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S(mothering) the subject formation in Jamaica Kincaid ́s Annie John : Female subject formation in postcolonial Caribbean fiction

This essay investigates Jamaica Kincaid´s the book Annie John (1985) and its protagonist Annie John´s search for a coherent self-and/or a de-colonized identity through a subject transformation. Using postcolonial feminism, including theorists such as Homi K. Bhabha and Stuart Hall, I suggest that the protagonist Annie John does not perform a subject transformation as she is unable to embrace the state of hybridity needed to perform such a transformation. Annie John is a colonial subject drawn to the two worlds in which she resided, the East and West- and cannot create herself in the presence of them both. I conclude that Annie John´s mother, under the influence of colonialism and patriarchy, is part reason as to why Annie John is unable to perform this transformation. With the help of postcolonial feminism, I find that as Annie John cannot recover her mother from this double oppression of colonialism and patriarchy. The conclusion of this essay proposes that the protagonist Annie John does not manage to create a subject formation as she is not able to reside in a state of hybridity between her own culture and that of her colonizer.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-37501
Date January 2018
CreatorsBlomgren, Elin
PublisherSödertörns högskola, Institutionen för kultur och lärande
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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