A postcolonial reading of Walcott's pantomime

Abstract EN

The paper aims at presenting a postcolonial reading of Walcott's Pantomime (1978).

In the play, Walcott reintroduces Defoe's Robinson Crusoe in a reversed manner, giving voice and power to the voiceless, marginalized "Friday," and letting him gradually obtain and enjoy his postcolonial dignified, well-respected, politically independent, and culturally assimilated position .

Reversal, switching and/or blurring roles, the parrot, the manipulation of and transition between acts, and language are Walcott's means to show and survey the political, economic and psychological nature of, and development in, the relationship between the ex-colonizer and the ex-colonized in the postcolonial era.