Expressions of socioeconomic and cultural complexities in works by Derek Walcott, Jamaica Kincaid, and Michelle Cliff

Derek Walcott, Jamaica Kincaid, and Michelle Cliff have written narratives which address the limitation of representation, including the "truth" that can be found beyond historical "facts," while illustrating their understanding of the cultural effects of economic globalization. The cultural complexities and contradictions that their works address show the shortsightedness of understanding economically powerful regions and peoples as "the center" and less economically powerful regions and peoples as "the periphery." Their narratives address how the Caribbean's histories and cultures are interconnected with the histories and cultures of England and America; their widespread recognition, the subjects of their works, and their multiple affiliations show them to be of the "center" and "periphery" at once. By using autobiographical elements to show connections between personal concerns and larger social issues, and to show interconnections among peoples, histories, places, and cultures, these authors also, very self-consciously, blur the lines of classification among the genres of fiction, autobiography, and history. In this way, these three authors imaginatively look beyond the confines of history to be true to their own understanding of human experience. Derek Walcott's Omeros, Jamaica Kincaid's My Brother and Michelle Cliff's Free Enterprise show without employing complex theoretical models how one can get a tangible glimpse at what kinds of complexities and contradictions people face as a result of economic globalization.