earticle

영어

This study aims to discuss Derek Walcott’s eco-centric perspectives on the Carib’s colonial history and aftermath. Walcott’s perspectives, like those of eco-critics, are in opposition to those of Western imperialists and capitalists whose dominant thoughts and cultural heritage fundamentally lead to both the oppression of man and the domination of nature. In “Prelude”, “Crusoe’s Island”, “The Star-apple Kingdom”, “The Green Night”, Another Life, and Omeros, Walcott shows how the Caribbean people are victims who have been afflicted and exiled by the West’s colonialists and capitalists. And he tries to heal the people’s colonial wounds; however, Walcott doesn’t have any gods to cure their deep painful wounds. His healing perspective comes from the lonely, painful knowledge learned from isolation and suffering. This knowledge is revealed in his writing which explores the primitive spirit and mythology of Caribbean nature, which represents a mutually coordinated fulfillment of human and ecological values. Yet the truth of Walcott’s knowledge is that human-natural and physical-spiritual fulfillment cannot mean the historical and cultural wounds of Caribbean colonialism without self-overcoming and self-efforts.