The Influence of Négritude and Black Postcolonial Thought on Derek Walcott’s The Odyssey: A Play

Citation

Kunnam, Shwetha S. (2023) The Influence of Négritude and Black Postcolonial Thought on Derek Walcott’s The Odyssey: A Play. Other, California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/z2f9-g004. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechThesis:06162023-215901998

Abstract

[Introduction] Derek Walcott’s The Odyssey: A Play is an homage to both Homer’s Odyssey and the anti-colonial Négritude literary movement, which aimed to spread African cultural values and the centering of Black identity to the broader African diaspora. Walcott modifies the original Odyssey to include elements of his own St. Lucian heritage through the strategic addition of Afro-Caribbean language, characters, such as the narrator Billy Blue, spiritual traditions, and more modern anti-colonial ideas developed by the African diaspora. However, Walcott’s attempt to weave together postcolonial modes of thought and Homer’s Odyssey fails to capture the limited depth Homer imbues in his female characters. The shortcomings of the Négritude movement with respect to women, particularly women of color, are seen in the way Walcott writes nonwhite female characters, such as the slave Eurycleia and the enchantress Circe, as either caretakers (“mammies”) or seductresses (“jezebels”), stripping them of their agency and reducing them to stereotypes.

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