“Still Going On”: The Promise of Healing in Derek Walcott’s Omeros

“Still Going On”: The Promise of Healing in Derek Walcott’s Omeros

This study examines the process of indigenization in Derek Walcott’s Omeros (1990) which portrays colonial wounds metamorphosing into a healing upon the here and now of St. Lucia. The past, present, and future exist simultaneously in the time/space of Omeros, in which a collective understanding of the colonial past and its persisting legacies is possible. The present study focuses on delineating how the fragments of colonial wounds are reassembled upon this simultaneous time/space of the Caribbean. The paper first examines how the legacies of colonialism permeate the landscape of St. Lucia, metamorphosing into wounds of the island. The wounds materialize into instances of “past-in-present,” which haunt the island and its inhabitants. However, Omeros refuses to entirely reject the cultural/historical legacies of colonialism or return to African origins. St. Lucia and the Caribbean islands are centralized where indigenized fragments of history have taken root in the landscape of the island. These indigenized wounds are embraced as part of St. Lucia’s present, while refuted as persisting historical pain at the same time. This simultaneous affirmation and negation creates a time/space which promises a new culture and history of the Caribbean.