Abstract: For decades, world literature studies have been dominated by continental-centrism, linear historical frameworks, and Western paradigms, with oceanic spaces including islands, and their interconnected, fluid, and cyclical experiences being marginalized. Kamau Brathwaite, a Barbadian poet and scholar, developed the concept of tidalectics rooted in the Caribbean’s unique historical and cultural context. Based on the rhythmic and cyclical patterns of the ocean, he replaced the linear logic of progressivism and binary opposition with the ebb and flow of the tides, providing a groundbreaking perspective for understanding such experiences as colonial expansion, slave trade, coolie traffic, transoceanic migration, and creolization in the Global South. Brathwaite’s theoretical ideas have emerged from his literary practice. This paper, focusing on his representative works, The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy and Barabajan Poems, explores how Brathwaite writes, constructs and applies the theory of tidalectics through poetry, and how he redefines world literature as a dynamic production process within cyclical conceptions of time and transoceanic networks of relation. This oceanic reconstruction of world literature not only deconstructs its linear circulation and hierarchical system but also offers a decentralized, relational theoretical paradigm grounded in the experiences of the Global South.

Key words: Kamau Brathwaite, tidalectics, the Caribbean, world literature, oceanic reconstruction

摘要： 长期以来,世界文学研究都以大陆中心、线性历史、西方规范为主导,包括海岛在内的海洋空间及其所承载的互联性、流动性、循环性经验往往被边缘化。巴巴多斯诗人、学者卡茂·布拉思韦特从加勒比独特的历史文化经验出发,提出潮汐辩证法的概念,以海洋及其节律性与回返性为核心,通过潮汐的往复运动取代进步主义与二元对立的线性逻辑,为理解殖民扩张、奴隶贸易、苦力贩运、跨洋流散、文化杂糅等全球南方历史经验开创了新视角。布拉思韦特的理论思想生成于文学实践,本文聚焦其代表作《抵达者：新世界三部曲》和《巴拉巴詹诗篇》,探讨他如何通过诗歌书写建构并实践潮汐辩证法,将世界文学重构为循环时间与跨海域关系网络中的动态生产过程。这一对世界文学的海洋化重构,不仅解构了其线性流通和等级化体系,也为世界文学研究提供了一种根植于全球南方经验,去中心化、关系化的理论范式。

关键词: 卡茂·布拉思韦特, 潮汐辩证法, 加勒比, 世界文学, 海洋化重构