). What can be characterized as Walcott's decision for regionalism in can also be interpreted as a strategy for asserting a universalist voice from a regional perspective and for making a claim to the legitimacy of regional aesthetics (e.g., the highly physical performance style of the islands) as a means of interpreting not only Walcott's own work but also (for example) the plays of the Western canon.
Walcott's own view of the matter goes to the issue of his direct experience of many cultures and literary traditions, and it is consistent with a self-characterization as a practitioner of minor literature:
I am a kind of split writer: I have one tradition inside me going in one way, and another tradition going another. The mimetic, the Narrative, and dance element is strong on one side, and the literary, the classical tradition is strong on the other (Walcott 48).
The strength of the classical tradition can be seen in the multiple references to English and classical poets and to the situations of classical literature. The spirit of the poet's father refers
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