POSTCOLONIAL DISCOURSE: WALCOTT’S EMPLOYMENT OF METAPHOR IN PANTOMIME

Abstract

The use of metaphor is a dynamic literary method usually post-colonial writers employ in order to facilitate their intended philosophies and perspectives, giving their writings more beautifying functions. Fictionalized characters in literature develop words and expressions to expose realism and rationality in an amusing fashion. Relationally, both classical and contemporary works of theater and drama have focused on the metaphorical figuration to delight the audience and crystalize the scenes. Derek Walcott is a post-colonial dramatist who notably exploits the use of metaphor to conceptualize the experience of colonialism and its consequences on social, cultural, economic and political context on Caribbean geography and inhabitance. Thus, our critical/literary journey harbors on how Walcott’s metaphor frames a resisting voice of “other” in light of extended British invasion in Caribbean territories. The paper bears the weight of Walcott’s conveyance of the contested nature of post-colonial discourse in terms of colonizer and the colonized disparities through the employment of metaphor. Based on prominent themes of Pantomime, ten situations are investigated through the use of figurative indirect comparisons shaping the inner and outer context of the play. Metaphor crafts Walcott’s concept of divergence within the multidisciplinary formation of post-colonialism, as well as crystalizing crucial metaphysics of racism as influential flaws of Caribbean history of colonialism, particularly in Tobago. Linguistically, this embellishing tool beautifies fold of Walcott’s dramaturgy who unveils the flow and consequence of British imperialism in West Indies through refined language loaded with rich expressions and vocabularies.