Ashely Westenberg
A Portrayal of the Third Horseman: FAMINE
“The Fortunate Traveller” displays beautiful and tragic ironies of the relationships between races and cultures; exposing the truths and horrors of famine, greed and the ingenuity of the Catholic Church. Derek Walcott is an incredible writer who has the ability to say one word and create a thousand [...]
Entries from January 2009
January 27, 2009
The Fortunate Traveller
January 26, 2009
Nervous Conditions Online Discussion
Jennifer Tooley
The entire work Nervous Conditions is all about the development of the mind; in this case the development of a young girl not only becoming an adult but finding her own path of becoming a person despite the constraints of being a woman. We see that Tambu fought long and hard to have the [...]
January 26, 2009
The White Man’s Burden: Quintessential Representation of Subjectivity in Post-Colonialism Africa
Robin Morris and Johannes Valdes
White Man’s Burden
Take up the White Man’s burden–
Send forth the best ye breed–
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild–
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the White Man’s burden–
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show [...]
January 22, 2009
North and South
Cristina Moody
North and South
Derek Walcott’s poem, North and South, imparts the experiences of a Caribbean traveller visiting the New England and South-Eastern areas of the United States. The cold nature of the New York winter and its citizens leaves the traveller in a state of emotional exile, “a single, circling, homeless satellite.” He is cynical [...]
January 22, 2009
Jean Rhys
Justine Burlo
The poem “Jean Rhys” by Derek Walcott describes the lives of women in postcolonial states throughout the Caribbean. Jean Rhys is a Dominican novelist who was similar to the women described in the poem, growing up and attempting to create a career for herself in a postcolonial society. Similarly Walcott’s heritage includes family, which [...]
January 22, 2009
The doum tree of Wad Hamid
Angela Matthews
The Bridge
The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid serves as a bridge between two worlds, the modern and the untouched. Unfortunately untouched is not be the correct word to use as it becomes apparent that this village has in fact had its fair share of visitors.
The story begins itself with one of these visitors being [...]
January 22, 2009
The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid
The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid is a story by Tayeb Salih, a Sudenese author born in 1929. It is a story surrounding the battle of tradition and spirituality versus modernization and progress. Salih uses the Doum Tree to represent tradition and how it is in danger of getting lost amidst current trends [...]
January 21, 2009
The doum tree of Wad Hamid
Haley Williams
“Look at it, my son, look at the doum tree; lofty, proud, and haughty as though – as though it were some ancient idol.” The doum tree of Wad Hamid is more than a mere tree to the village that it overlooks; the tree is a spiritual symbol, a cultural icon, and a part [...]
January 21, 2009
Can North and South Meet in the Middle?
North and South by Derek Walcott
Christina Hall
Can the North and South ever reconcile? After all the hurt, pillaging, and attached stigmas, and despite their similarities, can one ever truly feel comfortable in the presence of the other? In his poem North and South, Derek Walcott invokes imagery and events from the two hemispheres to demonstrate [...]
January 21, 2009
The doum tree of Wad Hamid
Johannes Valdes
Born in the Northern Province of the Sudan in 1929 and coming from a background of small farmers and religious teachers, Tayeb Salih is a writer well known for incorporating themes such as colonization in his literature. “The doum tree of Wad Hamid” is a short story that stresses on the theme of [...]
