Truth and Representation

The Confrontation of History and Mythology in Omeros

Bibliographic Data

ID3733391
AuthorsTed Williams, T Pugh Williams (corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume24
Issue1
Pages276-286
Publication date2001-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCallaloo (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0161-2492 • E-ISSN: 1080-6512
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/cal.2001.0074
OpenAlexW2111631986
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited2

Barbara Webb suggests in Myth and History in Caribbean Fiction that modern writers frequently reject the disciplinary constraints of historical representation "in favor of what they consider the more creative forms of mythic discourse" (Myth 3). "Among Caribbean writers," proposes Webb, the issue of privileging mythical forms of representation is directly related to the putatively "negative perception of New World history as a legacy of dispossession, exploitation and betrayal" (Myth 3). "In an effort to circumvent the alienating effects" of historical discourse, argues Webb, "some Caribbean writers have turned to the archetypal patterns of myth" (Myth 3). Accordingly, concludes Webb, Derek Walcott frames his 1974 essay "The Muse of History" with the following epigraph from James Joyce: "History is the nightmare from which I am trying to awake" (Myth 3). Walcott presumably proposes here a complete "rejection of the concept of historical time" and embraces instead "the timeless universality of myth" (Myth 3). "In the New World," writes Walcott

Aesthetics · Art · Betrayal · Dystopia · Literature · Mythology · Narrative · Politics · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · History · Law · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy

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