Lecturer: Dr.

Bhautoo 1
[Type the document title]

To what extent does Walcott’s use of orality, in the context of West-Indian drama
transform the traditional space of the stage in Ti-jean and his brothers?

Orality in a play which broadly consists of the language, music, traditions,

folklore, sounds and magic realism; should be viewed more than dramaturgy tools
of special effects, entertainment and realism. Walcott’s usage of orality
transforms the traditional space of the stage from a space dominated and
structured around ‘literacy’, literate cultural traditions synonymous of high culture
to a stage that is centered around ‘orality’, the oral cultural traditions and the
popular or mass culture. From a postcolonial perspective Orality also enables the
West-Indian drama to successfully create a stage that provides a space which
gives life to characters and voices that would have otherwise not existed on the
traditional stage of the literate societies. The use of orality by Walcott creates a
space that allows subalterns to speak and in this case subalterns would be the
‘illiterates’ who do not master the language of the literate to be able to participate
on the traditional drama stage of literacy. By reconfiguring the traditional stage of
western Indian drama through the heavy use of orality; Walcott creates a space
where subalterns can express themselves. However, a closer look at Ti-jean and
his brothers’ storyline and the characterization of certain characters, reveal a
certain level of perpetration of subalternity from the author’s himself. This essay
will explore these central ideas in the context of Western-Indian drama and post
colonialism with a special focus on Walcott’s play Ti-jean and his brothers.

While drama as a genre includes both the oral and the written, the concept of
‘orality’ is far more complex than the simplistic notion of the oral words spoken
onstage. Walter Ong (1982) associates Orality with a primary oral culture which
has had no contact with the written text or writing tools; a culture that has
preserved information, stories and knowledge mainly through oral transmission,
memorization and repetition. While Ong in his book Orality and literacy: The
Technologizing of the Word (1982) talks about the change of the oral culture to a
literate one with the development of the writing press, he also talks about the
 Lecturer: Dr. Bhautoo 2
[Type the document title]

emergence of secondary orality with the emergence of technologies like the

internet and telephone. Drawing principally from Ong’s definition, one can speak
of Orality as associative to the ancestral/past or untouched culture. Progress in the
literacy sphere symbolically represented by Gutenberg’s invention of the printing
press has colonized, undermined and tried to control oral cultures. It is true that
literacy and the potential to write have brought changes and advantages to the oral
cultures. They were able to actually record, transmit and propagate information,
stories and religion in a more efficient way but it is also true that traits that are
authentic to orality and the oral cultures have been lost, modified and invaded.
Orality has also been negatively associated with illiteracy, savage and barbarous
cultures while literacy as the civilized, modern and organized cultures. This leads
to the first argument of this essay, how Walcott with the usage of orality in Ti-
jean and his brothers, has been able to transform the literate traditional stage into
a stage and a theatre that is for the layman, ordinary and uneducated people;
whereby these people can actually understand, relate to and enjoy the play.

Incidentally through the characterization of Ti-jean and Mi-jean, Walcott

succeeds in unraveling the difference between an audience anchored in the
traditions of orality versus an audience anchored in literacy where the latter’s
pseudo-intelligence is ridiculed. Orality is used by Walcott in the play as a device
to create magic realism by investing voice and personality in the animals. Magic
realism is usually categorized as unbelievable, exaggerated and fantasy for the so-
called literate and rational audience. Similarly Mi-jean shows his literate attitude
of contesting that the frog could talk: ‘well, confusion on earth, frog could talk!’
Animals are retrograded to the status of ordinary animals as perceived by
rationality as Mi-jean addresses the bird: ‘bird, you are disturbing me! Too much
whistling without sense, Is animal you are, so please know your place.’ Mi-jean’s
book of knowledge is another irony of the literate man. Mi-jean is unable to
understand that the hairy cloven left foot is a characteristic of the devil and takes
the foot to be that of a cow; this knowledge is not confined within any book but is
learned through personal knowledge transmitted through oral culture. Even the
 Lecturer: Dr. Bhautoo 3
[Type the document title]

book which had a section called ‘religion and tropical superstition’ conveys
wrong information about the foot of the devil. This blind reliance of Mi-jean on
his so-called intellectual capabilities rather than common-sense and orally
transmitted knowledge, fastens his downfall. Furthermore it is an argument about
‘a man being no better than an animal’ that leads to Mi-jean becoming ‘vexed’
with the devil. Ultimately, it is his inability to respect and value the animals that
originate from his intellectual readings causes his downfall. On the other hand, Ti-
jean is endorsed in the traditions and carries the layman’s belief of magic,
traditions and the supernatural while starting his quest to defeat the devil. He
seeks his mother’s blessings: ‘Now pray for me, maman,…’ unlike his other two
brothers. Seeking blessings before a journey is seen as a long-standing tradition in
many cultures and religions like the Indian culture. Ti-jean respects the animals of
the forests and does not shun them or insult them like his brothers. On the
contrary he believingly accepts the animals’ magical proportion of the ability to
talk and their wisdom: ‘Why should I laugh at the frog and his fine bass voice.’
Afterwards, the animals readily help Ti-jean in his quest of defeating the devil.

Walcott employs the trickster figure in the play which is a prominent figure across
many folk narrative traditions. The trickster is usually seen as one who plays
tricks and cheats the adversary through the use of his wits and intelligence
(Rodriguez, 2007). Rodriguez also states that in most slave narratives, there is the
usage of a trickster who bends social norms by confronting the master through
cleverness or the master’s foolishness. In the play Ti-jean and his brothers, the
usage of the trickster figure is not without deeper significance as it relates to the
slavery history of the Caribbean. Hamner in his book critical perspectives on
Dereck Walcott (1993) draws an interesting allegory between the play and the
history of the Caribbean slavery. The West Indies has a long history of slave
rebellion and bloodshed (Hamner, 1993). General lemonier-Delafoss vividly
describe them as “the more they fell, the greater seemed the courage of the rest.
They advanced singing, for the Negro sings everywhere, make songs on
 Lecturer: Dr. Bhautoo 4
[Type the document title]

everything.’(Ibid) Walcott through the usage of orality and the trickster figure is
able to recapture these defining moments in the history of the West Indies. Ti-jean
as the trickster figure becomes a symbol of this past rebellion fought by the
ancestors of the local people watching the play. It represents an authentic
narrative of their history and the victory of Ti-jean does not only invoke pride and
reminiscence of the past but also inspires the current and future generation.
Walcott is able to reconstruct this historical past through the usage of orality and
especially the use of music that was part of the rebellion of the slaves. Traditional
instruments like the drum, the cymbals and also a flute is used in the play; the
music is used to create dramatic tension. When the frog first talk of the devil, the
heavy sound of cymbals, shrieks and thunder are heard. It should be noted that
music is not the sole sound device used by Walcott but he also makes use of
nature sounds like thunder and shrieks in order to emphasize the humane aspect of
the play. The sound of a shriek is a raw human sound of distress, fear and
hysteria; it is able to convey a more precise and dramatic image of the play while
also travelling back to the raw cries and misery of the slaves in the West Indies.
The incorporation of Afro-Caribbean music and dance helps to convey more
subtle message to the audience as it expresses emancipation and the African soul
in the play. At the end of the play Ti-jean sings at the frog’s behest: ‘Sing, Ti-jean,
Sing!’ Show him you could win!’ the song is associative with emancipation, joy
and victory over the devil. Ti-jean starts singing though ‘flateringly’; obviously
consumed by the long battle that he has waged against the devil. his song is one of
freedom and recognition to God for his freedom from the devil. It ends on a
prayer: ‘Thank you, lord, The door is open and I step free, Amen, Lord….’ This in
way shoes that songs are not only about rebellions or to keep one’s spirit high but
the performance of prayer also which can be seen as the chanting of recognition,
pleas and praises to the lord should be seen as a song. Walcott by including this
prayer ending is able to touch his local audience whom could relate to the moment
of freedom of Ti-jean with their own historical past. IT is the use of that
traditional oral prayer anchored in oral cultures and religion which enables the
construction of these powerful emotions of the transformed stage of the play.
 Lecturer: Dr. Bhautoo 5
[Type the document title]

Spivak in her 1985 paper ‘Can the Subaltern speak? Speculation on widow
sacrifice’ recounts the story of a Bengali woman who commits suicide. She
committed suicide because her ‘speaking’ were not understood and supported in
the patriarchal structures of her society. Spivak concluded that ‘Subaltern cannot
speak’. Spivak explained that she was not pointing that Subaltern cannot speak
but more towards the expansive notion of conveying speech that is "a transaction
between speaker and listener". Many groups of people want to claim subalternity
but not everyone is a subaltern. The main characteristic of subalternity is that the
subaltern is not given the voice to speak and even when speaking, the later is not
understood or is suppressed within the bourgeois space. In the play Ti-jean and
his brothers, animals are given voice and roles. The animals can be seen as
previous subalterns that were never allowed or given the chance to perform and
voice their views. Walcott transforms this traditional space of the West Indian
drama through magic realism and invest the animals with voice to speak. The tale
and exploits of Ti-jean and failures of the other two victims is defined and
constructed not by an omniscient narrator but by the animals of the forests.
Subalterns are given voice, subalterns are made the narrators. However, these
animals or subalterns are given voice not to present their own problems but more
to sing the heroics of Ti-jean. Though the devil is a common problem for both Ti-
jean and the animals; the problem of the later is never really explained in the play.
Spivak explains that ‘you don't give the subaltern voice. You work for the bloody
subaltern, you work against subalternity’. Walcott in his play gives the animals of
the forests a partial or selective voice that focalizes on the heroics of Ti-jean and
the downfall of his brothers while altogether undermining their own problems.
The animals play a limited role in the play, while they give decisive advice to Ti-
jean; they do not significantly participate in the downfall of the devil.

It should also be noted that though Ti-jean is nice towards the animals, Ti-jean
remain in a higher social status and within a space that these animals cannot
become part of, hence both Ti-jean and the devil are oppressing the subalterns.
However, if one thinks of the nature of the animals and the fact that they are
 Lecturer: Dr. Bhautoo 6
[Type the document title]

animals, the space of the forest that they are allocated is not one thrust upon them
in the story-line but is a suitable or default space for them. Hence subalterns are
given the voice in the story not to voice their own concerns but to narrate the tale
of the others, they fought together, and subalternity is like a free-choice. The
animals chose their space as playing partial role in the play; they only seek to
participate in the space of Ti-jean moderately. One could allegorise that the
middle-class and the lower-class of the society make an alliance together to
overthrow the dominating capitalist who is the white planter or the devil. For the
audience, these are tales that are reminiscent of the tales that they have listened in
their childhood through their grand-parents. These are tales that were usally told
in the house, orally or before sleeping. However, with Walcott’s use of orality,
these tales of bravery and fight against the white planter is staged in the Western
Indian drama. The petit-recit is given prominence and importance when staged as
a drama and alongside the voices of the petit recit that have never been heard are
articulated on the transformed stage. This space is no longer where only the grand
recit kings, Queens, Princes, monarchs are dominated but the voices and tales of
the commoner, layman, and the subaltern is given the opportunity of expression.
Hence, the play can be seen as writing back to these white colonizers as it should
also not be forgotten that these plays were exported and performed in foreign
theatres around the world.

Conclusively, on a harsher note, one may say that orality was used by Walcott as
an esthetique tool to achieve realism and authenticity in the play in order to create
a unique identity for the West-Indian drama which was being exported to the west
at that time and depended heavily on the financial support of foreign corporations
to stay alive. However, it is undeniable that Walcott’s usage of orality does
transform the traditional stage of drama into a stage that one could actually call a
stage that permits the articulation of post-colonial arguments; a stage that permits
the expression of subalterns and tales of the common people; ultimately with the
usage of orality, Walcott is able to create a theatre for the common people
shattering conventions or perceptions of the theatre being a definite high cultured
 Lecturer: Dr. Bhautoo 7
[Type the document title]

art related to playwrights like Shakespeare and the Elizabethan period. Orality
becomes a tool that sees the emergence of a unique kind of play and characterizes
Walcott’s plays including Ti-jean and Western Indian Drama.

Bibliography
Hamner, D (1993). Critical Perspectives on Derek Walcott . U.K: Passeggiata Pr .
 Lecturer: Dr. Bhautoo 8
[Type the document title]

Rodriguez, P (1997). The Historical encyclopedia of world slavery, Volume 1;

Volume 7. U.K: ABC-CLIO . 707-708.

Ong, J.W (1982). Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. New
york: Methuen.