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@article{190179,
author = {Charu Shrivastava},
title = {Explicit Resistance, Dissent, and Subversion in Derek Walcott’s Poetry},
journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
year = {2026},
volume = {12},
number = {8},
pages = {1555-1556},
issn = {2349-6002},
url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=190179},
abstract = {Derek Walcott's poetry occupies a complex interstice between cultural inheritance and historical rupture, expressing resistance not through explicit political slogans but through intricate poetic techniques. This paper analyses Walcott's articulation of explicit resistance, dissent, and subversion in his poetry through the reconfiguration of colonial language, the critique of imposed histories, and the redefinition of Caribbean identity. Walcott does not completely reject Western literary traditions; instead, he uses and changes them to make a counter-discourse that questions imperial authority from within its own aesthetic frameworks. Poems like "A Far Cry from Africa," "The Schooner Flight," and "Ruins of a Great House" show that the author is still interested in the psychological and cultural effects of colonialism. Walcott's dissent is characterised by tension—between Africa and Europe, exile and belonging, anger and reconciliation—rendering his resistance both ethical and artistic. This study contends that Walcott's subversion is manifested in his rejection of binary positions; his poetry simultaneously resists domination and reductive postcolonial identities. Walcott creates a poetics of resistance that is very human, full of conflict, and long-lasting by using language mixing, irony, and historical revision.},
keywords = {Derek Walcott, resistance, dissent, subversion, postcolonial poetry, Caribbean identity},
month = {January},
}
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