May 27, 2008

Derek Walcott & the American Standard

Derek Walcott's criticizes the "American standard" at the Calabash International Literary Festival.
Walcott was critical of the American standard, saying "you don't tell stories, you don't mould character, you don't have a beginning, a middle and end. That is old-fashioned. It is good that Caribbean people are old-fashioned. They still tell stories and that is what the human heart yearns for".
blog it

4 comments:

Jdid said...

whoa! walcott comes out swinging!

Geoffrey Philp said...

Yes, he did. I can't wait for his next book!

-TAH said...

Any idea on the specifics and/or contexts of Walcott's American critique? I'm curious to know who, if anyone, he had in mind....

Other than the Gleaner article, anywhere I can read more about this?

(FWIW, great blog Geoffrey!! Love reading it!!)

Geoffrey Philp said...

tah, I wish I knew, but I wasn't there. To a certain extent, it's a running criticism that Walcott has made about American aesthetics and if I remember correctly in his verse.... The Fortunate Traveller