Sea Writing In Derek Walcott’s Poems

Derek Walcott,the first Nobel Laureate for literature in the Caribbean,was unwilling to stay in the conflict and helplessness between history and reality in the post-colonial context.Out of the position as the "colonial oppressed other",he grew up into one of writers of world literary classics,and won a series of proud honors recognized all over the world.Based on the close readings of the his poems,this paper comprehensively sorts out Walcott’s researches and finds out that the traditional studies on Walcott have placed him as the "colonial oppressed other",which makes the subjectivity of the Caribbean poet obscured,so his characteristics cannot be highlighted,and the explorations of his ideological connotations,aesthetic values and artistic achievements cannot be studied accurately and deeply.Thus,this paper returns from the ideology of white-centrism to sea and ocean----the most essential materiality for the Caribbean,and takes Walcott’s sea writing as the research object.It regards the "Black Atlantic" hypothesis as the theoretical starting point,and adopts the perspectives and methods of Cultural Geography,to draw a whole picture of Derek Walcott of the Caribbean as the modern subject in world literature,and realize his idea of construction of the inter-subjective Sea and Ocean Community of a Shared Future across the world.At the same time the "Black Atlantic" hypothesis has been supplemented,improved and reconstructed from Caribbean point of view,as well as the enrichment,renewal and transcendence of Cultural Geography.The paper begins with the three dimensions of Walcott’s Sea Writing."The Dimension of Walcott’s Caribbean Homeland" presents the whole picture of Walcott’s life and the Caribbean in the post-colonial context."The Caribbean dimension of the Black Atlantic" not only reflects the relationship between the Caribbean and the "Black Atlantic",but also provides a theoretical reference to interpreting the historical background and practical basis of Walcott’s sea writing."The Dimension of Cultural Geography of the Caribbean Sea" points out that it is with his double consciousness of culture and geography that Walcott not only realizes the modern subjectivity of poet’s self and of modern Caribbean,reconstructs the "Black Atlantic" hypothesis with supplements and improvements,but also builds the Sea and Ocean Community of a Shared Future across the world.These three dimensions are the theoretical starting point of the next two chapters of Walcott’s sea writing practice and the construction of the sea poetics of the last chapter.Then focusing on the "Cultural Geography" of the Caribbean and the world’s oceans,the following two chapters deal with Walcott’s "place" writing in the Caribbean in the first half of his life and the "world" writing of Walcott’s continuous dispersion and return from the sea and oceans of world civilization in the second half of his life,respectively corresponding to the three key words of "black Atlantic","modernity" and "double consciousness" in Gilroy’s classic work.Echoing the core essence of Gilroy’s "nation" and"diaspora",the paper unfolds Walcott’s sea writing practice from place to world.ChapterⅡ not only presents the complete geography of the Caribbean including islands,the Caribbean Sea,flora and fauna together with its inorganic environment,but also expresses the cultural differences between the Caribbean and Western countries and regions,highlighting Walcott’s transformation from the traditional oppressed "other" status to the subject in the Sea and Ocean Community of a Shared Future across the world.It supplements Gilroy’s hypothesis where the Caribbean dimension has been absent,to show that the Caribbean is supposed to be an equal value existence to the West.Chapter Ⅲ also adopts Cultural Geography to project "counterculture of modernity" into daily life,to recast the classics based on daily life,then to construct the inter-subjective community of equal dialogues between the original sovereign country and the former colony.It shows the inter-subjective relationship between the Caribbean Sea and the three major oceans of the world（Pacific,Mediterranean and Atlantic）,and expresses the three forms of creolization of the Caribbean Sea（American existence,European existence and African existence）.It is not only the display of the characteristics of sea’s fluidity and hybridity,but also the embodiment of Gilroy’s cross-border core view in Cultural Geography,which reflects modernity and globalization.As a response to Chapter I and a summary of Chapters Ⅱ andⅢ,Chapter Ⅳ points out that Walcott has shaped the Caribbean Sea into a "place" with independent subjectivity and equal and interactive inter-subjectivity with the western world,which shows his positive efforts to build an inter-subjective and real world sea community with national feelings and world mind.Thus,with the double consciousness of culture and geography,Walcott’s sea writing breaks through the barriers of post-colonialism and the "Black Atlantic" hypothesis,and constructs his distinctive sea poetics,which includes both dimensions of place and world,that is,it combines more and more cultural resources and perspectives to imagine a more and more comprehensive global cultural sense that still changes according to the ever-changing situations.It not only recognizes the reality of cultural fragmentation,especially in the Caribbean,but also recognizes the desire for cultural unity.Walcott’s sea writing（and sea poetics）can not only fundamentally change the Western world’s understandings of modernity,that is,recognize that experience of the new Caribbean world is among the central and the representative ones,and points to the construction of Sea and Ocean Community of a Shared Future across the world.Walcott in his sea writing has constructed the real place of Caribbean as a subject equal to the West.Accordingly,all ethnic groups can build their own promising Utopias,highlighting openness,mobility,interaction and equality with other places,so as to jointly build an inter-subjective global community of sea and ocean for a shared future,aimed at "going to the future together".It can be seen that due to the prospect of the social form,Walcott’s sea poetics stems not only from his attachment to his homeland Caribbean,but also from his vision of Sea and Ocean Community of a Shared Future across the world.It is expressed in literature,gathers diversity,praises humanity and shows Walcott’s Caribbean pattern and human ideal of Community that respects "justice,nature,and difference".In short,this paper takes sea and ocean as the research object and focus,adopts interdisciplinary research methods,and combines sea writing with literary and cultural researches.The integration of post-colonialism,cosmopolitanism,Diaspora and other related studies has produced more theoretical and practical significances in Walcott’s sea writing,all of which are jointly woven by the "Black Atlantic" and Cultural Geography,breaking through the solidificated mode of the traditional ideology of white centralism to treat the Caribbean as the "other" in western literature.It shows that from the poet’s"subjectivity" to the Caribbean’s "subjectivity",there is no longer a member of various"multiple others",but as one of the equal subjects in the Global Community of Sea and Ocean for a Shared Future.By presenting a unique and integrated subjective culture of the Caribbean,Walcott’s sea writing expands the "Black Atlantic" hypothesis,adds more updated and transcendent temperament and power to Cultural Geography,and takes a step closer to the comprehensive and systematic study of sea poetics.It hopes to open up a new space for relevant literary interpretations and cultural researches.