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Stories of Growth (4) : A Black Girl’s

Stories of Growth (4) : A Black Girl’s . Individuation through Separation from (M)Other : Annie John (1985) by Jamaica Kincaid . Stories of Growth –w/ Support & Obstacles?. (1) Family – Mothers & Friends. In the Caribbean Area: Wide Sargasso Sea – mother(s) and friend Tia

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Stories of Growth (4) : A Black Girl’s

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  1. Stories of Growth (4) : A Black Girl’s Individuation through Separation from (M)Other: Annie John (1985) by Jamaica Kincaid

  2. Stories of Growth –w/ Support & Obstacles?

  3. (1) Family – Mothers & Friends • In the Caribbean Area: • Wide Sargasso Sea – mother(s) and friend Tia • Abeng – mother and friend Zoe • Sugar Cane Alley – grandmother, teachers and friends • “Bright Thursday” -- grandmother, mother, the father who is aloof, the school she finally runs to • West Africa -- The House at Sugar Beach –Helene (Congo) and her friend Eunice (the natives) • South Africa – “Music of the Violin” mother vs. classmates • India -- “Gainda” Sri Lanka -- “Pigs Can’t Fly” mother & cousins • Iran – Persepolisgrandmother and mother

  4. (1) Family– Lost Fathers/Parents • In the Caribbean Area: • Wide Sargasso Sea • Sugar Cane Alley • “Bright Thursday” the father who is aloof • Brazil– Central Station • Kurds – Turtle Can Fly

  5. (2) Aspiring Child/Youth & Educational System • West Africa – Half of a Yellow Sun • Yesterday, “Bright Thursday” • South Africa -- “Music of the Violin” • the Caribbean – Sugar Cane Alley • Iran -- Persepolis

  6. (3) Society –War, Racial Conflicts & Other Social Problems • In West and South Africa? Civil War • A Long Way Gone -child solder • War Games • Yesterday – AIDS • Pakistan -- Earth • Kurds – Turtle Can Fly • Haiti – “Children of the Sea”

  7. (3) Society –Local Cultures • West Africa • War Games, Half of a Yellow Sun – debia • South Africa – Yesterday, “Prophetess” --Sangoma • Brazil– Central Station –taking photos with a saint’s image • The Caribbean Area -- WWS & Sugar Cane Alley–

  8. Annie John as a Bildungsroman Major Question – [stories of forced separation in WSS, Abeng and “Bright Thursday”] Why the voluntary and permanent separation from Antigua and from her mother in particular? • Kincaid: “I was always being told I should be something, and then my whole upbringing was something I was not: it was English” (Cudjoe 219).

  9. Outline • Ref. Kincaid • About colonialism and Antigua • And her mother • Annie John • “Circling Hand” • Ref. “A Walk to the Jetty”

  10. Jamaica Kincaid: Bio (1) • Born Elaine Potter Richardson in St. Johns, Antigua in 1949; lived with her step-father, mother, and three brothers • father: a carpenter and cabinetmaker • mother: a homemaker and political activist. • Completed her secondary education under the British system • “Girl” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiGNbk9PMq0 • Lecture given by Jamaica Kincaid (SWI - Fiction and Poetry Reading Jamaica Kincaid and Henri Cole) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plKETZkFGbM 36:40 Introd 41:30--Kincaid

  11. Jamaica Kincaid: Bio (2) • Left Antigua (before its Independence) when she was 17. • 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. (source)

  12. Antigua • A lot more blacks than white people; • No experience of “freedom apprenticeship” (four-year waiting period) after Emancipation in 1834. “Freedom was immediate but total.” (Murdoch 99) • Economy suffers until tourism replaced sugar industry. • A British colony till 1967. http://www.geographia.com/antigua-barbuda/aghis01.htm

  13. Kincaid on Colonialism & Antigua • Within the structure of the British educational system imposed upon Antiguans, Kincaid grew to "detest everything about England, except the literature" (Vorda 79). • A Small Place: rage at colonialism & the failure of Antigua independence • "But nothing can erase my rage . . . for this wrong can never be made right and only the impossible can make me still: can a way be found to make what happened not have happened?" • “You distorted or erased my history and glorified your own")

  14. 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.” (source) • She favors her sons over Kincaid.

  15. Annie John • central question: What makes Annie change her views about her family and esp. her mother? pp. 18-19 – 12-year-old Annie’s views o her mother p. 132-33; 136 – 17-yr-old Annie’s view Why are the mother and the daughter distanced from each other? • Related issues 1. closeness to the mother; father’s dominant role 2. the mother’s teaching (the young-lady business) 3. The mother’s social position and her relations with the father

  16. Mother-Daughter Relationship in Annie John • Major Social 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 to teach her girl to be socialized (= Englishized; lady-like)

  17. Mother-Daughter Relationship in Annie John: Examples • “Figures in the Distance” Pre-occupation with death; a girl without a mother –”a shameful thing” (8) • “The Circling Hand” – • Pre-Oedipal symbiosis with the mother  • Forced to separate herself from the mother; sent to be educated, witnessing the parents’ sexual intercourse (primal scene).

  18. Annie’s independence process • “Columbus in Chain”: [mainly about her rebellion at school, resisting British education]; at the end, mother is turned into a crocodile p. 84 • “Gwen” (a perfect pretty type) “The Red Girl” (lower-class) -- Exploring her own sexuality. • “Somewhere, Belgium”: age 15, • out for a boy; • mother and daughter with two faces (one polite and loving, and the other hateful) called a slut by her mother after conversing with a boy -- “Well, …like mother like daughter” (p. 102); • wants a trunk of her own.

  19. Annie’s independence process (2) • “The Long Rain” • Fascination for the father (112-13) • Illness; grandmother’s (Ma Chess) care-taking -- a substitute for the mother (pp. 125-26) • “A Walk to the Jetty” -- Leaving Antigua • Waking up with Sadness and Readiness to leave • Taking note of everything around her (repetition of “never” “for the last time”  sadness; • Resentment against her parents and the environment – readiness. )

  20. “The Circling Hand”: Questions for Group Discussion 1. Mother-Daughter Relationship: 1-1 Describe the mother and daughter’s closeness. • What kind of gender model does the mother offer Annie? e.g. p. 13-14; 25 • What's the significance of the trunk? P. 20 1-2 What role does the father take in this part? How does the mother relate to both of them. How do we know more about the society thru’ their relationships? • [Optional] Do you remember being close to your mother, or father, and admiring them? Since when did the relationship change? 2. What does the title mean? What “finishes” her happy childhood and love for the family (p. 32). Only the parent’s sex?

  21. “The Circling Hand” • 1. The symbiotic stage: (pp. 13-25) Examples of the daughter’s complete identification with the mother. pp. 13- 19 -- Physical intimacy (bathing); 14 -- protective 14-15 -- Mother’s gender role model: shopping; doing housework [cooking, washing clothes] p. 13-14; 25; -- admiring the mother 18-19; be like the mother p. 139 -- sharing cloth -- continuation of identity -- the Trunk P. 20 (the mother’s past + Annie’s souvenirs + story-telling)

  22. “The Circling Hand” 1-2 • 1. The symbiotic stage: (pp. 13-25) -- the father’s role – outsider; has a lot of women; -- Someone to be sympathized with (Annie—wants to give him a mother); -- Served and mothered by his wife p. 24 “A Walk” -- builds and makes a lot of things in the house; -- social factor: p. 132 – 35 years older than his wife; sickly

  23. “The Circling Hand” (2) • 2. Separation: not just by the parents– • the changes at age 12 • in Annie’s body p. 25; p. 27 ( Persepolis) • her schooling -- p. 29 • The changes in the mother’s attitudes: • The mother’s distanciation: • her dresses p. 26; trunk ritual p. 27; differentiation 28-29 • the mother’s expectations of her: • “young lady business” pp. 28-29 – turning her back at Annie 28 • Housework 29-30

  24. “The Circling Hand” (2) • Why does the mother do this? Is it necessary for the mother to be so stern? • Possible Reasons – • The mother’s preoccupation with housework; • Her failure to smooth the transition from Annie’s childhood to puberty; • Her being influenced by the dominant British and patriarchal values.

  25. “The Circling Hand” (3) • 3. the primal scene • the importance of the circling hand? P. 30 • What role does the father take after this scene? • Context: Annie’s wanting to “reconquer” her mother

  26. The mother’s hand • 1. Mother’s Hands -- taking care of Annie; -- doing housework; • “white, bony, dead, left out in the elements” –distanced from her • a revision of feminine Oedipus as well as the “primal scene” • Annie recognizes the father’s power quite late; power conveyed thru’ the mother’s serving hand.

  27. “A Walk to the Jetty” Questions for Group Discussion 4. Is Annie’s separation from her family and the past inevitable and absolute? e.g. 130-131 “never” 133-34-35 “for the last time” Aren’t there contradictions between her readiness to leave and her sadness? • Is it appropriate for Annie to criticize her parents? Are you sympathetic with her hatred of the mother? Pp. 133 5. What does she reject in leaving the place? Can you relate to her need to leave the place forever? pp. 144-148 6. Describe the narrative style of one-day progress with flashbacks, the use of repetition and/or symbolic descriptions

  28. “A Walk to the Jetty” –separation after separation • A. From Mother (“Circling Hand” 1.different dresses—A’s bitterness and hatred 2. Enforced “lady” education — mother’s disappointment 3.stop kid’s talking---awareness 4.after the turning point—“All that was finished” talk back.) 5.complete separation--- “never to be fooled again” “hypocrite” 147 6. Talk back 136 – mother’s image degraded 7. On guard against the mother’s love and expectations 147

  29. “A Walk to the Jetty”—the Past • Walking away from the past (memories of education and transitional objects) • Education: 138-143 • Ms. Dulcie the seamstress, p. 138 • first experience of buying things 139 • saving money at 6 140; a pair of glasses at 8 • Porcelain dog and library 142 • Memories -- Transitional objects: interests that she has outgrown: glasses (141), porcelain dog (142) • Memories -- Love – Mother & Gwen 137 •  cannot deny the mother’s good intention in educating her and love for her; •  do we need to reject things we are no longer interested in or people who are no longer on a par with us?

  30. “A Walk to the Jetty” –separation from the social norms (2) B. From the social norm(and oppression) 1. to be a lady  e.g. exploited by Ms Dulcie 138 2. marriage  sexual inequality 3. Gwen constrained by marriage and ignorance p. 137 4. The community –does not even want to say good-bye 136-37

  31. “A Walk to the Jetty” • Contradictorysigns of independence + signs of nostalgia in this chapter?] • Independence vs. Nostalgia: • Name, address, • separation: 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; • Fear of vacancy and of hole: • the moment of getting out of bed 133 • fear of falling into the water 143 • contradictory feelings at the wharf: 144; 145, 146, 147

  32. Walking to Empty Oneself • Does not know why it is an absolute departure for her 134 • Passing through the place as if she were in a dream 143 • Resisting the mother when she says she’s always her mother.  Resisting the permanent control. • Emptied out at the end

  33. Conclusion –Separation from the (m)other • The mother is already an disadvantaged Other. (M/Other) • [stories of “forced” separation with social factors] or [voluntary and permanent separation] ??? • WSS – Annette-- post-emancipation society; • Abeng – Kitty: caught in between black and white skin • “Bright Thursday” – Myrtle: eager to whiten her daughter. • Annie John – Annie, from the patriarchal and colonial society of Antigua

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