Jamaica Kincaid is an Antiquan writer who currently lives in Vermont. She has written many novels and works of nonfiction but the majority of her work is autobiographic. Kincaid is interesting because she complicates autobiography by using techniques that make the reader experience a kind of cognitive dissonance, which is the experience of holding conflicting thoughts in your mind. The way I use the psychological term is different than a psychologist might because these thoughts that you believe in, trust, and use as a guideline are uncovered through the reading of Kincaid. A classic definition focuses on a preexisting condition of holding simultaneous conflicting thoughts which is not necessarily triggered by the experience of reading. For an example of this sensation, we might consider reading Lucy, Kincaid's second novel. You may realize that you are similar to a character-in my case, Mariah,-and through the rejection of this character's identity, you begin to uncover what it is about yourself and/or the culture that you identify with that is aversive. You find yourself both liking and rejecting the character. Mariah is a sweet-natured naive mother who is unaware of her impact on other people and the natural environment, identifies with both her European and questionable Native American ancestry, and claims feminist loyalty but plays by the rules of the affluent fully integrated society woman. These contradictions cause little questioning in the character, she cannot conceptualize Lucy's perspective, but the reader is able to reflect and discover the ways that she is both alike and different from Lucy and Mariah; nevertheless, by the completion of the novel resolution is unsatisfactory. Lucy and Mariah's troubling perspectives interfere with the reader's peace. Consequently, this reader is processing Kincaid more thoroughly in her PhD dissertation, Jamaica Kincaid and the Dynamics of Autobiography.
2 comments:
I did tell you that about 15 years ago a slim little book fell on me at the Bookstore in Old San Juan. I was curious about the colorful cover. It was At The Bottom Of The River. I read it twice in four days. I could not believe the direct yet poetic tone. Before, I identified myself mainly as Puerto Rican, maybe Latin American, but then I started seeing myself as Caribbean. We Caribbean people live paradoxical lives, our identities have been defined and redifined by historical factors that not necesarily belong to our rality. We are European, African, Indian and everything in between. Our reality is truly fantastic. Our Caribbean world is inhabited by the living, the dead, the premonition, the miracle,the envious eye,the longing of the sea, the sweet and the putrid. Ours is a geography of abandonment, self reliance and ambivalence. The Caribbean is not the fun loving land tourists want to believe it is. Our islands where forged out of human exploitation throughout the centuries by the European masters. The paradox is that the enslaver gave us civilization. This paradox runs through all of Kincaid's works.
Caribbean reader, so glad you found my new blog. I appreciate your comment about how your identity shifted/expanded from one island/region to include the greater Caribbean through the experience of reading-commonality discovered through literature. Multiple identities in the Carribean are truly paradoxical, and you have first hand experience.
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