Looking into Walcott's Homer: Omeros between epic and mock-epic

This essay's contribution to an already voluminous body of criticism on Derek Walcott's Omeros (1990) consists in its attention to questions of specifically poetic genre, by which it opens a space in postcolonial studies for the consideration not just of literary forms beyond the novel - the larger aim of this special issue - but also of poetic forms beyond the lyric. Previous critical accounts have discussed the poem's allusions to Homer at length. This essay builds upon these accounts by arguing for a mock-epic interpretation of these epic signifiers, which by the analogies they establish between Homer's and the poet's respective milieux allegorize the postcolonial poet's alienation from his cultural milieu. This mock-epic inversion turns on the figure of Homer, or more specifically on the ways in which Omeros negotiates the many contradictions his figure entails within a Western cultural framework. The poet's capacity for Homeric analogies distinguishes him from his subjects, whose frame of reference apparently excludes Homer. But if Homeric epic's cultural logic is not reproduced by Omeros itself, it is represented in that poem by images of Afro-Caribbean folk-cultural practice which resist Homeric analogy. If these images are epic, it is because they center the cultural practice of the St. Lucian people themselves, without reference to the poet's external position.

Automated summary

This essay contributes to the criticism of Derek Walcott's Omeros by focusing on the specific poetic genre and exploring the postcolonial poet's alienation from his cultural milieu. The essay argues for a mock-epic interpretation of the epic signifiers, showcasing the poet's ability to draw analogies between Homer's and his own environments. It also highlights the resistance to Homeric analogy through images of Afro-Caribbean folk-cultural practice.