Jamaica Kincaid: Bio (1)

1. Jamaica Kincaid: Bio (1) • Born Elaine Potter Richardson in St. Johns, Antigua in 1949 • father: a carpenter and cabinetmaker, • mother: a homemaker and political activist. • Left Antigua when she was 17.

2. Jamaica Kincaid: Bio (2) • As the eldest of four, and the only girl, she was apprenticed to a seamstress, then plucked from school, where she was excelling, and sent to the US as an au pair ("really a servant") • changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid because her family disapproved of her writing.

3. Antigua • A lot more blacks than white people; • No experience of “freedom apprenticeship” after Emancipation in 1834. “Freedom was immediate but total.” (Murdoch 99) • A British colony till 1967.

4. Kincaid and Antigua • Within the structure of the British educational system imposed upon Antiguans, Kincaid grew to "detest everything about England, except the literature" (Vorda 79). • Expressed the anger at the failure of Antigua independence in her novel A Small Place. • Strongly critical of colonialism

5. Kincaid about her mother • She "should never have had children." • “She loves us when we‘re dying - not when we’re thriving because then we don‘t need her.”

6. Mother-Daughter Relationship in Annie John • Major Factors: • Caribbean society: a male-dominated society in which the men are allowed to be irresponsible about housework, and enjoy sexual relationships outside marriage. • Mother as a social institution • A young girl’s socialization: feminie Oedipus complex

7. Mother-Daughter Relationship in Annie John: Examples • “The Circling Hand” -- Forced to separate herself from the mother; sent to be educated, witnessing the parents’ sexual intercourse (primal scene). • “Columbus in Chain”: mother turned into a crocodile p. 84 • being called a slut by her mother after conversing with a boy -- “Well, …like mother like daughter” (p. 102)

8. Annie’s independence process • Pre-occupation with death; • Pre-Oedipal symbiosis with the mother • Girl friends (Gwen, Red Girl) • Resisting British education (Columbus in Chain) • Exploring her own sexuality • fascination for the father (112-13) • Illness; grandmother’s (Ma Chess) care-taking -- a substitute for the mother (pp. 125-26) • Leaving Antigua

9. “The Circling Hand” • 1. The symbiotic state: (pp. 13-25) • Examples of the daughter’s complete identification with the mother. pp. 13- 19 • What kind of gender model does the mother offer Annie? What role does the father take in this part? e.g. p. 13-14; 25 • What’s the significance of the trunk? P. 20

10. “The Circling Hand” (2) • Separation: the changes • in Annie’s body p. 25; p. 27 • her dresses p. 26 • her schooling -- p. 29 • the mother’s expectations of her: pp. 28-29

11. “The Circling Hand” (3) • the primal scene • the importance of the circling hand? P. 30 • What role does the father take after this scene?

12. “A Walk to the Jetty” • Contradictorysigns of independence + signs of nostalgia in this chapter? • Name, address, her listing of what she “never wants to see”; joy at not having to see them. pp. 130-132.; her attention at what’s “hers” and what’s on her p. 134-35. • remembering a lot; the moment of getting out of bed 133 • contradictory feelings at the wharf: 144; 145, 147

13. “A Walk to the Jetty”Annie’s views of her parents & marriage • What kind of family does Annie have? • P. 132 • How do they look at her day of departure? pp. 134-36 • Their interaction: p. 136 • Gwen 137

14. Walking away from the past (memories, education and transitional objects) • Ms. Dulcie the seamstress, p. 138 • first experience of buying things 139 • saving money • interests that she has outgrown: glasses, porcelain dog, • library

15. Indivuation through complete separation • Can you relate to her need to leave the place forever? pp. 144-148 • Are you sympathetic with her hatred of the mother? Pp. 133