This essay discusses Derek Walcott’s artistic identity in terms of multi-racialism and -culturalism. Many criticisms of Derek walcott’s artistic identity echo various views on whether Walcott truly reflects the Caribbean spirit. The main views are subdivided into two camps: the skepticism of the Caribbean purists and the positivism of the Caribbean multi-nationalists. The former mainly argues that Walcott’s poetry is too detached and skeptical to reflect the Caribbean spirit. This view implies that Walcott’s poems are based on Euro-centric humanism. However, the latter disagrees with the argument that Walcott’s Euro-centric humanism results in the skeptical view of the Caribbean. This view argues that although Walcott’s poetry results from his personal quest to define himself, it does not exclude the Caribbean spirit in status. Considering the two contrasting views of Walcott’s poetry, this study focuses on the views occurring after the decade of the sixties. Most of the critical views focus on the multi-racial and multi-cultural tradition in Walcott’s poetry, confirming his Caribbean roots and his convictions based on humanism. Walcott is a multi-racial and -cultural symbol because he was born of a black maternal line, his mother being a descendent of the first generation of slaves from Africa and a white paternal line, his father being of White English background. Furthermore, his background is absolutely Caribbean because of the multi-racial and multi-cultural nature of Caribbean whose influence can be traced back to Africa, Asia, Europe and America. Thus, it is natural that Walcott denies the propagandist voices of the purists’ pro-Africanism. Instead, he is a Caribbean poet who does not make a one-sided choice irrespective of Caribbean variables in terms of race, culture, and value but positively adopts multi-racism and multi-culture to nourish his poetry.
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