Topic > Point of view of psychoanalytic criticism in the poem "A Far Cry from Africa"

My article is based on this critical approach of psychoanalytic theory and new historicism. It is generally accepted that new historicism is a literary theory based on the idea that literature should be studied and interpreted in the context of both the history of the author and the history of the critic. New Historicism recognizes not only that a literary work is influenced by the times and circumstances of its author, but that the critic's response to that work is also influenced by his or her environment, beliefs, and prejudices. We could easily see these principles in the poetry of A Far Cry from Africa Derek Walcott. There is a definite historical context to it. Walcott's times influenced his poetry. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay From the point of view of psychoanalytic criticism, literary texts, like dreams, express the author's secret unconscious desires and anxieties. The author's childhood traumas, family life, sexual conflicts, fixations and the like will be traceable in the behavior of the characters in the literary work. But the psychological material will be expressed indirectly, disguised or coded (as in dreams) through principles such as "symbolism", "condensation" and "displacement". that's why I used them to support my opinions. Derek Walcott is himself a black poet. That is why the point of view of psychoanalytic criticism is clearly visible in his poem A Far Cry from Africa. His problem is racial and cultural oppression, which occurred during the times of African colonial occupation. It is also dedicated to the subsequent dilemma of Walcott himself, why he was born on the island of St Lucia in the British West Indies. Growing up he realized his mixed racial origins: he had both white and black grandparents. A Far Cry from Africa was published in 1962. It is about the story of a specific uprising in British-occupied Kenya in the 1950s. Some members of the local Kikuyu tribe (Mau Mau fighters) fought a cruel 8-year struggle against the pressure of colonization, which they saw as illegal conquistadors on their land. And these are the characteristics of New Historicist Theory, outlined in Walcott's poem. In the poem Walcott is caught between his love for the English language, with which he expresses himself poetically, and the ancestral blood ties of his African family, oppressed by the people whose native language he needs to survive as a poet. The author tried to say that he lives in Saint Lucia, an island far from Africa, his cry has to travel a long distance to reach the African coast. The first printed verses from On the other hand, the future Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1948 sold it piece by piece on the streets of Castry, the capital of St. Lusia. And in 1953, 23 years ago, he had to part with his homeland: in the small town of St. Lusia there was simply no possibility of receiving an education. With Derek awarded the most prestigious literary prizes, it was the money from theater productions that gave him financial freedom. A world that survived the tragedy of colonization and slavery, a world of stolen history that fought to recover its own people. And he, almost alone, with a titanic effort managed to create the impossible: to give people reduced to the state of slavery, relentlessly and humiliated, his proto-history. These verses instantly conquer: the nobility of the spirit, the extremely alive and powerful (for the northern eye it sometimes approaches the psychedelic), the embarrassing mind with a metaphorical scope, the lack of pity for oneself and the humility. But.