Corentin Jégou is a doctoral student at Sorbonne Université under the supervision of Professors Kerry-Jane Wallart and Frédéric Regard; he has passed the competitive national exam of the agrégation, and was ranked first. His thesis explores the rhythmic and political aspects at work across the “Green and Black” Atlantic in the works of James Joyce and Derek Walcott, with a focus on Ulysses (1922) and Omeros (1990).
This article proposes a reading of Derek Walcott’s Omeros (1990) which destabilises the notion of cultural transmission. It argues that the book-long poem questions the relevance of genealogy in the context of a Caribbean history placed under the sign of colonial erasure. In Omeros, Derek Walcott dismisses the patriarchal, linear transmission of an allegedly authentic heritage, while dramatising the persistence of imposed traditions. Ultimately, translation and adulteration provide alternative models of continuity.
