Journal | Il Tolomeo
Journal issue | 26 | 2024
Research Article | “That Light Beyond Metaphor”: Derek Walcott’s Ekphrases

“That Light Beyond Metaphor”: Derek Walcott’s Ekphrases

Abstract

This article looks at Derek Walcott’s ekphrastic writing, i.e. its combined use of poetry and painting, from a twofold perspective: 1) the primal employment of a densely visual language for descriptive purposes which carries out the proverbial Walcottian ‘naming’ of the Caribbean reality, often in conjunction with the memory of Walcott as a young painter; 2) the transforming dialogue with actual paintings of the European canon in mature works like Tiepolo’s Hound, The Prodigal and White Egrets. I will especially explore the dramatic figure of the ‘failed painter’ that first emerges in the poetic autobiography Another Life as a ‘self-portrait’ of Walcott’s ekphrastic writing itself and the ways ‘the failed painter’ subject evolves assuming a functional role to accomplish an overall dismissal of the received ‘colonial visuality culture’ and the establishment of an Antillean aesthetics.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Oct. 23, 2024 | Accepted: Oct. 28, 2024 | Published Oct. 30, 2024 | Language: en

Keywords CaribbeanFailurePaintingEkphrasisWalcott


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