DEREK WALCOTI'S OMEROS AND THE CLASSICS

The Greek classics served the Italian, French, and English humanists without the troublesome interposition of actual Greeks. Texts by dead people were read, appreciat~, and appropriated by people who imagined an ideal commonwealth ... In modem times, however, thinking about cultural exchange involves thinking about domination and forcible appropriation: someone loses, someone gains. (Edward Said 1994:235