Literature Nobel Walcott: Caribbean a 'tragicomedy'
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| Published on Saturday, May 12, 2007 |
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CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP): Nobel laureate Derek Walcott on Thursday celebrated the Caribbean as a lot of cultures packed into a very small sea.
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Saint Lucian Literature 1992 Nobel Prize, Derek Walcott, takes part in a press conference in Caracas.
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"All the races are represented in the Caribbean, in that concentrated place," that is full of contradictions.
"The Caribbeans history is a very tragic one, but we live in a place of extreme beauty. The New World is optimistic and heroic," he said.
"Its a culture (that is) extremely rich, and optimistic as well," he said at a press conference in Caracas where he will deliver a talk with the 2006 Nobel laureate in economics, Mohamed Yunus.
"The character of the Caribbean is a tragicomedy basically, it is not completely tragic."
Walcott won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992. He was born on the isle of Santa Lucia, where he currently lives, though for several years he worked in Trinidad and Tobago as a journalist.
In his talk Walcott made repeated references to calypso music and the celebrations and parties in the English-speaking Caribbean.
He also spoke about conflict in the Middle East, mentioning how poetry cannot be separated from suffering or pride.
"Iraq was and remains a great culture. It has tremendous, great poets. But Iraq is supposed to be the enemy. We chose to forget what is noble in other men," he said.
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