All 124 entries tagged Context
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May 03, 2009
cadence additional
Follow-up to Cadence Country Reggae from WikiOmeros
Cadence (or cadence-lypso) is a French Antillean dance music highly popular in St Lucia in the 1970s. Unlike the English language calypso, it is a French Creole-based form originating in Dominica and Guadeloupe and a development of Haitian Creole compas (or konpas direk). It was one of the forms that later were blended into the zouk (‘party’) form popular in the 1980s. The early lyrics of cadence often dealt with social issues and as such it was more of a political form than zouk, which developed largely as entertainment music. In St Lucia the political aspect was less strong, possibly because of difficulty in understanding other Creole dialects, and the music was more of an excuse for Jump Up (street party). The cadence style is claimed to be developed in Guadeloupe by the group Exile One led by Dominican musician Julie Mourillon and for a while became the main dance music of Dominica, Martinique, Guadeloupe, St Lucia and other French Creole islands.
Amanda Hopkins
03 May 2009 16:17
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Tags: Cadence Country Raggae Colonialism Context Glossary St Lucia
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June 08, 2008
His cripple
His cripple (2.XX.ii).
Possibly a reference to Caliban, Prospero's slave in Shakespeare's The Tempest. Minkler (1993) discusses other allusions to the play in Omeros (see Critical Bibliography).
Amanda Hopkins
08 Jun 2008 12:19
| Tags: Caliban Characters Context Glossary His Cripple Philoctete Prospero The Tempest William Shakespeare
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'Moi shall return.'
MacArthur's vow as he left: 'Moi shall return' (2.XX.ii).
General Douglas MacArthur was one of the most decorated soldiers in US history (Bib:33). In 1944, he took back the Philippines, fulfilling his earlier vow to return, 'I shall return', changed by The Office of War Information to 'We shall return' (Bib:34).
Amanda Hopkins
08 Jun 2008 11:59
| Tags: Context Douglas Macarthur General Macarthur Glossary Moi Shall Return Philippines Places Second World War Usa
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June 07, 2008
I felt transported
I felt transported,/… to a place I had lost/…//It was another country (2.XXXII.ii).
This refers to the theme of 'uprootedness', a reminder that nobody on the island is an original inhabitant; everyone is displaced and not at home. The verb 'transported' also echoes the noun 'transport', the term used for Hector's vehicle, the Comet, which symbolises his exchange of the traditional St Lucian values for a modern Westernised lifestyle.
Amanda Hopkins
07 Jun 2008 11:51
| Tags: Characters Colonialism Comet Context Dispossession Hector I Felt Transported St Lucia Transport Walcott-The-Narrator
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Marian Home
Marian Home (3.XXXII.i).
The name of the retirement home where Walcott-the-Narrator’s mother lives.
Amanda Hopkins
07 Jun 2008 10:09
| Tags: Alix Walcott Context Marian Home Narrators Mother Walcott The Narrator
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June 06, 2008
sphinx
sphinx (5.XXXVIII.ii).
The sphinx, made up of a lion's body and a human head, is an easily recognisable mythological creature, particularly in the riddle incident with Oedipus. Sphinxes are usually used, especially in Greek culture, to guard temples and places with divine connotations. The fact that the sphinxes guarding London are ‘somnolent’ (sleepy) is again keeping in line with the idea of London putting on a façade/face for the world, when in fact it is hiding a disgusting underbelly and its pious guardians are asleep. The Sphinx also represents many negatives when placed in an Egyptian context for it, like the pyramids, was built using slave labour and Aker, the Egyptian god of the underworld, is sometimes portrayed as a double-headed sphinx (Bib:28b).
Amanda Hopkins
06 Jun 2008 17:29
| Tags: Context Egypt Europe Glossary London Mythology Places Sphinx
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pharos
pharos (5.XXXVIII.i).
The Pharos of Alexandria is the lighthouse in Alexandria, Egypt. For a long time it was one of the largest man-made structures in the world and it was declared by Antipater of Sidion to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Its links with the themes of empires and slavery are clear. Its construction began under the rule of Alexander the Great but finished under Ptolemy's rule. Its designer, Sostrates of Knidos, was forbidden to put his name on it and instead was told to inscribe Ptolemy's name. However, he put the king's name on a layer of plaster, underneath which he inscribed his own name, so that over time the plaster was eroded revealing the designer's self-identifying inscription (Bib:26). The legend surrounding the lighthouse, that its beams could set fire to enemy ships before they got anywhere near the shore, emphasises the Narrator’s role as a defender of his island.
Amanda Hopkins
06 Jun 2008 15:53
| Tags: Alexandria Colonialism Context Europe Glossary History Identity & Naming Mytholody Pharos Places Walcott The Narrator
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scrofulous
scrofulous (5.XXXVIII.i).
Meaning 'morally tainted', this also links with scrofula, one of the oldest documented diseases, a form of tuberculosis that affects the skin. It was believed in the Middle Ages that it could be cured by the touch of a sovereign of either England or France. For this reason it was nicknamed the 'King’s Evil' (Bib:25)
Amanda Hopkins
06 Jun 2008 15:29
| Tags: Context Glossary Scrofulous
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Charing Cross
Charing Cross (1.XXXVIII.i).
Charing Cross is an interesting choice of underground station. For one, it is close to both Trafalgar Square (a symbol of England's old empire and its nationalism) and the National Gallery (which houses many great works of art from the history of the Western world), which the narrator goes on to visit. The underground system itself fits with the feeling of the chapter that London, whilst having a gorgeous, historical exterior, has a dirtier, polluted underbelly. Also, it means that the narrator must emerge into the light from underground which has many symbolic possibilities.
Amanda Hopkins
06 Jun 2008 15:15
| Tags: Characters Charing Cross Context Epic Tradition Europe Great Wanderings Historycolonialism London Odyssey Walcott The Narrator
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rites like crabs
These were the rites […] like crabs (1.VI.i).
Imagery of struggle and division, depicted with the images of 'divid[ing] the wrestlers' and men as 'centaurs', suggests the difficulties that the natives of St Lucia face when conforming to the needs of tourists, while maintaining ownership of their island. The island is in a constant struggle against the infiltration of Western colonization.
Amanda Hopkins
06 Jun 2008 14:39
| Tags: Colonialism Context Dispossession Mythology Rites Like Crabs St Lucia Tourism
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