It is difficult, if not impossible, for a writer to transcend entirely differences of race, gender, religion and culture. Even when the issues that arise from the writer’s experience are of universal interest, they may be coloured by his/her own perceptions, misperceptions and prejudices, making the concept of the “universal” intensely problematic.
Elaine Savory Fido has explored the strong prejudices associated with Caribbean writers. She says of the narrative poem The Schooner Flight by Derek Walcott: “…these are often associated with weakening of power in his writing,” and “…deflect the individual from exploration and growth.” She asserts that Walcott’s writing is clichéd and stereotyped and full of alienating passages, examples of which are as follows:
Alienating Language in Walcott's Writing
One of the most offensive is his use of the word “bitch” in two different contexts. It is used to describe a female neighbour: “…but the bitch looked through me like I was dead.” In two sections of the poem, Walcott uses the same word, but directed towards a man. In Section 2: “…that bitch was so grand / he couldn’t get off his high horse and kick me again.” Further on, in Section 8: “It had one bitch on board, like he had me mark – / that was the cook, some Vincentian arse.”
The use of this word alienates women even more acutely because it is a double-barbed insult when inappropriate gender is used. Walcott implies there is a not a sufficiently insulting noun in the masculine gender to suit his purpose, and so the feminine noun becomes yet more degrading when applied to a male. In Walcott’s writing, women, unlike men, are not complex, three-dimensional characters.
Two-Dimensional Female Characters
Savory Fido says: “It is no longer possible to deny that certain attitudes expressed in literary works are bound to alienate the reader in unconstructive ways.” She speaks of Walcott’s approval of beautiful, passive woman, whom he sees solely in romantic or sexual terms. These are women who “…await the male decision.”
Examples of Romantic Attitude
“And I for a woman / for her laces and silks.”
“…for her beauty had fallen on me.”
An example of a a purely sexual reaction which is scornful and distracting in its negative imagery
"I tried other women / but once they stripped naked their spiky ….. / bristled…”
There are, however, many memorable and beautiful sentiments in the poem, where understanding of a culture is enhanced, where human values are not infringed; passages that could be assimilated and celebrated by other cultures. Walcott’s attitude towards women is summed up in Savory Fido’s words: “Man revolts against the tyranny of his own fantasies/desires, choosing to destroy what he cannot otherwise resist.”
Women are the Casualties of Walcott's Approach
While Walcott is caught up in such a consuming obsession he can never aspire to transcendental status. “Shabine” in the poem means mulatto and Walcott, as Shabine, says: “I have Dutch, nigger and English in me / and either I’m nobody or a nation.” Yet, he is guilty of the very prejudices and value that he professes to address and women are the casualties of his approach.
As Elaine Savory Fido says: “Women writers, critics and philosophers are at work at this time trying to undo the damage which has been done to women and to relations between women and men, by the refusal of male society to cope with the reality of women’s resources and strengths.”
Sources:
“The Schooner Flight,” The Star-Apple Kingdom, Derek Walcott, Jonathan Cape Ltd., 1980.
“Macho Attitudes and Derek Walcott,” Elaine Savory Fido, Literature in the Modern World, Ed: Dennis Walder, Oxford University Press, 1990.
Janet Cameron - MA. Cert.Ed. is a retired university lecturer and author of twelve books, women's short fiction and a magazine column.
