Derek Walcott’s Dream on Monkey Mountain: A Christian Allegory in the Face of Colonisation

Living in mixed St. Lucian world and exposed to both colonial and folk cultures, Derek Walcott is aware of the plurality of Caribbean society. Exploring European colonial heritage of the Caribbean, Walcott tries to find expressions for the difficulties inherent in Caribbean identity, a key theme that runs throughout his works. Walcott‟s works are typically postcolonial in that they acknowledge the combination of European and African heritages that have influenced the development of identity in the Caribbean. Dream on Monkey Mountain is Walcott‟s best known and most performed play. It is a complex allegory, which, at its heart, concerns racial and cultural identity. Studying Dream on Monkey Mountain, we find echoes of Christ―some kind of Messiah figure―all throughout the play. Meanwhile, the play depicts the themes of colonisation, poverty, and the search for social and personal identity in a world where racial subjugation is absolute and blackness absolutely devalued. In brief, it may be said that the author of this paper intends to read Dream on Monkey Mountain once more under the light of some of the common conceptions of Christianity in the form of parodies to confirm its artistic expression.

Keywords:

Caribbean Identity , Dream Play , Hybridity , Parody , Racial Inferiority