1. Do some research on D. Walcott and try to account for the different perspectives of the ocean (and sea-crossings) in Walcott's "The Sea is History" and Whitman's "Passage to India".
2. Again on Steve Mentz's effort to deterritorialize academic concepts - what answer can we give to his proposal of "horizons" (as sites of transitions and fusion) as metaphors for futurity that "span green pastures and blue seas"? (xvii - anthology p. 286)
(photo Edward Burtinsky, Oil Spin 13, Gulf of Mexico, 2010)
Derek Walcott is a poet born in St Lucia
ReplyDeleteDerek Walcott sees sea as something that joins and separates colonizer and colonized. He recognizes that the sea is an element in history, an entity. He gives a perspective and identity to the Caribbean while describing the sea as embodied by Biblical allusion. The sea is a reference to change, but also the unknown.
ReplyDeleteWalt Whitman also recognizes the sea as an element in history, praising Vasco da Gama, who discovered the sea route to India. It is a tribute to the courageous and adventurous people who seeked a passage to India. History is created because of the succession of a series of events that are like a flowing stream. Whitman vision alongside the spiritual sea are the combination of this stream that provides historical events with spiritual meaning.
1. In his poem, Walcott explains how history is hidden in the sea. The sea represents the storehouse of lost culture, sacrifices, language, etc. of the Africans as well as their fears, sorrows, and oppression. So; in Walcott’s poem the ocean in itself means history. In Whitman’s poem, the ocean doesn’t seem to have as deep as a meaning in terms of it being a storehouse for history. The ocean’s are merely mentioned as entities to be crossed, in order to reach the united justification in terms of ‘divine spirituality’.
ReplyDeleteUnlike Walt Whitman, Derek Walcott was born (and grew up) on an island in the Caribbeans. He was surrounded by the sea. For a person living on a continent (especially further inland) the sea (ocean) is something to cross to get someplace else. To a person living on an island, the sea is a lot more. It's literally surrounds them. And so it makes sense that Walcott sees history in the sea. A place where many lost their lives. To Whitman, on the other hand, the sea is something you cross before you can start to make history.
ReplyDelete