Bringing it Closer Home: A Close Reading Derek Walcott’s Odyssey

Abstract

This article locates and explains the significance of the word and concept of ‘home’ as the core of Walcott’s ‘creolization’ of a canonical text. It contends that the use of a classic, to which the concept of ‘home’ is indispensable, allows Derek Walcott to explore a range of possible meaning and intensifies the magnitude and implication of the play in both general and post-colonial terms. Working through the problematic of such an endeavour, this article uses the theoretical concepts of mimicry, camouflage, and différance to understand the mechanisms employed by Walcott to reconstruct and claim a European classic. In order to do so, the paper engages in a close-reading of The Odyssey: A Stage Version. The traditional Aristotelian framework from the Poetics is used to navigate through the plot and structure of the play to aid the close reading.