Walcott depicts himself as "the mulatto of style" in "What the Twilight Says: An Overture. Discuss the factors that may have contributed to this self reference and how this "mulatto of style" has been reflected in his work

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Advanced Seminar Oral

Question:

Walcott depicts himself as "the mulatto of style" in "What the Twilight Says: An Overture. Discuss the factors that may have contributed to this self reference and how this "mulatto of style" has been reflected in his work and has contributed to the creation of his own voice.

Derek Alton Walcott was born at Castries, St Lucia, on 23rd January 1930, son of Warwick and Alix Walcott with a twin brother Roderick Aldon Walcott and a sister who was two years older. His artistically gifted father died after an operation in 1931 when the boys were barely one year old. His mother served as headmistress to a Methodist Grammar School.

The Urban Dictionary defines "mulatto" as someone of mixed heritage where one parent is black and the other white." As an inheritor of two vitally rich cultures, Walcott descended from a white grandfather and a black grandmother on both the paternal and maternal sides and he is a living example of the divided loyalties and hatreds that keep his society suspended between two worlds. His paternal grandfather was an Englishman from the island of Barbados and his maternal