Derek Walcott: On the Borders of Marginality, Linguistics, and Nationalism

Derek Walcott, a native of the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, highlights the importance of
nationalism within his works through the incorporation of diction and imagery that romanticizes
the poverty and rural aspects of his motherland. Through the use of poetic verse and the
incorporation of dialects within his works, Walcott has become the voice of the Caribbean
through both poetry and theatre, offering readers and audiences a glimpse into the state of a postcolonial nation. St. Lucia, having been colonized twice, still contains hegemonic remnants of
colonialism from both France and Great Britain, thus providing the substance of much of
Walcotts contextual writing and a dominant source of Walcotts inspiration. As a multi-ethnic
individual on both existential language and cultural borders, Walcott uses diction and imagery to
depict not only his position as a Caribbean native, but to also glorify the position of the St.
Lucian natives opposed to the hegemony of nationalism imposed on his people. Through works
such as The Sea at Dauphin, Walcott maintains an underlying current of nationalism for his land
of origin that is portrayed through his presence within the language margins of society. Although
the marginality of Derek Walcotts language within The Sea at Dauphin represents his
nationalistic position, this work also illustrates the perpetuation of oppression experienced by the
islands natives through his use of diction to vocalize the cultural and social components of postcolonized nations, his use of imagery to glorify and explicate the interconnectedness between the
land and its inhabitants, as well as his incorporation of naturalism and existentialism undertones.
As with many of Walcotts works, The Sea at Dauphin depicts his position as one on the
cusp of multiple languages through the use of his native dialect and that of French and British
colonizers. Language, and the cultural, social, and linguistic identities that are a result from it,
are the primary vehicles through which Walcott assumes his nationalistic stance over that of the

suppressive systems present. Walcotts presence within the borders of two ethnicitiesEuropean
and African/ Caribbean descentprovides the framework of his metalinguistic approach to his
use of language in The Sea at Dauphin. Walcotts The Sea at Dauphin is a rendition of J. M.
Synges The Riders to the Sea, a nationalistic work that focuses on the glamorization of the
natives within the low country areas of Ireland. As Synge rejects the British influences on Ireland
and sheds light on the poverty and vernacular of the lower class, as does Walcott; however,
Walcott chooses to emphasize the mark colonialism has left in the language of the people of St.
Lucia and does so through the incorporation of a marginalized vernacular. Norval Edwards in his
article, "Derek Walcott: The Poetics of Two Margins, asserts the following about the correlation
between the cultural and linguistic implications of Walcotts writing:
The semantic associations multiply if this doubling is extended to the realm of
marginalisation, given Walcott's self-proclaimed exclusion from the purist racial
and cultural shibboleths of African and European ethnocentrisms; the double
marginalisation of place and language; and the doubled divisions within Walcott's
native St. Lucian linguistic continuum: Standard English, Creole English, French
Creole (patois). (13)
The Sea at Dauphin is a work of art that acts as a link between cultures through the use of diction
and language. Through the main characters of The Sea at Dauphin, Walcott exemplifies the now
diversified culture of the island of St. Lucia while illustrating and glorifying this new mixture of
languages that serves as an aide-mmoire of the past chronicles of colonization that have led to a
strengthened sense of pride in his countrys struggle.
The diction within this work is a combination of Standard English, Creole English, and
French Creole, all of which are reflections of the historical development of the nation of St.

Lucia. As a vehicle of implementing the authenticity of language found on the island, the
characters of The Sea at Dauphin often blend each of these languages into their speech to form a
distinctive parlance, specific to the inhabitants of St. Lucia. The article Dramatizing
Postcoloniality: Wole Soyinka and Derek Walcott by Tejumola Olaniyan stresses the fact that
while the dominant language within St. Lucia is French Creole, the language of the government
is English, a direct result of French and British colonialization (488). Not only does this explicate
the perpetuation of the pervasive presence of European control over the nation, but it also
clarifies Walcotts use of multiple languages to provide a cohesive understanding of the ideology
behind his nationalism. For example the characters often embed fundamentally French phrases,
such as in lines 29-30 of The Sea at Dauphin when the character, Augustin, greets Afa: Bon
matin, bon matin, Admiral. Bon Dieu, Jesi Marie La Vierge en ciel, mwen fwette, it making cold,
woy! embodying the importance that linguistic construction has in establishing cultural diction
and cultural identity. Although this line contains all three of the spoken languages of the island,
the use of French Creole and English, provides readers with a glimpse into the continuum of
oppression still at play even within the language of St. Lucians. The use of the oppressors
language as an existing necessity for communication on the island of St. Lucia, as well as in
other post-colonial nations, is a point that Walcott makes in his use of this diluted, marginalized
vernacular of French Creole, Creole English, and Standard English.
In addition to his use of diction to portray the effects of imperialism, Walcott depicts, to his
audience, the quality of life experienced by the inhabitants through the use of imagery. For
instance, within this work, Walcott describes the land as being a part of the human condition and
reality of the people of the island by focusing on the visual aspects of the island and the
oppression that lies within the beauty of itthe white sea, the blue sky, and the rurality and

poverty of the land. Even the elements of nature that are exemplified in this work through
imagery are directly paralleled to the natives position juxtaposed to that of European dominance:
God is a white man. The sky is his blue eye,/ His spit on Dauphin people is the sea (lines 226227). This simple quote from Walcott demonstrates the personified voice of colonialism through
the imagery and position of the land. Walcott, as Robert Hamner states in Introduction: Out of
the Ordinary, Derek Walcott, adopted a sense of human truth that translates across boundaries
of superficial differences that, in turn, manifests the colloquial and ordinary, that has both the
potential to be taken for granted and the power to be an epiphanic revelation (3). As Hamner
suggests, the imagery that Walcott provides his audience with is mundane and colloquial,
however, it encompasses the authority to reveal the manifestation of a state not fully
independent, yet conscious of the inequities faced by its inhabitants at the hands of its colonizers.
Further, Edward Baugh states that Walcott affirms the value and worth of the human over and
against the detached suppressive systems that are currently in place (Derek Walcott, xiv). By
romanticizing the aesthetics of St. Lucia and the nature of a post-colonial nation, Walcott poses
the question of human nature and the worth of the human condition. Thus, Walcotts use of
imagery not only creates a sense of community through realistic encounters experienced by the
characters but it also aids in developing an understanding of the human condition and its role in
unifying a postcolonial population.
Likewise, the incorporation of philosophical quests within his poetic verse to create an
accurate representation of the rural setting and the everyday lives of St. Lucian individuals
assists in shaping the deeply rooted schools of naturalism and existentialism that are highlighted
within the lives of the characters. Walcott provides an inextricable link between the natives and
the land of St. Lucia within The Sea at Dauphin, an interconnectedness that bonds the two back

to the concept of marginality geographically, socially, and culturally as well as the idea of
post-coloniality. According to the article entitled The Island Writes Back, the naturalism that is
in place with these linked ideas and their struggle with nature in all its harsh unpredictability
[are] placed side by side with their confrontation with local power, represented by the custodians
of the religious, cultural, and political ideologies that control and dominate their lives (Garuba
66). As the inhabitants within The Sea at Dauphin are linked backed to the island through the
occupational necessity of working the land, the idea of naturalism is portrayed predominantly
through the character of Afa, a dynamic embodiment of the linkage between St. Lucians and the
land that oppresses them. The character of Afa is a product of his environment, and works the
land because that is the way of life for his people. Walcott venerates this position of the
inhabitants of St. Lucia by posing questions about the balance of powers and remaining
oppression that highly impacts the lives of St. Lucians. The veneration of the position of the
natives is illustrated through the following quote within the play by Afa: Where is compassion?
Is I does make poor people poor, or this sea vex?...Is I that swell little children belly with bad
worm, and woman to wear clothes that white people use to wipe their foot? (lines 107-111).
These poetic lines from The Sea at Dauphin relate to the schools of both naturalism and
existentialism by introducing the idea that the natives are not capable of escaping the
inevitability of their connection they have with the land, and the understanding that their being is
further founded by their environment. "Derek Walcott's "Reversible World": Centers,
Peripheries, and the Scale of Nature" challenges the idea of a subjective and alternative reality
outside of ones environment, and essentially constructs the boundaries of naturalism and
existentialism: How shall mere human beings quarrel with the will of God? (Breslin 12). This
quote evokes the concept of being able to change ones reality, while focusing on the existential

undertones of naturalism. Moreover, the use of Walcotts philosophical poetics within the verses
of The Sea at Dauphin act as theoretical boundaries that defy the human condition within the
margins of society.
Although he expresses his position as one in-between the margins of society, Walcott focuses
his writing within The Sea at Dauphin as one clearly nationalistic and defensive of the St. Lucian
natives. The Sea at Dauphin contains the tripartite evolutionary model of postcolonial
literatures: imitation of metropolitan forms and conventions; emergent nationalist and indigenist
approaches; and finally a stage of innovative synthesis of local and metropolitan forms
(Edwards 23). The argument he makes of his nationalistic position expressed throughout his
work reflects that of Synge; however, Walcott nationalistic identity is dependent on the language
that has been implemented upon his people, which, in return, is reflected into his work as a
primary source of the doubled and divided linguistic consciousness that is his native dialect.
Walcott insists that the "good poet is the proprietor of the experience of the race, that he is and
has always been the vessel, vates, rainmaker, the conscience of the king and the embodiment of
society, even when society is unable to contain him" (Hamner, 3). As Hamner suggests, Walcott
is essentially the human embodiment of society for his native land. Although Walcotts The Sea
at Dauphin contains a multitude of elements that make it relevant and a direct reflection of postcolonialism, it is his use of a nationalistic aura within his writing that is the overall message. His
multifaceted consciousness of the racial, social, cultural, and economic disproportions within his
homeland are expressed within his redefined sense of nationalism. Thus, his metalinguistic
approach, through borders and margins of society and language, to the coexistence of oppressor
and the oppressed serves as a way of finding a balance of powers within the system that
colonialism has pre-constructed.

Essentially, within The Sea at Dauphin, Derek Walcott uses the social and cultural
implications of linguistic identity to exhibit the very nature of the reality of St. Lucian
inhabitants. By developing a sense of nationalistic pride within his motherland, Walcott has
shifted the understanding of what it means to inhabit a post-colonial state and how language
affects the dynamics of both the people and their connection to the land. Walcott works to
establish a new type of nationalistic presence within his writing that both rejects and
acknowledges the position of the islands oppressors through his existence in the margins. The
Sea at Dauphin aids in developing a space of dialogue pertaining to the hegemonic philosophies
still enforced on the island of St. Lucia, as a way to vocalize the natives position and shed light
on the dichotomy between the oppressors and the oppressed. Not only does Walcotts The Sea at
Dauphin exemplify the relationship between language and identity, but this play also delves into
the margins of the schools of naturalism and existentialism to provide a cohesive understanding
of the inhabitants of St. Lucia and other post-colonialized nations. As a native of a Caribbean
island that has yet to reconstruct its identity outside of its oppressors, Walcott is always looking
homeward, home is also a place in the heart and a country of the mind which he both carries with
him and pursues as he moves through the world, literally and in imagination (Baugh). Walcotts
vision to form a voice that works to frame the lives of his homeland while still composing
ideologies that oppose the hegemony is the root of his nationalism. His voice is the voice of the
Caribbean. His work is the quintessential nationalistic literature that acts a representative of
British and French influences. In all, The Sea at Dauphin by Derek Walcott is a redefining work
of art, for the island of St. Lucia, that comprises diction, imagery, and the schools of naturalism
and existentialism to produce a nationalistic literature that transcends the margins of society.

References
Baugh, Edward. "Derek Walcott." Caribbean Quarterly 38.4, Derek Walcott in Caribbean
Quarterly (1992): xiii-xv. Print.
Breslin, Paul. "Derek Walcott's "Reversible World": Centers, Peripheries, and the Scale of
Nature." Callaloo 28.1, Derek Walcott: A Special Issue (2005): 8-24. Print.
Edwards, Norval, and Derek Walcott. "Derek Walcott: The Poetics of Two Margins." Mississippi
Review 24.3, Caribbean Writing (1996): 12-35. Print.
Garuba, Harry. "The Island Writes Back: Discourse/Power and Marginality in Wole Soyinka's
"the Swamp Dwellers," Derek Walcott's "the Sea at Dauphin," and Athol Fugard's "the
Island"." Research in African Literatures 32.4 (2001): 61-76. Print.
Hamner, Robert. "Introduction: Out of the Ordinary, Derek Walcott." Callaloo 28.1, Derek
Walcott: A Special Issue (2005): 1-6. Print.
Olaniyan, Tejumola. "Dramatizing Postcoloniality: Wole Soyinka and Derek Walcott." Theatre
Journal 44.4, Disciplines of Theatre: Theory/Culture/Text (1992): 485-99. Print.
Walcott, Derek. "The Sea at Dauphin." The Tout. N.p., (1966). Print.