Caribbean literature is a confluence of African, European and Indian cultures, languages ​​and traditions. It has emerged as a product of imperialism, contract, and oppression, and documents the internal conflicts of writers and other postcolonial subjects. Derek Walcott was one of the leading figures who gave voice to the ethnic multiplicity and hybrid identity of West Indian communities through poems and plays that explored themes of identity, colonialism, postcolonialism and racism. Drama and theatre, in the postcolonial context, function as a weapon of resistance – an anti-imperial tool. The Empire "rewrites" the imperial center through the reworking of the European "classics". Helen Tiffin calls this project “counter-canonical discourse,” a movement popular among postcolonial writers whereby they dismantle specific canonical texts and develop a “counter” text within the same framework, but depriving the colonizers of their supposed authority. Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, “A classic megatext of Eurocentrism,” was a focal point in this project of rewriting the English classics. Derek Walcott, in the comedy Pantomime, subverts the dominant discourse through his characters Harry Trewe and Jackson Philip, the lonely inhabitants of a Guest House in Tobago who contemplate staging a pantomime in reverse of the story of Robinson Crusoe. This attempt to reverse authority relations through humor and chaos is defined as “carnivalesque” by the Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin. This classic story of a white man stranded on an uninhabited island in the 17th century, overcoming his despair and despair by mastering himself and "civilizing" a native slave, is reversed by Walcott in Pantomime, handing power to a black Crusoe while a white man takes on the role of Friday. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Through Jackson Phillip and Harry Trewe, this play explores the complexities of the relationship between slave and master, black and white, colonized and colonizer. Jackson hopes for a reorganization of the hierarchical ranks. “But one day things will be reversed,” he says, “With Crusoe the slave and Friday the leader.” Superficially, this reversal of the Crusoe-Friday myth is used as a comic subject in Pantomime, but there is an underlying vitriolic attack on the colonial "powers". Carnival, apart from serving as entertainment, also serves as an agency to release the repressed voices of the common man. An agency is the means through which a postcolonial subject initiates resistance to imperial power. Jackson, transformed into the role of servant, was stripped of the agency. His role as Crusoe provided him with the opportunity to launch a severe attack on the imperialists. His rebellion petrifies Harry Trewe who verbalizes the colonizer's fear of being overwhelmed: "This is too humiliating." he says, "Now let's forget it and please don't continue or you're fired." The Trinidad Carnival served as a model for the development of Caribbean drama. According to Helen Gilbert and Joanne Tompkins, the carnival evolved into a satirical representation of authoritarian knowledge. Humor and parody, for Bakhtin, are a “carnivalesque signifier” with the goal of “degradation.” Degradation, in any form, also has the purpose of "regeneration". Harry and Jackson's attempt to stage a pantomime results in an interaction typical of carnival humor. Carnival laughter is aimed at those who laugh; laughing at them while laughing with them is an essential feature of this form. The absolutely chaotic situation in which Walcott places his menCharacters presents a perfect platform to satirize colonizers. Walcott uses the language of the colonizer both as a symbol of resistance and as a primary mode of eliciting humor. Jackson's blatant refusal to pronounce certain words as they should be and...the incorporation of indigenous creole into English often leads to hilarious consequences. Jackson also begins renaming things and inventing a new language which, as a black colonizer, he attempts to teach Harry. He insists on calling himself "Thursday" instead of being christened "Friday" by his master. Walcott alternates between violent comments and offensive language to bring the language closer to "the speech of the common man", which is a clearly carnivalesque form of representation. A carnivalesque text also aims at a hypothetical creation of a utopian world. Harry and Jackson working together to put on a show to prevent the hotel from deteriorating is an image that shows the harmony that can exist between the two groups. Walcott is in harmony with his Afro-Saxon identity and desires peaceful coexistence without any disparity between the races. Harry stepping down and offering the role of Crusoe to Jackson is the first step in realizing Walcott's dream. Bakhtin says that "during the carnival" a special type of communication emerged that was impossible in everyday life, "which did not allow any distance between those who came into contact with each other." Familiar and free interaction between characters and eccentric behavior are other characteristics of the carnival form. Jackson initially finds it difficult to accept the new master role offered to him by Harry but as the show progresses, he becomes accustomed to the idea of ​​being the master, while Harry struggles to give up his dominant position. Jackson's initial reluctance can be interpreted as the colonized subjects' internalization of inherited “immutable” roles. According to Frantz Fanon, the gaze of the colonized is one of envy and "he dreams of possession... of sitting at the colonist's table and sleeping in his bed, preferably with his wife..." Bakhtin argued that carnival literature disintegrated into oppressive way. and moldy forms of thought and paved the way for the infinite project of emancipation. Jackson's improvisation of the role of Crusoe is symbolic of his imagination taking flight due to his transition from that of a bound man to a free human being. This is not only a liberation from physical slavery but also implies creative freedom. Colonial mimicry and the “helpless obedience” of slaves are a recurring image in the work. Homi.K.Bhabha sees mimicry as “the desire for a reformed and recognizable Other, as the subject of a difference that is almost the same, but not quite”. Harry accuses Jackson of imitating the masters and identifies the colonized with the shadow of the colonizer. Jackson, under the guise of acting in the pantomime, speaks out against Harry. “…in that sun that never set on your empire I was your shadow,” he says. The parrot motif is another metaphor for colonial mimicry. As in Robinson Crusoe, here Harry and Jackson are accompanied by a talking parrot from the hotel. Jackson feels mocked by the “precolonial” parrot because the only word he utters is “Heinegger.” For Jackson, the “prejudiced” parrot embodies colonial principles and ideas while for Harry the parrot is simply repeating the name of his German master because for him “the war is over”. This shows the different perspectives of the colonizer and the colonized. The parrot mocks the absurdity of Harry and Jackson's existence as master and slave in a postcolonial society, long after such hierarchies should have been erased. Bhabha also explains the subversive use of mimicry.?