Intertextuality in Pantomime by Walcott Dereck

Walcott’s play creates a counter colonial discourse writing back to one of the canonical texts: Robinson Crusoe.  The presentation of the two men of polar ethnic backgrounds allows Walcott to examine the influences of colonization on the Caribbean identity. Walcott utilizes the play within the play to dramatize the formation of a Caribbean identity simultaneously questioning the authority of Defoe’s sole narrator in Robinson Crusoe. 

Therefore the element of intertextuality is exceeding important in writing back to the centre as it is a means of creating a counter colonial discourse. The use of Robinson Crusoe in Pantomime provides the reader with a point of reference for the post-colonial arguments that are presented by Walcott.  This role reversals creates a startling paradigm shift in an anti-foundational manner as it explicitly undermines decades of colonial discourse. Walcott’s technique of role reversals as a means of writing back to the centre echoes the ideologies of the undermining of colonial discourse through the dramatization of the juxtaposed characters of Crusoe and Friday.

         His play creates a sense of displacement as it destabilizes the sole voice of Crusoe’s narrator, writing back to the text through the use of local theatre traditions and the incorporation of prominent elements of the Caribbean and snippets of England. Jackaman’s comment on the use of calypso is on par with Walcott’s incorporation of this element in his play, this is observed in the dramatization of the subversion of colonial discourse resonating from Jackson’s calypsos.  

Jackson’s witty lyrics provides a brief, relatively euphemistic account of history as he summarizes Defoe’s book in four short lines in an attempt to portray the master-slave relationship. Jackson’s second verse highlights the injustices the colonized people faced as they were ruled over by the colonizer. Jackson continues in this manner exposing the fact that even in a post-colonial era, there is still a racial imbalance which is why he believes that even though slavery is over, he is still placed in the position of the subservient entity in the society as the binary concept of black and white still permeated the populous. 

         Ultimately the play, and the play within the play end in a promising way. Jackson whilst enacting the pantomime allows Harry to overcome the subconscious racial prejudices he harbored. Throughout the play Walcott provides counter arguments for the colonial ideologies represented in Robinson Crusoe by dramatizing a counter colonial discourse in his play Pantomime as he writes back to the center, representing the culture of the once colonized Caribbean.