Thesis (M.A.)--University of Florida, 2005. / Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 80 pages. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This essay uses Sara Ahmed's theory of affect to analyze Jamaica Kincaid´s A Small Place. I argue that Jamaica Kincaid uses anger to create a position for Western reader and to evoke emotions such as shame. Theorist Sara Ahmed argues that emotions have political dimension. Thus, I will use Sara Ahmed´s theory to examine what function anger and shame have in A Small Place. In her essay, Kincaid provokes her readers by attacking them for past injustice through anger. Because of this many critics have claimed that A Small Place has an angry tone. However, Kincaid´s aim seems to be to reverse the gaze by exposing the Europeans and Americans of exploitation, slavery, imperialism and colonization and this way reverse the traditional travel gaze, which allows us to see Antigua through the perspective of the third world.

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This interdisciplinary study traces the relationship between place and ontology in anglophone and francophone Caribbean contexts, respectively, in selected fictional texts by contemporary Afro-Caribbean women writers Jamaica Kincaid and Gisèle Pineau. In particular, the thesis considers the ways in which notions of place are complicated by the fact that these authors are doubly diasporic. Kincaid and Pineau are of the African diaspora, and they are also migrant writers who travel back and forth between the Caribbean neocolonies and the neoimperia (the United States for Kincaid and France for Pineau). The Antiguan-born Kincaid relocated to the United States as an adolescent and continues to reside there today – despite not having renounced her Antiguan citizenship. Pineau was born and raised in Paris by Guadeloupean parents, who later transplanted the family to their Caribbean homeland when Pineau was an adolescent. After moving between the Caribbean and Paris throughout the ensuing decades, Guadeloupe is now her primary place of residence. Kincaid and Pineau, who are of the same generation and from neighbouring Caribbean islands, share fascinating points of intersection and divergence with regard to their treatment of place and ontology in their oeuvres. This project draws upon a number of theoretical paradigms and examines them in conjunction with Kincaid and Pineau’s fiction in order to discern whether or not these models are apposite to their work. Some examples are: decolonisation/decolonial, postcolonial, womanist and feminist, gender, critical race, psychoanalysis, trauma, ecocritical, spatial, semiotic, ethnographic, Marxian and post-Marxist, poststructuralist, deconstructionist, postmodernist, aesthetic and anti-aesthetic, and photographic theories. The thesis opens with an introductory chapter that locates my research within larger, ongoing discussions of place and ontology in the field of postcolonial studies. It also explains the methodological approaches of the project, in addition to brief descriptions of subsequent chapters. The first chapter of the investigative body of the thesis outlines the decolonising theoretical axiomatics which underpin Kincaid and Pineau’s fictional writings. Next I provide a chapter each on key works by Kincaid and Pineau in order to establish their individual thematic and formal concerns before turning, in the ensuing chapters, to connective readings of their texts within certain contextual frameworks. I also examine Kincaid and Pineau’s imbricated treatment of connecting themes that appear to ricochet throughout their corpora of writings. This linkage between landscape and ontology is fundamental to understanding migration experience in that multiple landscapes and cultures become rooted in individual and collective identities as complex biographic phenomena. Kincaid and Pineau address this relationship between the environment and (auto)fiction as a way of investigating the constitutive relations between place, body, and ontology.

Submitted by Pedro Barros (pedro.silvabarros@ufpe.br) on 2018-07-04T21:04:05Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) TESE Márcia Maria Oliveira Silva.pdf: 1928321 bytes, checksum: 1d7715a416451082c3692eecd8a60357 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-04T21:04:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) TESE Márcia Maria Oliveira Silva.pdf: 1928321 bytes, checksum: 1d7715a416451082c3692eecd8a60357 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-21 / CAPES / A literatura é capaz de contribuir significativamente para a compreensão da existência humana através da construção de mundos ficcionais. A literatura pós-colonial ganhou espaço e notoriedade porque revela a experiência de povos que viveram sob a marca da colonização e que continuam experienciando as consequências do passado colonizador. Esta literatura quebra o silêncio promovido pelo discurso do colonizador e busca o direito à fala e à recuperação do passado; percebe-se que na literatura produzida nas Américas a herança colonial ainda é muito marcante, as escritoras Jamaica Kincaid (Antígua-Estados Unidos), Dionne Brand (Trinitad e Tobago-Canadá) e Conceição Evaristo (Brasil) apresentam em seus textos uma conexão com o contexto pós-colonial e focam em questões socioculturais significativas para a reflexão e o entendimento de temáticas como etnicidade, raça, poder, sexo, gênero e classe social. As obras analisadas nesta tese apresentam personagens excluídos socialmente, revelando narrativas que se afastam de estereótipos socialmente construídos e estabelecem novos paradigmas. Este trabalho surge com o objetivo principal de analisar um total de 12 obras a fim de compreender a maneira como Kincaid, Brand e Evaristo desenvolvem noções como identidade, memória, diáspora e pós- olonialidade. Utilizamos como arcabouço teórico autores como Stuart Hall, Gayatri Spivak, Aníbal Quijano, Frantz Fanon, Alberto Memmi, Paul Gilroy, Roland Walter, Carole Boyce Davies, Aleida Assmann, Lélia Gonzalez, Eurídice Figueiredo, entre outros, com o intuito de comprovar que as interpelações identitárias vão se construindo através das experiências de cada personagem. As narrativas analisadas abordam sujeitos que são frutos das sociedades ‘multiculturais’, sendo que estas não escondem a existência de uma ‘consciência patriarcal/colonial/imperial’ que interferem diretamente no estabelecimento das relações sociais, revelando assim as nuances da colonialidade do poder e da subalternidade. As obras analisadas se estabelecem, portanto, na maneira como Kincaid, Brand e Evaristo compreendem as marcas do colonialismo na sociedade e nas relações humanas, bem como as nuances da opressão feminina e da opressão racial. / Literature is capable of contributing significantly to the comprehension of human existence through the construction of fictional worlds. Postcolonialist literature has gained ground and notoriety because it reveals experiences of peoples who lived under colonial rule and still experience the consequences of such a past. That literature breaks the silence imposed by the colonizer’s discourse, seeks for the right of speech and retrieval of the past. It is noticeable that the colonial heritage is still very present in the literature produced in the Americas. Writers such as Jamaica Kincaid (Antigua-United States of America), Dionne Brand (Trinidad and Tobago-Canada), and Conceição Evaristo (Brazil) present in their writings a connection to the post-colonial context, and focus on significant sociocultural issues such as ethnicity, race, power, sex, gender, and social class. The literary works analyzed in this thesis present socially excluded characters, revealing narratives that problematize socially-constructed stereotypes and establish new paradigms. This study aims to mainly analyze 12 books written by the aforementioned authors in order to comprehend how Kincaid, Brand, and Evaristo develop notions of identity, memory, diaspora, and postcoloniality. The theoretical framework of this study was based on scholarly publications of Stuart Hall, Gayatri Spivak, Aníbal Quijano, Frantz Fanon, Alberto Memmi, Paul Gilroy, Roland Walter, Carole Boyce Davies, Aleida Assmann, Lélia Gonzalez, Eurídice Figueiredo, and others, with the aim of proving that identitarian interpellations are built through each character’s experiences. The narratives analyzed deal with individuals who are results of ‘multicultural’ societies, these societies do not hide the existence of a ‘patriarchal/colonial/imperial conscience’ that interferes directly with the establishment of social relations, thus revealing the nuances of the coloniality of power and subalternity. The studied literary works established themselves, therefore, according to how Kincaid, Brand, and Evaristo comprehend the marks of colonialism in society and human relations, as well as the nuances of women’s and racial oppression.

Although Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John can be described as a bildungsroman or coming of age story, the novel raises complex and compelling issues. Both Annie John’s mother and the colonial school undermine her transition into adulthood by teaching Annie to devalue her individual identity and culture. When Annie questions this perception, both lash out against her. Through a close and sensitive examination of the text, the ethnocentric bias and hidden agendas of those closest to Annie is uncovered and analyzed. As West Indian writers, particularly women writers, gain more recognition, it is crucial to acknowledge and understand the effects that growing up on a colonized island has upon West Indians. A deeper reading of Annie John exposes the prejudices and power relationships that continue to haunt formerly colonized islands.

Mon mémoire "Colonial Ideology and Legacy and Feminine Resistance in Jamaica Kincaid" est une lecture féminine de la colonisation. Il définit, en premier lieu, l'idéologie coloniale comme une idéologie manichéiste et déshumanisante. Étant critique de cette idéologie binaire et réductrice, mon mémoire déchiffre et propose une résistance féminine, riche et diverse, à travers quelques écrits eux même divers de l'écrivaine Jamaica Kincaid. Ce mémoire conteste toute idée reçue sur la femme, en s'appuyant sur des théories anticoloniales et féministes. Il s'agit en effet d'un travail déconstructif où je vise inlassablement à décortiquer et à délégitimer ces hiérarchies qui habitent nos pensées et nos corps, et qui, entravent l'épanouissement de l'être humain. Les trois chapitres qui forment le corps de mon mémoire sont organisés à chaque fois en terme d'oppression et de résistance; de déshumanisation et humanisation, où le sujet colonisé essaie de se libérer des différentes formes d'oppression pour vivre pleinement son humanité. Cette relation hiérarchique est représentée métaphoriquement à travers la relation mère-fille, une relation que j'étudie dans le deuxième chapitre. Le troisième chapitre s'intéresse au mouvement du corps féminin, qui devient l'espace de résistance à une identité limitatrice. / My thesis "Colonial Ideology and Legacy and Feminine Resistance in Jamaica Kincaid" analyzes, criticizes and deconstructs the foundations of colonial ideology. It examines how colonial Manichaeanism oppresses the woman, and explores the sites of feminine resistance for (formerly) colonized women. In the first chapter, I define colonial ideology as based on Colonial Manichaeanism. I argue that the colonizer-colonized relationship is reductive and dehumanizing. I explicate and criticize Frantz Fanon's analysis of this relationship of superiority and inferiority and his understanding of violence. I also study Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place, which reproduces this relationship and extends it to the present through the tourist/native relationship. In the second chapter, I study the mother as a colonial figure in Annie John. The mother-daughter relationship offers another re-enactment of the colonizer-colonized relationship, which is highlighted through images of heaven and hell. I also develop the metaphor of death and I argue that love and Obeah are resistance strategies to colonial figures. The last chapter engages the corporal in colonial oppression, and feminine resistance. I scrutinize the female body in its wavering between veiling and exposure in Lucy. I analyze the movement of the female body as emblematic of the fluidity of feminine identity and as such, an identity which is misrepresented by colonial and patriarchal discourse.

Mon mémoire "Colonial Ideology and Legacy and Feminine Resistance in Jamaica Kincaid" est une lecture féminine de la colonisation. Il définit, en premier lieu, l'idéologie coloniale comme une idéologie manichéiste et déshumanisante. Étant critique de cette idéologie binaire et réductrice, mon mémoire déchiffre et propose une résistance féminine, riche et diverse, à travers quelques écrits eux même divers de l'écrivaine Jamaica Kincaid. Ce mémoire conteste toute idée reçue sur la femme, en s'appuyant sur des théories anticoloniales et féministes. Il s'agit en effet d'un travail déconstructif où je vise inlassablement à décortiquer et à délégitimer ces hiérarchies qui habitent nos pensées et nos corps, et qui, entravent l'épanouissement de l'être humain. Les trois chapitres qui forment le corps de mon mémoire sont organisés à chaque fois en terme d'oppression et de résistance; de déshumanisation et humanisation, où le sujet colonisé essaie de se libérer des différentes formes d'oppression pour vivre pleinement son humanité. Cette relation hiérarchique est représentée métaphoriquement à travers la relation mère-fille, une relation que j'étudie dans le deuxième chapitre. Le troisième chapitre s'intéresse au mouvement du corps féminin, qui devient l'espace de résistance à une identité limitatrice. / My thesis "Colonial Ideology and Legacy and Feminine Resistance in Jamaica Kincaid" analyzes, criticizes and deconstructs the foundations of colonial ideology. It examines how colonial Manichaeanism oppresses the woman, and explores the sites of feminine resistance for (formerly) colonized women. In the first chapter, I define colonial ideology as based on Colonial Manichaeanism. I argue that the colonizer-colonized relationship is reductive and dehumanizing. I explicate and criticize Frantz Fanon's analysis of this relationship of superiority and inferiority and his understanding of violence. I also study Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place, which reproduces this relationship and extends it to the present through the tourist/native relationship. In the second chapter, I study the mother as a colonial figure in Annie John. The mother-daughter relationship offers another re-enactment of the colonizer-colonized relationship, which is highlighted through images of heaven and hell. I also develop the metaphor of death and I argue that love and Obeah are resistance strategies to colonial figures. The last chapter engages the corporal in colonial oppression, and feminine resistance. I scrutinize the female body in its wavering between veiling and exposure in Lucy. I analyze the movement of the female body as emblematic of the fluidity of feminine identity and as such, an identity which is misrepresented by colonial and patriarchal discourse.

This thesis examines Antiguan narratives’ peculiar engagements with the national question. It draws largely upon the works of four writers—Jamaica Kincaid, Joanne C. Hillhouse, Marie-Elena John and Frieda Cassin—and selected calypsonians including Antigua’s leading female and male calypsonians, Queen Ivena and King Short Shirt. It reads anxiety as the chief organising principle of the singular deconstructions of gender, ‘racial’, ethnic, and class identities undertaken by these texts. I offer a retooled account of anxiety that elaborates the local/regional concept of bad-mindedness informing the core of the narratives’ deconstructive and recuperative projects. Chapter one probes the bad-minded delimiting of Antiguan literary production. It interrogates the singular cohesive Caribbean canon typically suggested by critical readings, which obscure the narratives/ literary traditions of smaller territories such as Antigua. It also highlights locally produced canons’ intervention into the dominant canons/maps of Caribbean literary traditions. Its discussion is underpinned by the concept of bad-mindedness which I use to frame the evils that locate the smaller territory and its inhabitants at the cultural periphery. Chapter two examines the texts’ enunciations of the bad-mindedness inherent in the construction of the composite gendered identities of 19^th century Creole women, 20^th century working-class Afro-Antiguan women and men, and 20^th century proletarian Carib women. It refashions Erna Brodber’s kumbla trope, Kenneth Ramchand’s notion of terrified consciousness, and Jamaica Kincaid’s line trope to elaborate these enunciations. Chapter three examines Antiguan calypsos’ record of the peculiar responses of small-islanders to their subordinate position within the ‘global village’ and continuing entanglement in British colonialism and neo-colonial relationships and processes. It draws upon Charles Mill’s theory of smadditization/ smadditizin’ or the Afro-Caribbean struggle for recognition of personhood and Paget Henry’s account of the dependency theory to analyse the calypsos’ anxious insistence upon Afro-Antiguan personhood. The primary conclusion of my thesis is that an engagement with the neglected literary traditions of the smaller territories and national literatures on the whole, is likely to excavate a cornucopia of currently sidelined experiences, issues, and transnational relationships which can only serve to enrich our postcolonial conversations.