Biography
Jamaica Kincaid was born in 1949 as Elaine Potter Richardson on the island of Antigua. She lived with her stepfather, a carpenter, and her mother until 1965 when she was sent to Westchester, New York to work as an au pair. In Antigua, she completed her secondary education under the British system due to Antigua's status as a British colony until 1967. She went on to study photography at the New York School for Social Research after leaving the family for which she worked, and also attended Franconia College in New Hampshire for a year. Her first writing experience involved a series of articles for Ingenue magazine. In 1973, she changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid because her family disapproved of her writing. Through her writing, she befriended George W.S. Trow, a writer for the New Yorker, who began writing "Talk of the Town" pieces about her. As a result, Kincaid met the editor of the magazine, William Shawn, who offered her a job. Kincaid later married Shawn's son, Allen, a composer and Bennington College professor, and they now have two children.
Major Themes
"I was always being told I should be something, and then my whole upbringing was something I was not: it was English." (Cudjoe 219)
Antigua became self-governing in 1967, but did not achieve the status of an independent nation within the Commonwealth until 1981. Within the structure of the British educational system imposed upon Antiguans, Kincaid grew to "detest everything about England, except the literature" (Vorda 79). She felt first-hand the negative effects of British colonialism as the colonists attempted to turn Antigua "into England" and the natives "into English" without regard for the native culture or homeland (Kincaid 24). The effects of colonialism serve as the major theme for A Small Place in which Kincaid expresses her anger both at the colonists and at the Antiguans for failing to fully achieve their independence. She feels that Antiguans failed to adopt the positive aspects of colonialism, for instance a good educational system which might help the population to better their lives. This inability to promote the importance of education and hope for the future is symbolized in the failure to rebuild Antigua's only library, St. John's, which was "damaged in the earthquake of 1974" and years later, still carries the sign "REPAIRS ARE PENDING" (Kincaid 9).
Although Kincaid has faced heavy criticism for her angry tone and simple writing style in A Small Place, she wears her anger like "a badge of courage," blaming her intimate connection to her homeland for creating "a sort of traumatic history" (Perry 132). In many ways, the identity Kincaid has developed is a result of English upbringing and the lack of a native culture due to colonialism, and "nothing can erase [her] rage...for this wrong can never be made right" (Kincaid 32). This rage provides the tone for this tract; as in other works, Kincaid's writing becomes an expression of herself.
In A Small Place, Kincaid calls attention to the fact that in many ways, conditions in Antigua worsened with the achievement of independence; she communicates her frustration with her people and capitalism. In a nation free from colonialism, Antiguans "do to [themselves] the very things [colonists] used to do to [them]" (Kincaid 36). Just as they have adopted the behaviors of colonialism, the natives have "absorbed" the event of tourism "so completely that they have made the degradation and humiliation of their daily lives into their own tourist attraction" (Kincaid 69). Through her critique of colonialism and the development of an exploitative tourist industry in A Small Place, Kincaid addresses several other major themes which include the influence of homeland on identity, culture, and the desire for independence.
In her other novels, Kincaid reflects on the influence of the mother-daughter relationship in shaping a female identity in a male-dominated society and explores the phenomenon of female bonding. Because colonialism involves politics and public life, often thought to be male spheres of influence, Kincaid's Annie John, My Mother, and At the Bottom of the River provide the opportunity to explore Kincaid's relationship with her mother as well as her development of identity in light of cultural expectations. Lucy, in turn, incorporates these cultural expectations and how they result in different interpretations of the same events. Kincaid also examines a mother's role in her daughter's socialization and explores the ideas of love, affection, hostility, death and their impact on self-discovery. In fact, in an interview with Kay Bonetti, Kincaid states that "I don't really write about men unless they have something to do with a woman." Kincaid often portrays sex as a tool of independence for women, adding another dimension to the feminist aspects of her writing.
Works Cited
Related Sites
Author: Vanessa Pupello, Fall 1997
Links within this Site
Postcolonial Studies at Emory
