and the United States. It wasn’t all easy for Walcott, however, sexual harassment accusations from a poetry workshop in Harvard and Boston University put a stop to him running for the Oxford poetry professor this year. He was forced to withdraw due to these allegations and noted that the whole competition had “degenerated into character assassination.” Ironically though, Ruth Padel, who was elected as the chair, later resigned after it came to surface about her involvement in the campaign against Walcott’s name. However, he was elected as the 2009 teacher of poetry at the University of Alberta in Canada.

            Marshall’s essay mentioned the connection that was made once the narrator started reading writings by black authors, mentioning that something had been missing form the othr literature that she was able to find comfort in with black literature. In the same sense, Walcott stated, “ But there is an isolation in the sense that, as West Indian writers, whether we live in London or the West Indies, we are both cut off from and are a part of a tradition.” Walcott has writings that are in both standard English and in West Indian dialect with a focus on the postcolonial condition and credit to the Creole tradition and history of dancing, music of the calypso, and “metaphorical speech.”

Liukkonen, P. Derek (Alton) Walcott (1930-).2008.Ari Pesonen Kuusankosken kaupunginkirjasto. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/walcott.htm  

A Small Place...Jamaica Kincaid

Research the island of Antigua.  Give an analysis of Antigua’s history and culture.  Where do you see evidence of this in the text?  Use quotes in your answer.

Antigua and Barbuda, known as Wadadli and Wa’omoni prior to Christopher Columbus, are two islands located in the Eastern Caribbean. They are known for heir multitude of beaches as well as being a popular tourist location rich in Creole culture and sugarcane history.

Antigua was majorly cultivated by Sir Christopher Codrington in 1684. Originally, the island was meant to be a land of pure sugar-cane cultivation. Codrington came to Antigua in hopes that, this island would support the large-scale growth of sugar-cane that was evident throughout the rest of the Caribbean. By mid 18^th century there were more than 150 cane-processing windmills, of which there are currently about 100 still standing and being used as houses, bars, tourist stops, etc.

            Most of the Antiguan heritage is laced with traces of African lineage brought over to be used as workers in the sugarcane fields. History has revealed, however, that the ancestry of the Antigua inhabitants dates all the way back to two and a half millennia before Christ. The Siboney or “stone people”, who were Meso-Indians are dated as the inhabitants of Antigua as far back as 2400 B.C. The remnants of their culture are found in the crafted stones and shells that are found around the island. After this civilization, came the Arawaks, of who were an agricultural society and dwelled on the island of Antigua from about 35-1100 A.D. The aggressive Caribs, who were inhabited throughout the Caribbean, then took over the Antiguan area.

            The first contact with Antigua dates back to Christopher Columbus in 1493, where in passing he named it after the saint of Seville, Santa Maria la Antigua. Due to the resistance from the Caribs, Antigua escaped European settlement for almost a century after its discovery. However, this came to an end in 1632 when Englishmen from St. Kitts create a settlement there. France, Spain, and England each played a hand in the fight for the control of Antigua’s soil, because they each wanted to be in charge of the sugarcane industry. Antigua’s high profits when it comes to the production of sugarcane made it most valuable to colonizers as well as put them at an advantage over the other islands. When slavery was abolished and Antigua became emancipated, the sugarcane industry began to dwindle for Antigua, which forced them then and now to rely on tourism to support the majority of the island’s income.

            The African influence is great in the island’s culture through the music and most notably the celebration of Carnival. However, the British influence can not be denied as Antigua has adopted many of the traditional British sports and religion. Jamaica Kincaid draws a correlation to this influence on pages 23 and 24 of the novel, “They don’t seem to know that this empire business was all wrong and they should, at least, be wearing sackcloth and ashes in token penance for the wrongs committed, the irrevocableness of their bad deeds, for no natural disaster imaginable could equal the harm they did…they should never have left their home, their precious England, a place they loved so much, a place they had to leave but could never forget. And so everywhere they went they turned it into England; and everybody they met they turned English. But no place could ever really be England, and nobody who did not look exactly like them would ever be English, so that you can imagine the destruction of people and land that came from that.”

Antigua and Barbuda’s History and Culture. 1996-2008. InterKnowledge Corp. New York, NY. http://www.geographia.com/antigua-barbuda/aghis01.htm

Culture of Antigua and Barbuda. 2009. Advameg, Inc. http://www.everyculture.com/A-Bo/Antigua-And-Barbuda.html