A woman's conference, Oprah's Life Your Best Life, in New York and Kincaid's, Girl is mentioned.
Copy of Dale's blog: The Gender Agenda
Live your best life
Bonjour all,
Vous allez bien? I know summer has officially arrived in Belgium as I only had to wear a light trench coat yesterday.
Below are a few nuggets I gleaned from Oprah’s Live Your Best Life Weekend, which took place in New York City recently. I’ve tried to cull the content that links to women and career.
For those of you outside the U.S. and South Africa, let me clarify why I admire Oprah. Her magazine is one of the few periodicals mass marketed to women that does not insult our intelligence. It covers politics, spirituality, careers, food, health, volunteering, literature, and culture with both an international and female lens. Fashion and celebrities are footnotes, not focal. It’s a magazine that expects more of us (watch this space for a blog on how expectations shape self-belief and performance).
I first read interviews with two of my own role models – Nelson Mandela and Richard Branson – in O Magazine (side note on Richard Branson – I also read his hilarious and informative book of life lessons, Screw it, Let’s Do It after watching him on a BBC segment last year. He was leaping around the camera frame with great alacrity as he discussed Virgin’s development of environmentally-friendly airplanes. In other words, he was fired up about the work he was doing. That is one man that I would definitely follow into battle – but that’s a whole other blog on inspirational leadership).
Back to LYBL. Not since the Women’s Forum have I seen so many women in one aesthetically sumptuous place. No detail was overlooked. The stages were illuminated in neon pinks and purples; luscious murals abounded. Regular columnists for O Magazine held both plenary and informal sessions in which they shared wisdom and engaged us in Q&A; there was a discovery hall featuring interactive booths where you could be filmed sharing your point-of-view (on anything) for Oprah’s Network, join a live Wii Fit training session, get made over by L’Oreal cosmetic experts, or do some book shopping (I bought Ken Follett’sThe Pillars of the Earth for my summer beach read).
The LYBL weekend focused on empowerment and authenticity. Here are a few morsels to chew on.
Oprah on work, passion, and vision
“Let passion drive your profession.”
Oprah shared a childhood story with us about her grandmother teaching her to do the laundry in rural Mississippi (for me, the vignette invoked my favorite short story, Girl by Jamaica Kincaid). Oprah says she remembers even at that young age, thinking: No, grandma, this isn’t going to be my life.
Elizabeth Gilbert on women, choices, and self-forgiveness
“Every day, women live their lives as if it’s a final exam for their entire grade.”
Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, framed the conundrum of modern day females by pointing out that:
we are the first generation of women who have had an education, freedom, autonomy. We have more choices than the women who came before us. That’s why we live in the age of memoirs. We’re trying to seek role models, see how other women have ‘solved it’.
Gilbert’s grandmother lived through the U.S. depression. She had an absence of choices, was a ‘pioneer of continuing on’ – she was in a constant struggle for survival. “But,” Gilbert pointed out, “she wasn’t neurotic like me.”
According to Gilbert, these neuroses come from an embarrass de richesses of sorts. Gilbert believes these abundant choices can lead to women harshly beating themselves up in the manner of: I should have [taken that promotion/not taken that promotion; married Bob/not married Bob; spellchecked the email before I sent it; gotten my PhD in Shakespeare; learned to speak Spanish; bought the red not the blue; moved to the country instead of the city….] You get the idea.
“I am not often kind to myself when I fall short,” Gilbert said. She encouraged us to mitigate our high aspirations with a little self-forgiveness.
I can get on board with that. I’ve discussed women and perfectionism in this space before. It’s something that I struggle with. This blog is one antidote to my own perfectionism. Sometimes, you’ll see grammatical errors and inconsistent British / American English spelling because…wait for it…I’m not perfect. Sadly, writing this blog is just one small and fun part of my job, so I can’t spend hours perfecting it. I have to let go. I practice self-forgiveness.
Gilbert closed by saying that there are four types of women in modern society:
Those who choose career over family
Those who choose family over career
Those who choose both
The Mystics – those who listen to a deeply resonant inner voice and follow it wherever it takes them
Suze Orman on women and money
Money isn’t the most important thing in life. “Oh, yes it is,” said Suze Orman (after marching on stage to Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life”). When mothers show her photos of their children (the most important thing in their lives), she reminds those women that they must nourish, clothe, and house those children. With money.
Research shows that (despite making up 50% of America’s workforce and 40% of its primary earners) one of the reasons women still make less money than men is because women don’t ask for what they’re worth in salary negotiations (check out this toolkit for women seeking a raise).
Orman said, “You undervalue who you are, so the world undervalues who you are.”
Donna Brazile on taking risks
“I’m from New Orleans where Santa Claus rides an alligator, and we cook with grease and spices.”
Brazile told us to “cook with spice” – to take some risks. “Your attitude determines your altitude, “ she said. “Don’t let anyone put you in a little box…and never take NO for an answer. When people say it won’t be done, I say: It shall be done. And done well.”
Martha Beck on the voice within
“Whatever you’re supposed to learn, your soul will latch on to.”
(Love that. It rings true, n’est-ce pas?)
Beck also had wisdom to share on decision-making. “Are the animal and the angel inside of you leaning towards the decision or against it? Your body gets stronger as you move towards your inner truth.”
She had us do an exercise where we laced our fingers together and tried to pull our hands apart. We had to state a lie about ourselves (this made pulling our hands apart very easy) and then a truth about ourselves (this made pulling our hands apart very difficult – our muscles and joints ostensibly cooperating with our inner truth).
The “animal and angel” in me were FULLY in favour of me throwing caution to the wind, taking a vacation day, and flying across the Atlantic for LYBL and a visit with my best friend (see Carolina and I with our “O Glow” and SWAG bags, below). And yes – it was worth it.
à bientôt,
Dale
P.S. – Have you been watching the World Cup in South Africa? Europeans take football/soccer very seriously (“Football, Vacation, God – in that order,” a European once told me). Whether or not I watch the game, I always know who won by the large, impromptu mob that congregates outside the Brussels Bourse, afterwards, which I can see (and sadly, hear) from my living room. So far, the Brazilians have been the most coordinated – they had a marching band AND a choreographed fan dance. Very impressive, indeed.
Posted on 18 June 2010 in Current Affairs, Events, International, Networking, Women mentors Permalink
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Jamaica Kincaid's Humor?
Can you believe that Jamaica Kincaid has a chapter in this book, Humor Me, ed. by Ian Frazier?
Her participation in this book could be explained by the long time friendship with the editor, Ian Frazier. She worked with him during her years at The New Yorker.
Check out the NPR review where Michael Schuab highlights Kincaid's piece:
Although Jamaica Kincaid and David Mamet might not be the first names you think of when someone mentions comedy, their short contributions are standouts, and their inclusion proves that comic writing doesn’t have to be zany and punchline-oriented.
I'm going to check out a copy at Borders' Library, soon.
Jamaica Kincaid in Israel; Interview Profile of RUTH
Published 11:43 18.06.10
Latest update 11:43 18.06.10
'An improbable story, my life'
Jamaica Kincaid left her home, name and culture behind, and embarked on what was to be an illustrious writing career. During a recent visit here, the Caribbean-born author talked about her complex relationships with Judaism - and the English language [Photo by: Daniel Tchetchik ]
By Maya Sela Jamaica Kincaid is surprised that many people still wonder at the fact that she converted to Judaism. It seems natural to her to be Jewish - and even to have served as president of her synagogue in Vermont. "Yes and I'm black and I'm a woman. Oh boy, it keeps piling on," she laughs. "I don't even think about it anymore. I haven't talked about it in a long time, no one has asked me about it. I forget that it might be interesting to anybody."
Kincaid was born Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson in 1949 on the Caribbean island of Antigua. At 16, her mother sent her off to work as an au pair in New York to help support the family. In 1973 she changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid, published her first article, and began writing for various publications. In 1976 she began to work at The New Yorker, where she was a staff writer until 1995. She married Allen Shawn, son of William Shawn, the legendary longtime editor of The New Yorker, and they had two children, who Kincaid says define themselves as both black and Jewish. She divorced Shawn - but adds that she certainly did not "divorce" Judaism.
Jamaica Kincaid.
Photo by: Daniel Tchetchik
Kincaid, who was in Israel last month as a guest of the Jerusalem International Writers Festival, is among America's prominent writers and a central figure in the world of Caribbean literature. Works that have been published in Hebrew translation are "Annie John" (originally published in 1985 ) and "Lucy" (1990 ) - two novellas about female adolescence, in which she revisits her own youth and the circumstances of her leaving Antigua and relocating to the United States. In subsequent books, not translated into Hebrew yet, she depicts her mother's life ("The Autobiography of My Mother," 1995 ) and her brother's death from AIDS ("My Brother," 1997 ). In her most recent work of fiction, "Mr. Potter" (2002 ), which was translated into Hebrew by Yaarit Tauber Ben-Yaakov , Kinkaid writes about her biological father, with whom she had virtually no contact.
Her recent visit was not her first to Israel. This time, she says, she was struck when visiting Bethlehem upon seeing a new Jewish settlement across the way.
"I wondered what they thought of each other when they looked across, two reflections," she says, adding: "I understand the impulse to put up the separation fence, but I also find that the imagery of the separation is so reminiscent of other images: the walls, the barbed wires. You think: Here's the thing about human beings and bad things - we do it again, but in a somewhat different form. The same thing doesn't happen twice. The same thing happens, but differently. Everyone would like to be the only victim. We don't make room for the fact that the other people are capable of narratives, that they are people."
Israel is going through a difficult time in terms of identity, Kincaid continues: "You can't have a democratic state and a privileged group of people. But it will work itself out. The bad guys in this story are also the good guys of another story, so it's very confusing. I think it is fascinating to see such confusion - you don't know whether you are bad or good. Sometimes you think: 'We have been treated so badly,' and then you turn around and do bad to others. I don't know if I have ever seen a country like this."
When it comes to taking a clear stand on Israeli politics, however, she has reservations: "I hesitate because I shouldn't come to someone's country and talk about them as if I know what to do. I want to make it clear that I didn't come here to preach to Israelis. We come from a country that's done horrible things and is doing horrible things in the world even with a president that I love. I love Obama, I think he is a great president, but he does things that I cannot agree with. He is a president of a country that is a pretty horrible country, and I don't think Israel is a horrible country."
She believes it is easier for Israelis to criticize Israel than for Americans to do so: "If we Americans say what we think, we go home [afterward] and meet American Jews who are really willing to do everything to destroy our lives. We meet American Jews who are devoted to Israel in their way - and I don't think it's in Israel's interest - but they will attack us and paint us as anti-Semites or self-hating Jews. It's very difficult to say anything critical of Israel. For instance, if you make an observation that some of the ways in which Israel has organized itself are awfully familiar and the familiar is apartheid, well, there might be a campaign to fire you from your job or not hire you."
Kincaid says she is sometimes astonished at her fellow Jews: "You'd never have thought the Jewish people were ignorant. I mean the admiration for someone like Sarah Palin - it's not widespread among Jews, but [is felt] in certain circles. And you think: How did Jews become ignorant? It's like one of these biblical moments where 'they all fell into a pit.' I think power is blinding. And then, you know, you have idiots from the other side who would say 'boycott Israel' ...
"The Israeli situation is not South Africa. It looks like it sometimes, but it's not. When you see the separate roads, it's shameful. When I was in Bethlehem yesterday and saw Rachel's Tomb - that's pretty hard, you know. The worshiping of the existence of it was for me so disturbing. Haven't you heard: 'Thou shalt have no graven images'? The tomb is a graven image."
This interview took place before the Gaza flotilla affair, but in a piece that appeared afterward, in the special Haaretz edition marking Hebrew Book Week, Kincaid wrote about American television coverage of the incident: "To go from channel to channel is to hear from the same people, the same words and phrases: We were set up; they had weapons; they had slingshots and metal pipes and marbles; they used our guns against us; we were defending ourselves; international waters; a provocation; the fight against terror is not an easy choice; a hard choice; we had no choice; Israel should; Israel should not; Gaza, Egypt and Hamas; these people are not peace loving; we are a peace-loving people.
"It's the Israeli ambassador to the United States [Michael Oren] who is really fascinating. He does not falter in his defense of his country's right to do anything. Right after the 'incident' (a word that I think goes well with that other word, 'situation' ) - when I first saw him on the air, he looked shaken. But then later, he was in full-throated form. He seemed to me to be saying that, in a world full of bad actors, why wasn't Israel allowed to be one of them."
Bronte fan
When speaking about her illustrious career, Kincaid explains her decision years ago to change her name: "I didn't want my parents to know I was writing. I didn't know if I would succeed at it, but I wanted to be a writer. In fact, I thought I would fail at it, and if I failed under another name they wouldn't laugh at me.
"I was very young when I did it. I was interested in style, I had cut off all my hair, bleached it blonde, and I had no eyebrows. I wore very odd clothes. And so I picked a name that was a combination of an island name and a very English name. Havana was one choice and Dominico was another, but I liked the combination of Jamaica Kincaid.
"I came from a background where to be a writer was unheard of. But I always wanted to write. I loved Charlotte Bronte when I was little, and I wanted to be Charlotte Bronte the way people want to be a princess. I had no idea what it meant, that it would be something to be responsible for, something that would have a meaning."
Kincaid's mother never accepted her new name, nor her profession, even when she became successful. Yet nothing changes in her singsong tone of voice as she explains: "[My mother] always thought that my becoming a writer was a form of putting on airs. She always thought I wanted to be something that I wasn't, that I was pretentious. She was never proud of me.
"She did see my success. People would go to Antigua to interview her about me, and she would charge them [money] and would give them the impression that I didn't support her, and would say: 'Well, you have to pay me.' I never minded it because it allowed me to write more. She would say she didn't read [my work] and I thought: Good! I can say anything."
Do you really think she never read your work?
Kincaid: "She did read it. She was jealous of me. She just simply couldn't believe it. It really is an improbable story, my life. I mean, I grew up in this poor place, with very limited circumstances, at about 16 years of age was sent by my family to work, and instead of remaining in the position into which I was sent, I somehow worked my way out of it without any help from anyone, just luck. You know, I met someone who said: 'You should meet the editor of The New Yorker.' The editor said: 'Could you try to write something and I'll see if you really can write.' I wrote something, he published it, and that was that. But it's all luck. It's improbable.
"I was in despair that my mother could have sent me out into the world all alone. I thought: How could she do that? How can I survive? I had no family, no friend. I went off to college in New Hampshire. I left my job as an au pair, spent a year in college, left because I wanted to be a writer, moved back to New York and in a year I was writing. And it's not because I'm especially brilliant: It's really [a case of] one of those fools going where angels wouldn't go."
You made decisions that most people do not make. You changed your name, you converted to Judaism.
"You mean my Hebrew name?"
You have a Hebrew name?
"Of course! Doesn't everybody? It's Ruth, what else?"
Of her decision to convert, she says: "It seemed so natural. It's not that I didn't give it a thought; there wasn't any reason to be thoughtful about it. It had become such a part of my life. I was trying to get the children to integrate all the different strands of their ancestral memory - that my family came from one part of the world through a certain set of historical events; their father's [Jewish] family, through a certain set of events, came from another part of the world and had its own ancestral memory. So I tried to say: 'This is who you are or who you could be,' and would take them to synagogue from when they were little. I realized they wouldn't stay if I just dropped them off and picked them up, so I began to stay and help out. Over time I became so involved in the synagogue that it was just clear I was a part of the life of the people [there], so I converted and never looked back."
Her husband and his family were actually disconnected from Judaism, and certainly did not ask her to convert, she adds. "I like the truth, and it was a true thing for my children that their father's family had a long attachment to the Jewish people through blood and memory. My children's grandmother grew up in a kosher home, so I didn't want them to wonder, you know: 'We find ourselves not being able to eat meat [in other places] and don't know why.'"
Not sentimental
Kincaid has a tendency not to let the reader identify with or like the protagonists she writes about.
"First of all, I think I'm writing very autobiographically, and my experience with the people I'm writing about - including myself - is not sentimental. It's very ... I want it to be true, to be real, and I think that romanticism interferes with what is true. And I think you should love the naked thing and then you can dress it up."
In general her work reads like a historical study of her own past, yet it also has the repetitiveness of prayer. She repeats sentences that create a feeling of emotional detachment . For example, in "Mr. Potter": "[A]nd he drove along the road almost in a stupor and said nothing to himself and sang nothing to himself and thought nothing to himself, Mr. Potter drove along and nothing crossed his mind and the world was blank and the world remained blank."
In a review of the Hebrew translation of "Mr. Potter" in the Haaretz literary supplement in 2004, Omri Herzog wrote: "Kincaid's writing stems from a wound - a wound that is as natural to the body as breathing. Kincaid attests that she wanted to write to forget the wound, in other words to forget herself and who she was 'then': a teenage girl in Antigua, present in the hall of mirrors of colonial, familial, class and gender oppression. The option of being a writer was perceived not as a medium for political liberation, but rather for suspending the physical pain. Thus writing is not a means for self-knowledge or self-awareness; it is the refuge from all these."
Kincaid says her relationship to the English language is likewise complicated, since it was the language of the British colonizer in Antigua until 1981, when the island won independence.
"My relationship to it is not an easy one, but it's what I got. What I got was English. My consciousness is influenced by Shakespeare, Milton, the Brontes - you name it. Franz Fanon writes about this thing called the double consciousness. Yes, I'm someone with it, and now I have a triple consciousness. But actually it turns out that that's a truly modern existence - you have more than one consciousness. It started out [as something that] was imposed, the colonialism and so on, but the more [people] meet each other, the more conscious we are of each other.
"The English language started out as a distortion in my life, but nothing remains the same, and so the distortion is now just normal. That is one of the things that will happen to all distortions: They become normal and turn into something else."
Latest update 11:43 18.06.10
'An improbable story, my life'
Jamaica Kincaid left her home, name and culture behind, and embarked on what was to be an illustrious writing career. During a recent visit here, the Caribbean-born author talked about her complex relationships with Judaism - and the English language [Photo by: Daniel Tchetchik ]
By Maya Sela Jamaica Kincaid is surprised that many people still wonder at the fact that she converted to Judaism. It seems natural to her to be Jewish - and even to have served as president of her synagogue in Vermont. "Yes and I'm black and I'm a woman. Oh boy, it keeps piling on," she laughs. "I don't even think about it anymore. I haven't talked about it in a long time, no one has asked me about it. I forget that it might be interesting to anybody."
Kincaid was born Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson in 1949 on the Caribbean island of Antigua. At 16, her mother sent her off to work as an au pair in New York to help support the family. In 1973 she changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid, published her first article, and began writing for various publications. In 1976 she began to work at The New Yorker, where she was a staff writer until 1995. She married Allen Shawn, son of William Shawn, the legendary longtime editor of The New Yorker, and they had two children, who Kincaid says define themselves as both black and Jewish. She divorced Shawn - but adds that she certainly did not "divorce" Judaism.
Jamaica Kincaid.
Photo by: Daniel Tchetchik
Kincaid, who was in Israel last month as a guest of the Jerusalem International Writers Festival, is among America's prominent writers and a central figure in the world of Caribbean literature. Works that have been published in Hebrew translation are "Annie John" (originally published in 1985 ) and "Lucy" (1990 ) - two novellas about female adolescence, in which she revisits her own youth and the circumstances of her leaving Antigua and relocating to the United States. In subsequent books, not translated into Hebrew yet, she depicts her mother's life ("The Autobiography of My Mother," 1995 ) and her brother's death from AIDS ("My Brother," 1997 ). In her most recent work of fiction, "Mr. Potter" (2002 ), which was translated into Hebrew by Yaarit Tauber Ben-Yaakov , Kinkaid writes about her biological father, with whom she had virtually no contact.
Her recent visit was not her first to Israel. This time, she says, she was struck when visiting Bethlehem upon seeing a new Jewish settlement across the way.
"I wondered what they thought of each other when they looked across, two reflections," she says, adding: "I understand the impulse to put up the separation fence, but I also find that the imagery of the separation is so reminiscent of other images: the walls, the barbed wires. You think: Here's the thing about human beings and bad things - we do it again, but in a somewhat different form. The same thing doesn't happen twice. The same thing happens, but differently. Everyone would like to be the only victim. We don't make room for the fact that the other people are capable of narratives, that they are people."
Israel is going through a difficult time in terms of identity, Kincaid continues: "You can't have a democratic state and a privileged group of people. But it will work itself out. The bad guys in this story are also the good guys of another story, so it's very confusing. I think it is fascinating to see such confusion - you don't know whether you are bad or good. Sometimes you think: 'We have been treated so badly,' and then you turn around and do bad to others. I don't know if I have ever seen a country like this."
When it comes to taking a clear stand on Israeli politics, however, she has reservations: "I hesitate because I shouldn't come to someone's country and talk about them as if I know what to do. I want to make it clear that I didn't come here to preach to Israelis. We come from a country that's done horrible things and is doing horrible things in the world even with a president that I love. I love Obama, I think he is a great president, but he does things that I cannot agree with. He is a president of a country that is a pretty horrible country, and I don't think Israel is a horrible country."
She believes it is easier for Israelis to criticize Israel than for Americans to do so: "If we Americans say what we think, we go home [afterward] and meet American Jews who are really willing to do everything to destroy our lives. We meet American Jews who are devoted to Israel in their way - and I don't think it's in Israel's interest - but they will attack us and paint us as anti-Semites or self-hating Jews. It's very difficult to say anything critical of Israel. For instance, if you make an observation that some of the ways in which Israel has organized itself are awfully familiar and the familiar is apartheid, well, there might be a campaign to fire you from your job or not hire you."
Kincaid says she is sometimes astonished at her fellow Jews: "You'd never have thought the Jewish people were ignorant. I mean the admiration for someone like Sarah Palin - it's not widespread among Jews, but [is felt] in certain circles. And you think: How did Jews become ignorant? It's like one of these biblical moments where 'they all fell into a pit.' I think power is blinding. And then, you know, you have idiots from the other side who would say 'boycott Israel' ...
"The Israeli situation is not South Africa. It looks like it sometimes, but it's not. When you see the separate roads, it's shameful. When I was in Bethlehem yesterday and saw Rachel's Tomb - that's pretty hard, you know. The worshiping of the existence of it was for me so disturbing. Haven't you heard: 'Thou shalt have no graven images'? The tomb is a graven image."
This interview took place before the Gaza flotilla affair, but in a piece that appeared afterward, in the special Haaretz edition marking Hebrew Book Week, Kincaid wrote about American television coverage of the incident: "To go from channel to channel is to hear from the same people, the same words and phrases: We were set up; they had weapons; they had slingshots and metal pipes and marbles; they used our guns against us; we were defending ourselves; international waters; a provocation; the fight against terror is not an easy choice; a hard choice; we had no choice; Israel should; Israel should not; Gaza, Egypt and Hamas; these people are not peace loving; we are a peace-loving people.
"It's the Israeli ambassador to the United States [Michael Oren] who is really fascinating. He does not falter in his defense of his country's right to do anything. Right after the 'incident' (a word that I think goes well with that other word, 'situation' ) - when I first saw him on the air, he looked shaken. But then later, he was in full-throated form. He seemed to me to be saying that, in a world full of bad actors, why wasn't Israel allowed to be one of them."
Bronte fan
When speaking about her illustrious career, Kincaid explains her decision years ago to change her name: "I didn't want my parents to know I was writing. I didn't know if I would succeed at it, but I wanted to be a writer. In fact, I thought I would fail at it, and if I failed under another name they wouldn't laugh at me.
"I was very young when I did it. I was interested in style, I had cut off all my hair, bleached it blonde, and I had no eyebrows. I wore very odd clothes. And so I picked a name that was a combination of an island name and a very English name. Havana was one choice and Dominico was another, but I liked the combination of Jamaica Kincaid.
"I came from a background where to be a writer was unheard of. But I always wanted to write. I loved Charlotte Bronte when I was little, and I wanted to be Charlotte Bronte the way people want to be a princess. I had no idea what it meant, that it would be something to be responsible for, something that would have a meaning."
Kincaid's mother never accepted her new name, nor her profession, even when she became successful. Yet nothing changes in her singsong tone of voice as she explains: "[My mother] always thought that my becoming a writer was a form of putting on airs. She always thought I wanted to be something that I wasn't, that I was pretentious. She was never proud of me.
"She did see my success. People would go to Antigua to interview her about me, and she would charge them [money] and would give them the impression that I didn't support her, and would say: 'Well, you have to pay me.' I never minded it because it allowed me to write more. She would say she didn't read [my work] and I thought: Good! I can say anything."
Do you really think she never read your work?
Kincaid: "She did read it. She was jealous of me. She just simply couldn't believe it. It really is an improbable story, my life. I mean, I grew up in this poor place, with very limited circumstances, at about 16 years of age was sent by my family to work, and instead of remaining in the position into which I was sent, I somehow worked my way out of it without any help from anyone, just luck. You know, I met someone who said: 'You should meet the editor of The New Yorker.' The editor said: 'Could you try to write something and I'll see if you really can write.' I wrote something, he published it, and that was that. But it's all luck. It's improbable.
"I was in despair that my mother could have sent me out into the world all alone. I thought: How could she do that? How can I survive? I had no family, no friend. I went off to college in New Hampshire. I left my job as an au pair, spent a year in college, left because I wanted to be a writer, moved back to New York and in a year I was writing. And it's not because I'm especially brilliant: It's really [a case of] one of those fools going where angels wouldn't go."
You made decisions that most people do not make. You changed your name, you converted to Judaism.
"You mean my Hebrew name?"
You have a Hebrew name?
"Of course! Doesn't everybody? It's Ruth, what else?"
Of her decision to convert, she says: "It seemed so natural. It's not that I didn't give it a thought; there wasn't any reason to be thoughtful about it. It had become such a part of my life. I was trying to get the children to integrate all the different strands of their ancestral memory - that my family came from one part of the world through a certain set of historical events; their father's [Jewish] family, through a certain set of events, came from another part of the world and had its own ancestral memory. So I tried to say: 'This is who you are or who you could be,' and would take them to synagogue from when they were little. I realized they wouldn't stay if I just dropped them off and picked them up, so I began to stay and help out. Over time I became so involved in the synagogue that it was just clear I was a part of the life of the people [there], so I converted and never looked back."
Her husband and his family were actually disconnected from Judaism, and certainly did not ask her to convert, she adds. "I like the truth, and it was a true thing for my children that their father's family had a long attachment to the Jewish people through blood and memory. My children's grandmother grew up in a kosher home, so I didn't want them to wonder, you know: 'We find ourselves not being able to eat meat [in other places] and don't know why.'"
Not sentimental
Kincaid has a tendency not to let the reader identify with or like the protagonists she writes about.
"First of all, I think I'm writing very autobiographically, and my experience with the people I'm writing about - including myself - is not sentimental. It's very ... I want it to be true, to be real, and I think that romanticism interferes with what is true. And I think you should love the naked thing and then you can dress it up."
In general her work reads like a historical study of her own past, yet it also has the repetitiveness of prayer. She repeats sentences that create a feeling of emotional detachment . For example, in "Mr. Potter": "[A]nd he drove along the road almost in a stupor and said nothing to himself and sang nothing to himself and thought nothing to himself, Mr. Potter drove along and nothing crossed his mind and the world was blank and the world remained blank."
In a review of the Hebrew translation of "Mr. Potter" in the Haaretz literary supplement in 2004, Omri Herzog wrote: "Kincaid's writing stems from a wound - a wound that is as natural to the body as breathing. Kincaid attests that she wanted to write to forget the wound, in other words to forget herself and who she was 'then': a teenage girl in Antigua, present in the hall of mirrors of colonial, familial, class and gender oppression. The option of being a writer was perceived not as a medium for political liberation, but rather for suspending the physical pain. Thus writing is not a means for self-knowledge or self-awareness; it is the refuge from all these."
Kincaid says her relationship to the English language is likewise complicated, since it was the language of the British colonizer in Antigua until 1981, when the island won independence.
"My relationship to it is not an easy one, but it's what I got. What I got was English. My consciousness is influenced by Shakespeare, Milton, the Brontes - you name it. Franz Fanon writes about this thing called the double consciousness. Yes, I'm someone with it, and now I have a triple consciousness. But actually it turns out that that's a truly modern existence - you have more than one consciousness. It started out [as something that] was imposed, the colonialism and so on, but the more [people] meet each other, the more conscious we are of each other.
"The English language started out as a distortion in my life, but nothing remains the same, and so the distortion is now just normal. That is one of the things that will happen to all distortions: They become normal and turn into something else."
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Jamaica Kincaid - Letteratura, Festival internazionale di Roma
Jamaica Kincaid - Letteratura, Festival internazionale di Roma: "JAMAICA KINCAID
Author
Participates at:
15 JUNE DESTINY - Life forms: choice and chance
Read: Il Decano e Mrs. Hess - Unpublished
Of: Jamaica Kincaid"
Jamaica Kincaid's theme for her June 15th reading was Destiny- Life forms: choice and chance. She read an unpublished work: "The Dean and Mrs. Hess."
Author
Participates at:
15 JUNE DESTINY - Life forms: choice and chance
Read: Il Decano e Mrs. Hess - Unpublished
Of: Jamaica Kincaid"
Jamaica Kincaid's theme for her June 15th reading was Destiny- Life forms: choice and chance. She read an unpublished work: "The Dean and Mrs. Hess."
Festival delle Letterature in Rome
Festival delle Letterature in Rome: "Festival delle Letterature
The Roman Forums - site of the Festival delle Letterature. Rome's Festival of Literature takes place every year in the Basilica of Maxentius in the Roman Forums. It features a wide range of international and domestic writers, who present a piece of work specially written to the theme of the festival - previous years' themes have included 'fear, hope' and 'real, imaginary' . Entrance is free, but limited by the number of available seats.
The range of authors appearing is always an unusual one that caters to a wide variety of tastes - in the past Banana Yoshimoto, Paul Auster, Salman Rushdie, Susan Sontag, Doris Lessing, Jonathan Franzen, and Gore Vidal have all appeared."
The Roman Forums - site of the Festival delle Letterature. Rome's Festival of Literature takes place every year in the Basilica of Maxentius in the Roman Forums. It features a wide range of international and domestic writers, who present a piece of work specially written to the theme of the festival - previous years' themes have included 'fear, hope' and 'real, imaginary' . Entrance is free, but limited by the number of available seats.
The range of authors appearing is always an unusual one that caters to a wide variety of tastes - in the past Banana Yoshimoto, Paul Auster, Salman Rushdie, Susan Sontag, Doris Lessing, Jonathan Franzen, and Gore Vidal have all appeared."
Festival Letterature di Roma 2010
Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson (Elaine Cynthia + biological father surname + step-father surname) changed to writer's name = Jamaica Kincaid
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Impressions of a Travel Writer
Jamaica Kincaid writes autobiographically. Whatever and whenever, Kincaid writes, she writes autobiographically. Recently, I reflected about her time spent in Dominica. Her mother is from this island, though she left home at 16 years old and never moved back. Kincaid was sent to Dominica when she was 9 years old. She was in trouble. As a young girl, her mother, Anne Richardson (Potter), had a strong personality. She fought with her father. She fought with her sister. Her mother was Carib (Indian), and was seen in a more friendly light by Anne. Jamaica Kincaid also liked her grandmother particularly well. (Ma Chess?) She writes in The Best American Travel Writing (2005) that she traveled to Mahaut from Roseau (Port) on the ship called "The Rippon". She said she was sick the entire trip and upon her arrival, no one was there to greet her. As a matter of fact, her relatives were not expecting her because her Dominican aunt would not open letters from Anne as they were having a fight and not opening letters was a family form of "the silent treatment". The description of the taxi drive from Roseau to Mahaut involves a dangerous trip near steep cliffs, however, when I traveled there, I did not see steep mountains in the Mahaut area. In other parts of the island, it is very steep. I wondered if I had gotton the location wrong. I still wonder about that. Maybe it's technically in Mahaut, but actually in the inner more mountainous area. Kincaid's family had a plantation there where they grew coffee and other plants. I found all of this detail in the introduction of the book. Most editors of a book within a series write about the contents of the collection. Afterall this is what the purpose of the introduction is generally understood to be- to spark your interest in the essays by telling you a little bit about each one. Nevertheless, Kincaid writes an essay about her self; about how she became a travel writer. I thought that she would have an essay in the collection, which would explain why she has gone into such detail about her own experience, but it is not there. She writes about the feeling of displacement that all travel writers experience. She explains that most of the writers feel comfortable with there circumstances and that's why they want to explore other places. She claims that they think there vision of the world, how much better they have it and how they want to share it, is universal. She also says other travel writers may not agree, and that she's fine with that, however, she will not change her mind about their reasons.The description of Dominica is lush, green, steep and it rains most of the time. She said she learned to walk in the rain while there, and that in Antigua no one went out in the rain. People would cancel plans because of the rain, but in Dominica, rain was taken for granted. When I reflect upon the land, I see her grandmother, squatting down, and cooking on an outdoor stove. I see her independence. Her ability to not talk with her husband and even her own daughter. I see her sleeping on a low bed with Kincaid curled up next to her but both in there own space. I think of Kincaid and her life in Dominica. I think of her rejection by her own mother, and even upon her return, I see her mother too busy to notice her girl. I also see a girl writing angry lies on notes, and placing them under a rock- just like the scene in Autobiography of My Mother.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Jamaica Kincaid's Awareness:Impact of an Image
Smithsonian Museum
; Edward Lamson Henry, Kept In
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The kept-in girl in the painting is the artist, writer, or dreamer, forced to grow in a different light. But it's a situation that will bring rich rewards. "She's a very intelligent person," Kincaid told us. "She's plotting a new way to be. She's plotting her own light. I find her a revolutionary figure. She's a philosopher. She's trapped in with knowledge. She doesn't know what to do with it, but will." (Jamaica Kincaid) May 5, 2009
Eye Level: Jamaica Kincaid on Being Kept-in
; Edward Lamson Henry, Kept In~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The kept-in girl in the painting is the artist, writer, or dreamer, forced to grow in a different light. But it's a situation that will bring rich rewards. "She's a very intelligent person," Kincaid told us. "She's plotting a new way to be. She's plotting her own light. I find her a revolutionary figure. She's a philosopher. She's trapped in with knowledge. She doesn't know what to do with it, but will." (Jamaica Kincaid) May 5, 2009
Eye Level: Jamaica Kincaid on Being Kept-in
Smithsonian Featured Writer
A Painting That Inspires:
Each speaker chooses a single powerful image and investigates its meanings, revealing how artworks reflect American identity and inspire creativity in many different fields. (Smithonian Featured Writer)
Kincaid selected Kept In by Edward Lamson Henry 1889
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Jamica Kincaid: Caribbean Writer at Brown University Talk
Isabel Gottlieb
March 6, 2009
"Kincaid read from and commented on the journals, which she called a "founding text" of her own work and life, in Salomon 101 last night to kick off Caribbean Heritage Week. Kincaid spoke about how Columbus' initial impressions of the Caribbean set the template for how foreigners - specifically, white Europeans - continue to see the region today and what it has meant for people of Caribbean heritage. "
Jamaica Kincaid: Professor-Caribbean Writer
CMC News Release (web page) October 2009
American Academy of Arts and Sciences Inductee
"I am very flattered," Kincaid says. "This honor came from out of the blue. I’m particularly touched by the number of people in the Academy, especially the number of scientists, which I think of as very thrilling."
"Jamaica's induction into the Academy is a well-deserved honor," noted President Pamela Gann. "Claremont McKenna College is pleased that the accomplishments of a member of our distinguished faculty are being recognized by such a prestigious organization."Faculty Profile at Claremont McKinna College California
Jamaica Kincaid Conservative: Irony and Criticism from the UK?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The University of York, Department of English and Related Literature.
(Heslington, York, UK)
UK Image of Kincaid visiting the American South , Sewanee, Tennessee 1991
Writer Jamaica Kincaid (Antigua/US)
in a photograph taken in 1991 in Sewanee, Tennessee near a Confederate Memorial Site.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The University of York, Department of English and Related Literature.
(Heslington, York, UK)
UK Image of Kincaid visiting the American South , Sewanee, Tennessee 1991
Writer Jamaica Kincaid (Antigua/US)
in a photograph taken in 1991 in Sewanee, Tennessee near a Confederate Memorial Site.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
American-Commentary Series: Vermont's Big Three
Commentary Series: Vermont's Big Three: "Monday, 02/18/02 12am
Vermont's Big Three
By Jules Older, Albany, Vermont
Who is Vermont's leading adult fiction author? Let's define leading as most renowned, most acclaimed, most internationally known and respected.
So here's my answer: three writers share the glory spot, the top step on the podium. All three are women. None are native to Vermont. And two are from islands in the Caribbean. The third is from closer, geographically, but so distant in most other ways, it might as well be a tropical island.
My picks for Vermont's leading adult fiction author are: Jamaica Kincaid from Antigua, Julia Alvarez from the Dominican Republic, and Grace Paley from de Bronx.
Jamaica Kincaid is the darkest of the three, and I don't mean skin color. Many of her characters are without illusion, without mirth, without optimism. Here's how the title character of LUCY describes herself: I did not have position, I did not have money at my disposal. I had memory, I had anger, I had despair."
Julia Alvarez paints from a broader emotional palette. Her characters fight and moan and despair, but they also love and laugh and meet life head-on. In her novel, YO, here's how Yo's mother describes her American experience: To tell you the truth, the hardest thing coming to this country wasn't the winter everyone warned me about it was the language. If you had to choose the most tongue-twisting way of saying you love somebody, then say it in English. For the longest time I thought Americans must be smarter than us Latins because how else could they speak such a difficult language. After a while, it struck me the other way. Given the choice of languages, only a fool would choose to speak English on purpose.
And here, in a story called THE LOUDEST VOICE, Grace Paley's young lead character describes her voice and her surroundings: There is a certain place where dumb-waiters boom, doors slam, dishes crash; every window is a mother s mouth bidding the street shut up, go skate somewhere else, come home. My voice is the loudest.
So what does it say about them that these three star writers chose to live in Vermont, far from palm trees and loud city streets? To me it says that they were bold enough, ruthless enough, curious enough to leave family and the familiar to create a new life for themselves. That boldness is brilliantly reflected in their writing.
And what does it say about Vermont? To me it says several things. That, despite our cold climate, we are a desirable resting place for writers. That we accept the unusual, the different, the creative, and make them feel something approximating at home. It says that we appreciate accomplishment but give the accomplisher enough room to go to the store and grow her garden in peace.
Our reward is living next door to some of the world's finest writers.
This is Jules Older in Albany, Vermont, the Soul of the Kingdom.
Another Vermont site about the number of writers living in Vermont: Moving to the Write
Vermont's Big Three
By Jules Older, Albany, Vermont
Who is Vermont's leading adult fiction author? Let's define leading as most renowned, most acclaimed, most internationally known and respected.
So here's my answer: three writers share the glory spot, the top step on the podium. All three are women. None are native to Vermont. And two are from islands in the Caribbean. The third is from closer, geographically, but so distant in most other ways, it might as well be a tropical island.
My picks for Vermont's leading adult fiction author are: Jamaica Kincaid from Antigua, Julia Alvarez from the Dominican Republic, and Grace Paley from de Bronx.
Jamaica Kincaid is the darkest of the three, and I don't mean skin color. Many of her characters are without illusion, without mirth, without optimism. Here's how the title character of LUCY describes herself: I did not have position, I did not have money at my disposal. I had memory, I had anger, I had despair."
Julia Alvarez paints from a broader emotional palette. Her characters fight and moan and despair, but they also love and laugh and meet life head-on. In her novel, YO, here's how Yo's mother describes her American experience: To tell you the truth, the hardest thing coming to this country wasn't the winter everyone warned me about it was the language. If you had to choose the most tongue-twisting way of saying you love somebody, then say it in English. For the longest time I thought Americans must be smarter than us Latins because how else could they speak such a difficult language. After a while, it struck me the other way. Given the choice of languages, only a fool would choose to speak English on purpose.
And here, in a story called THE LOUDEST VOICE, Grace Paley's young lead character describes her voice and her surroundings: There is a certain place where dumb-waiters boom, doors slam, dishes crash; every window is a mother s mouth bidding the street shut up, go skate somewhere else, come home. My voice is the loudest.
So what does it say about them that these three star writers chose to live in Vermont, far from palm trees and loud city streets? To me it says that they were bold enough, ruthless enough, curious enough to leave family and the familiar to create a new life for themselves. That boldness is brilliantly reflected in their writing.
And what does it say about Vermont? To me it says several things. That, despite our cold climate, we are a desirable resting place for writers. That we accept the unusual, the different, the creative, and make them feel something approximating at home. It says that we appreciate accomplishment but give the accomplisher enough room to go to the store and grow her garden in peace.
Our reward is living next door to some of the world's finest writers.
This is Jules Older in Albany, Vermont, the Soul of the Kingdom.
Another Vermont site about the number of writers living in Vermont: Moving to the Write
American Teen: Smart Girl
An American teen oriented site that is supported by the National Science Foundation and the University of Michigan.
SmartGirl
Aquarius: "Famous Female Aquarius:
Jamaica Kincaid (born May 25, 1949) is an American writer, although she was born in Antigua. When she was a teen, she got a job in the United States as an au pair (nanny). Instead of sending the money home to her parents, whose morals she disagreed with, she worked odd jobs to stay in New York City, all the while writing notes for stories. One day, a good friend got ahold of some her notes and published them! To be an author, she changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid, which allowed her a break from the past and let her feel comfortable referencing that past for her work. She has published several works of fiction and even some nonfiction. We love Jamaica Kincaid because she is a strong woman who was not afraid to stand up for what she knew was right, even if it meant taking an uncertain path and going against her family. She used writing as a therapeutic way to deal with a dissatisfying and difficult past. Because she made the hard decision to follow her dreams with all her heart, she is now very happy with her life. She teaches in beautiful Vermont, where she now has a loving and supportive family with her husband and two children.
SmartGirl
Aquarius: "Famous Female Aquarius:
Jamaica Kincaid (born May 25, 1949) is an American writer, although she was born in Antigua. When she was a teen, she got a job in the United States as an au pair (nanny). Instead of sending the money home to her parents, whose morals she disagreed with, she worked odd jobs to stay in New York City, all the while writing notes for stories. One day, a good friend got ahold of some her notes and published them! To be an author, she changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid, which allowed her a break from the past and let her feel comfortable referencing that past for her work. She has published several works of fiction and even some nonfiction. We love Jamaica Kincaid because she is a strong woman who was not afraid to stand up for what she knew was right, even if it meant taking an uncertain path and going against her family. She used writing as a therapeutic way to deal with a dissatisfying and difficult past. Because she made the hard decision to follow her dreams with all her heart, she is now very happy with her life. She teaches in beautiful Vermont, where she now has a loving and supportive family with her husband and two children.
Take note of the happy ending of Jamaica Kincaid's life story.
At the Bottom of the River is the most difficult to read. Why don't they recommend
Annie John?
Canadian Blog by Claire Go
kiss a cloud: Readathon Hour 24: "I can't even begin to express how much I love Jamaica Kincaid. This isn't her best, probably even my least favourite of her books so far. Still, it is beautiful and I loved it. My heart soars when I read her. Maybe it's because I've grown to love her writing so much. But for those reading her for the first time, this won't make much of an impression."
Blogger Claire Go on
A Small Place
E-mail comment:
"You are right, my reaction was purely a reader's response. I'm afraid I'm a terrible critic, as my pleasure in reading relies heavily on the aesthetic, i.e. the beauty of language, and what moves me emotionally, etc. As I do not remember much of what I had read before, just basing on the most recent, which was A Small Place, I do not think she was overly angry, but I do sense some bitterness. Her resentment towards the British capitalists was evident throughout the book. It was even the whole point of the book, I think, and not really Antigua itself. I have no biases against so-called angry authors, however. And yes, I do think her anger is justifiable. How can one not be angry with that history? What's great about her is that she is able to transform her anger into something truly beautiful and worth reading, and still able to send out the message. I believe I had read Girl before. If I'm not mistaken, it's one of the stories in At the Bottom of the River. I'll check my shelf later. I didn't know you were a blogger, I'll have to check it right away!
By the way, my last name is Go. Yes, you may use it, although I doubt I would have anything worthwhile to say. Haha. :)"
Blogger Claire Go on
A Small Place
E-mail comment:
"You are right, my reaction was purely a reader's response. I'm afraid I'm a terrible critic, as my pleasure in reading relies heavily on the aesthetic, i.e. the beauty of language, and what moves me emotionally, etc. As I do not remember much of what I had read before, just basing on the most recent, which was A Small Place, I do not think she was overly angry, but I do sense some bitterness. Her resentment towards the British capitalists was evident throughout the book. It was even the whole point of the book, I think, and not really Antigua itself. I have no biases against so-called angry authors, however. And yes, I do think her anger is justifiable. How can one not be angry with that history? What's great about her is that she is able to transform her anger into something truly beautiful and worth reading, and still able to send out the message. I believe I had read Girl before. If I'm not mistaken, it's one of the stories in At the Bottom of the River. I'll check my shelf later. I didn't know you were a blogger, I'll have to check it right away!
By the way, my last name is Go. Yes, you may use it, although I doubt I would have anything worthwhile to say. Haha. :)"
"Get Jamaica" Clarifies Confusion About Jamaica Kincaid, the Place
Question: (Jamaican reader emails question)
Where is Jamaica Kincaid?
Answer: "Jamaica Kincaid is not a location-a very very very common misunderstanding."
"Her real name is Cynthia Potter Richardson."
"Lucy is a description of her (Kincaid's) adulthood in coming to America."
"Go to Amazon.com and you can find... An Autobiography of her Mother"
Interesting (mis)-information from Jamaican news source http://www.getjamaica.com/
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Transcultural Women
"It Doesn't Matter What You do or Where You Go": Fleeing Cross-Culturality in Jamaica Kincaids' A Small Place, Annie John, Lucy and Autobiography of My Mother. Chapter 4 Pauline T. Newton, in Transcultural Women 2005 p 77-105
Note on Kincaid's Hair
What does Kincaid coloring her hair blonde and cutting it short mean? How is it related to identity? Comments in these footnotes speak to these issues.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Kincaid Speaks on Gardens
Studio 4 Ideas Center WCPN Radio Interview September 22, 2009
"The Tree of Life is agriculture and the Tree of Knowledge is horticulture...;"
"after people have enough to eat, then they go into growing for beauty"
Jamaica Kincaid
http://www.wcpn.org/WCPN/an/27911
"The Tree of Life is agriculture and the Tree of Knowledge is horticulture...;"
"after people have enough to eat, then they go into growing for beauty"
Jamaica Kincaid
http://www.wcpn.org/WCPN/an/27911
Thursday, May 7, 2009
The Autobiographical Impact on Kincaid`s Writing
Individual Dynamic; Kincaid as herself
“I write about myself for the most part, and about things that have happened to me. Everything I say is true, and everything I say is not true. You couldn't admit any of it to a court of law. It would not be good evidence.”
Jamaica Kincaid (Mo Review interview, Kay Bonnetti)
Does Jamaica Kincaid write autobiographically? The preceding quotation seems to be an answer to this question; however, she seems to enjoy muddying up a clear answer by both affirming and contradicting herself in the same answer. Later on within this same interview, rather than clarifying her answer, Kincaid attributes her ambiguity to her Caribbean ancestry, continuing to embed her formative identity into this location.
In J.Brooks Bouson`s book, Jamaica Kincaid; Writing Memory, Writing Back to the Mother, assertive statements about Jamaica Kincaid`s identity and intention are tidily solved as Kincaid and her works are placed neatly within the psychological field. Her motivation is attributed to an experience of shame and trauma experienced primarily within the mother-daughter relationship. Though this book appears to address the psychological aspects of Kincaid`s life, the differences between cultures of the United States and the Caribbean are collapsed. Kincaid is viewed within the minority construct within the United States.
This oversight of cultural difference between the Caribbean and the US is most apparent in the simplification of the mother, Annie Drew, who is characterized as a dominating shame inducing mother. The complete oversight of Kincaid`s contradiction of her understandings, her own ambivalent portrayals of herself and her Antiguan family, points to a serious flaw in Bouson`s analysis. The glossing over of cultural difference and simplification of understanding is a problem. When Kincaid’s contradictions are admitted to, they are attributed to her effort to gain greater personal freedom, which is similar to the social construct of the American feminist`s independence movement. Bouson repeatedly writes that Kincaid had a cruel and humiliating mother, without considering Annie Drew`s place within Antiguan society. What stresses might she have been under to behave in so harsh a manner towards her daughter? In two books, Kincaid writes that her mother should not have had children (My Brother, Lucy) and Bouson takes her at her word; but what does Kincaid actually and permanently mean this statement? Is she actually saying that her mother never was an adequate mother? By inquiring further, it soon becomes clear that Kincaid also has moments of praise toward her mother. She attributes her reading skill to her mother, her writer`s voice is directly connected to her mother. If Kincaid actually hated her cruel mother as Bousen claims, why would she have named her daughter Annie, after her mother? Kincaid`s complication of her relationship with her mother can be discovered by noting the factual contradictions uncovered in reviews, interviews, and in her fiction and nonfiction examined over her lifetime.
This question points to another oversight, as a writer who seems self-aware yet continually contradicts herself, maybe she has a reason for her inconsistencies? What would be her reason for this ambiguity? Individuals change over time; and too, their opinions may change based on situational reasons, more information, or even whim. Anyone who has written privately in a journal knows that the explorations there are frequently transitory insights that are revised or re-understood at a later time, especially when subjects are revisited over many years. Kincaid’s work has to be viewed within a cultural framework that accounts for her individuality. Kincaid writes public journals that play with the tropes of autobiography but always feel as if they might be revised again.
Reflecting back to Kincaid´s comment that her mother should not have had children, would not circumstances create a powerful woman such as Annie Drew who pushes forward even as she makes mistakes? Consider the chapter, “Girl” in At the Bottom of the River, where the mother continually tells the daughter that she will become a “slut”. Some Caribbean students have responded that the mother is worried about the daughter and wants to protect her from what has happened to so many others. It is not rare within the Caribbean for a parent to use negative/harsh criticism in order to express concern for the child’s safety or to prevent mistakes. What is seen as a cruel comment by Bouson, should be placed in the Caribbean context.
Kincaid said in an interview that she stopped criticizing her mother because her mother did not have the public access to respond in a fair way. Kincaid has been able to write personally and provide her own perceptions whereas those within her family cannot publicly respond. Kincaid reveals in this interview that she is carrying on an argument, like a public street fight, but she realizes the other side cannot be heard. Anne Drew is verbally gifted. Kincaid writes about her mother´s talent in her collection of essays, In a Small Place; it is a sense of fair play that later constrains Kincaid. She knows that her mother`s gift for public rebuttal is unavailable.
If the reader were to set aside everything outside of the text, author biography and personality and just look at the written words alone, would this be a fair reading of Kincaid? The author, Margaret Atwood writes that since the author’s life factors are always changing and flexible, the only reliable understanding of the work is found within the work itself, i.e. the only truth to be found is within the text. This disconnected approach cannot be applied to Kincaid’s writing because she repeatedly references the author and her biography. Sometimes Kincaid uses accurate names, or changes them slightly. She also elaborates on events that occur from one work to another, only shifting the emotional tone or casting the events in a different light. Additionally, when Kincaid writes, there is a Caribbean audience whose presence hovers within the text even while she seems to address a western (or American) audience. This presence makes it difficult to isolate the work outside of multiple contexts. The reader of Kincaid becomes obsessed with the author’s biography, what is a factually true statement verses an emotionally true one? What is in fact a lie? Kincaid writes to this reader by relentlessly pointing to her biography.
In Walking in the Himalayas, Kincaid writes that she is obsessing about her son, Harold; she is excessively fearful of his well being, though he has stayed home in Vermont and she is the one traveling. She has encountered threatening military Maoist and has more than once felt threatened. Nevertheless, she worries like an over protective mother. She continually writes about her motherly anxiety but her fear for her son seems to be out of place. After all, he is in a much safer environment than Kincaid. Her concern comes across as somewhat forced or put on. In this same context, Kincaid is troubled over calling herself Canadian, in order to hide from the angry militants, but she writes that she “would never call herself or think to call herself anything other than American” and later she writes that she could only be called “Antiguan now living in Vermont.” All of her contradictions are related to a kind of identity movement that can only be securely grounded in Antigua.
What are the reasons for her changes? In My Brother she reverts to her own family as a healthy new space/place for herself but her old role as daughter and sister does show a shift towards peace making. When Kincaid visits her home with her children, she encourages their relationship with her mother even though Kincaid points out that there is a competitive feeling between them. Her mother continually tries to obtain confirmation that her grandchildren like her better than their mother. When the grandmother believes that they like her better, she celebrates but Kincaid just accepts that this is a quality of her mother’s love. She also makes a genuine attempt to know her youngest brother who later dies of AIDS despite her active involvement in obtaining treatment and drugs for him from the United States. When she returns to the states, she continually refers to her Vermont home as the perfect place and her ideal role within her family. She never mentions that her husband can never travel with her to Antigua because of his agoraphobia or any other domestic points where problems in her paradise might exist. So much so that many are surprised when they find out that she is divorced. These inconsistencies create questions about what is hidden and what is revealed by Kincaid creating a wary atmosphere when reading her work.
Two theoretical/critical approaches are particularly relevant when considering Kincaid’s autobiography and her writing focus; these are the Feminist Standpoint Theory and the individualist’s perspective. Both approaches point to the question, who does Kincaid represent? Does she speak for a community?
One aspect of Kincaid’s identity formation has to do with her shifting sometimes called fluid subject position. Nevertheless, she has been latched onto by various groups who claim her as their own, African American scholars and American feminists, for example. Kincaid is classified by publishers as African American but Kincaid does not actually embrace the classification. Nevertheless, she often is an invited speaker to activities that celebrate African American contributions to literature. She has been both embraced and rejected by feminists but claims that she does not want to box her creative self into a particular perspective. Is Kincaid a feminist? This is too broad of a question and it makes more sense to focus on to one approach, such as Feminist Standpoint Theory as understood by Nancy Harcourt. (Her input to this question is particularly valuable because she also writes about autobiography and subject positions.) Does Jamaica Kincaid have a standpoint? Does she have a position to argue from? Clearly it is difficult to place her without a through analysis of her written texts and her interviews.
Does being flexible mean that there is no standpoint? Brooke Lenz argues that Kincaid’s multiple standpoints offer a way to more accurately understand her experience of being a woman and the power dynamic that characterizes the role of a post-colonial subject. Kincaid refuses to be boxed into a pre-constructed identity because she wants to maintain her freedom and nurture her creativity. The resultant oxymoronic identity construction is highly individualized. An example of a competent woman falling into non-feminists discourse is found in My Garden Book. Kincaid points out that she cannot handle money. She writes that her husband will not allow her to write checks because she does not keep track of the accounts. Her husband has to pay all the bills. Feminist scholars who want to claim Kincaid as their spokesperson or a role model, must revolt at her reference of the gender biased script of the woman who cannot handle money. Kincaid’s love of all things domestic [her own words] might also rankle, even though the concept of domestic space has a more complicated meaning related to a power base and as validation in African American and Caribbean writing and living.
Returning to Standpoint Theory, Lenz interrogates Lucy by referring to classic literary frames such as identity and point of view in order to question if Lucy has a standpoint -or rather to show how Lucy arrives at a standpoint by reflecting on the processes she undergoes while adjusting to an alien country, the United States. It is important to consider that Standpoint Theory has most often been used within the field of the social sciences and applied to identity and social behavior. Kincaid’s work can be more easily connected to social science analysis because it is autobiographically based; it is uniquely situated.
As to Kincaid’s standpoint, can she be a feminist if she does not claim it is so? Even without the term feminist, it is clear that Kincaid`s characters Annie in Annie John and Lucy in Lucy were both rebellious because of an unequal difference in how the genders are treated. Annie John spoke of her change in relation with her mother after her brothers were born; Lucy, too, mentions the obstacle of her brother’s birth to her education, both character’s mention that the reason they left Antigua was to earn money to send home. Kincaid confirms that her mother did intend for her to send money home to help support the family but she decided to break from the family and cultural expectation of self-sacrifice. The entire concept of privileging males over females as it relates to education and expectation is addressed frequently in most of Kincaid’s books. For example, Lucy confronts the double standard related to sexual freedom and becomes empowered through enjoying sexuality without commitment and without love. Annie rebels when her brothers are born and a new set of expectations for her behavior are insisted upon.
These two core threads connected to the feminist movement; i.e., the imbalance of power through unequal treatment of the genders, specifically the preference of sons over daughters, and through the double-standard regarding sexual freedom, fit in with most definitions of a feminist. Kincaid’s reason for resisting labels is well documented but they primarily focus on the constraint that those labels might place on her writing. There is tension between an author’s freedom to create and producing work that is marketable. Kincaid’s resistance to the feminist identification while calling attention to well known feminist’s concerns is likely her way of negotiating a creative space for her individuality while gesturing toward the concerns of a particular identifiable group.
“I write about myself for the most part, and about things that have happened to me. Everything I say is true, and everything I say is not true. You couldn't admit any of it to a court of law. It would not be good evidence.”
Jamaica Kincaid (Mo Review interview, Kay Bonnetti)
Does Jamaica Kincaid write autobiographically? The preceding quotation seems to be an answer to this question; however, she seems to enjoy muddying up a clear answer by both affirming and contradicting herself in the same answer. Later on within this same interview, rather than clarifying her answer, Kincaid attributes her ambiguity to her Caribbean ancestry, continuing to embed her formative identity into this location.
In J.Brooks Bouson`s book, Jamaica Kincaid; Writing Memory, Writing Back to the Mother, assertive statements about Jamaica Kincaid`s identity and intention are tidily solved as Kincaid and her works are placed neatly within the psychological field. Her motivation is attributed to an experience of shame and trauma experienced primarily within the mother-daughter relationship. Though this book appears to address the psychological aspects of Kincaid`s life, the differences between cultures of the United States and the Caribbean are collapsed. Kincaid is viewed within the minority construct within the United States.
This oversight of cultural difference between the Caribbean and the US is most apparent in the simplification of the mother, Annie Drew, who is characterized as a dominating shame inducing mother. The complete oversight of Kincaid`s contradiction of her understandings, her own ambivalent portrayals of herself and her Antiguan family, points to a serious flaw in Bouson`s analysis. The glossing over of cultural difference and simplification of understanding is a problem. When Kincaid’s contradictions are admitted to, they are attributed to her effort to gain greater personal freedom, which is similar to the social construct of the American feminist`s independence movement. Bouson repeatedly writes that Kincaid had a cruel and humiliating mother, without considering Annie Drew`s place within Antiguan society. What stresses might she have been under to behave in so harsh a manner towards her daughter? In two books, Kincaid writes that her mother should not have had children (My Brother, Lucy) and Bouson takes her at her word; but what does Kincaid actually and permanently mean this statement? Is she actually saying that her mother never was an adequate mother? By inquiring further, it soon becomes clear that Kincaid also has moments of praise toward her mother. She attributes her reading skill to her mother, her writer`s voice is directly connected to her mother. If Kincaid actually hated her cruel mother as Bousen claims, why would she have named her daughter Annie, after her mother? Kincaid`s complication of her relationship with her mother can be discovered by noting the factual contradictions uncovered in reviews, interviews, and in her fiction and nonfiction examined over her lifetime.
This question points to another oversight, as a writer who seems self-aware yet continually contradicts herself, maybe she has a reason for her inconsistencies? What would be her reason for this ambiguity? Individuals change over time; and too, their opinions may change based on situational reasons, more information, or even whim. Anyone who has written privately in a journal knows that the explorations there are frequently transitory insights that are revised or re-understood at a later time, especially when subjects are revisited over many years. Kincaid’s work has to be viewed within a cultural framework that accounts for her individuality. Kincaid writes public journals that play with the tropes of autobiography but always feel as if they might be revised again.
Reflecting back to Kincaid´s comment that her mother should not have had children, would not circumstances create a powerful woman such as Annie Drew who pushes forward even as she makes mistakes? Consider the chapter, “Girl” in At the Bottom of the River, where the mother continually tells the daughter that she will become a “slut”. Some Caribbean students have responded that the mother is worried about the daughter and wants to protect her from what has happened to so many others. It is not rare within the Caribbean for a parent to use negative/harsh criticism in order to express concern for the child’s safety or to prevent mistakes. What is seen as a cruel comment by Bouson, should be placed in the Caribbean context.
Kincaid said in an interview that she stopped criticizing her mother because her mother did not have the public access to respond in a fair way. Kincaid has been able to write personally and provide her own perceptions whereas those within her family cannot publicly respond. Kincaid reveals in this interview that she is carrying on an argument, like a public street fight, but she realizes the other side cannot be heard. Anne Drew is verbally gifted. Kincaid writes about her mother´s talent in her collection of essays, In a Small Place; it is a sense of fair play that later constrains Kincaid. She knows that her mother`s gift for public rebuttal is unavailable.
If the reader were to set aside everything outside of the text, author biography and personality and just look at the written words alone, would this be a fair reading of Kincaid? The author, Margaret Atwood writes that since the author’s life factors are always changing and flexible, the only reliable understanding of the work is found within the work itself, i.e. the only truth to be found is within the text. This disconnected approach cannot be applied to Kincaid’s writing because she repeatedly references the author and her biography. Sometimes Kincaid uses accurate names, or changes them slightly. She also elaborates on events that occur from one work to another, only shifting the emotional tone or casting the events in a different light. Additionally, when Kincaid writes, there is a Caribbean audience whose presence hovers within the text even while she seems to address a western (or American) audience. This presence makes it difficult to isolate the work outside of multiple contexts. The reader of Kincaid becomes obsessed with the author’s biography, what is a factually true statement verses an emotionally true one? What is in fact a lie? Kincaid writes to this reader by relentlessly pointing to her biography.
In Walking in the Himalayas, Kincaid writes that she is obsessing about her son, Harold; she is excessively fearful of his well being, though he has stayed home in Vermont and she is the one traveling. She has encountered threatening military Maoist and has more than once felt threatened. Nevertheless, she worries like an over protective mother. She continually writes about her motherly anxiety but her fear for her son seems to be out of place. After all, he is in a much safer environment than Kincaid. Her concern comes across as somewhat forced or put on. In this same context, Kincaid is troubled over calling herself Canadian, in order to hide from the angry militants, but she writes that she “would never call herself or think to call herself anything other than American” and later she writes that she could only be called “Antiguan now living in Vermont.” All of her contradictions are related to a kind of identity movement that can only be securely grounded in Antigua.
What are the reasons for her changes? In My Brother she reverts to her own family as a healthy new space/place for herself but her old role as daughter and sister does show a shift towards peace making. When Kincaid visits her home with her children, she encourages their relationship with her mother even though Kincaid points out that there is a competitive feeling between them. Her mother continually tries to obtain confirmation that her grandchildren like her better than their mother. When the grandmother believes that they like her better, she celebrates but Kincaid just accepts that this is a quality of her mother’s love. She also makes a genuine attempt to know her youngest brother who later dies of AIDS despite her active involvement in obtaining treatment and drugs for him from the United States. When she returns to the states, she continually refers to her Vermont home as the perfect place and her ideal role within her family. She never mentions that her husband can never travel with her to Antigua because of his agoraphobia or any other domestic points where problems in her paradise might exist. So much so that many are surprised when they find out that she is divorced. These inconsistencies create questions about what is hidden and what is revealed by Kincaid creating a wary atmosphere when reading her work.
Two theoretical/critical approaches are particularly relevant when considering Kincaid’s autobiography and her writing focus; these are the Feminist Standpoint Theory and the individualist’s perspective. Both approaches point to the question, who does Kincaid represent? Does she speak for a community?
One aspect of Kincaid’s identity formation has to do with her shifting sometimes called fluid subject position. Nevertheless, she has been latched onto by various groups who claim her as their own, African American scholars and American feminists, for example. Kincaid is classified by publishers as African American but Kincaid does not actually embrace the classification. Nevertheless, she often is an invited speaker to activities that celebrate African American contributions to literature. She has been both embraced and rejected by feminists but claims that she does not want to box her creative self into a particular perspective. Is Kincaid a feminist? This is too broad of a question and it makes more sense to focus on to one approach, such as Feminist Standpoint Theory as understood by Nancy Harcourt. (Her input to this question is particularly valuable because she also writes about autobiography and subject positions.) Does Jamaica Kincaid have a standpoint? Does she have a position to argue from? Clearly it is difficult to place her without a through analysis of her written texts and her interviews.
Does being flexible mean that there is no standpoint? Brooke Lenz argues that Kincaid’s multiple standpoints offer a way to more accurately understand her experience of being a woman and the power dynamic that characterizes the role of a post-colonial subject. Kincaid refuses to be boxed into a pre-constructed identity because she wants to maintain her freedom and nurture her creativity. The resultant oxymoronic identity construction is highly individualized. An example of a competent woman falling into non-feminists discourse is found in My Garden Book. Kincaid points out that she cannot handle money. She writes that her husband will not allow her to write checks because she does not keep track of the accounts. Her husband has to pay all the bills. Feminist scholars who want to claim Kincaid as their spokesperson or a role model, must revolt at her reference of the gender biased script of the woman who cannot handle money. Kincaid’s love of all things domestic [her own words] might also rankle, even though the concept of domestic space has a more complicated meaning related to a power base and as validation in African American and Caribbean writing and living.
Returning to Standpoint Theory, Lenz interrogates Lucy by referring to classic literary frames such as identity and point of view in order to question if Lucy has a standpoint -or rather to show how Lucy arrives at a standpoint by reflecting on the processes she undergoes while adjusting to an alien country, the United States. It is important to consider that Standpoint Theory has most often been used within the field of the social sciences and applied to identity and social behavior. Kincaid’s work can be more easily connected to social science analysis because it is autobiographically based; it is uniquely situated.
As to Kincaid’s standpoint, can she be a feminist if she does not claim it is so? Even without the term feminist, it is clear that Kincaid`s characters Annie in Annie John and Lucy in Lucy were both rebellious because of an unequal difference in how the genders are treated. Annie John spoke of her change in relation with her mother after her brothers were born; Lucy, too, mentions the obstacle of her brother’s birth to her education, both character’s mention that the reason they left Antigua was to earn money to send home. Kincaid confirms that her mother did intend for her to send money home to help support the family but she decided to break from the family and cultural expectation of self-sacrifice. The entire concept of privileging males over females as it relates to education and expectation is addressed frequently in most of Kincaid’s books. For example, Lucy confronts the double standard related to sexual freedom and becomes empowered through enjoying sexuality without commitment and without love. Annie rebels when her brothers are born and a new set of expectations for her behavior are insisted upon.
These two core threads connected to the feminist movement; i.e., the imbalance of power through unequal treatment of the genders, specifically the preference of sons over daughters, and through the double-standard regarding sexual freedom, fit in with most definitions of a feminist. Kincaid’s reason for resisting labels is well documented but they primarily focus on the constraint that those labels might place on her writing. There is tension between an author’s freedom to create and producing work that is marketable. Kincaid’s resistance to the feminist identification while calling attention to well known feminist’s concerns is likely her way of negotiating a creative space for her individuality while gesturing toward the concerns of a particular identifiable group.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Identity Issues; Selected Quotes
1 When we remember remembering, [it] is already autobiography in the making. And this making, this mapping of our lives in time, I like to think helps us to keep track of who we are.
Paul John Eakin (170)
2 Belief in individualism, which seems to authorize our confidence in our freedom to think, to act, to be what we want, to say who we are, needs to be measured against the constraints of culture that condition or otherwise set our possibilities. (103)
3 The Internet and the World Wide Web are creating radically new opportunities for self-presentation, and perhaps, some observe then, new modes of selfhood as well. Jefferey Wallen's investigation of online journals or weblogs, for example, lead him to speculate that 'the contemporary 'self ' is in important ways discontinuous with what existed at earlier times." His findings parallel those of the French autobiography critic Philippe Lejeune, whom he quotes as follows; "The self [moi] is not an atemporal essence altered today by disastrous technical progress,...it has always been shaped by the evolution of medias" (Lejeune, Cher ecran 240).
4 Blogs, online journals, home page, photo album video clip /Facebook/MySpace
87% 12-17 year olds have uploaded into these Internet systems. (95)
5 Predictably, the social world of cyberspace seems to have developed its own version of the rule-governed narrative identity system [described in chapter 1]. (95)
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
The Truth About Lying
When is it okay to lie? In autobiography and memoir, there has to be some fictional creation to fill in for memory lapse, some omission to smooth out the story, some changing of detail to protect privacy...but when is enough enough? Looking at all the fact checking that Jamaica Kincaid has undergone, all the interview questions about her fiction being autobiography and her autobiography really being fiction, the significance of this question is readily apparent. It's significance is not lost on Kincaid because she intentionally draws the readers attention to facts and muddied truth. What is it about her that makes the reader give her permission to alter the truth or pretend the fiction is not truth? Kincaid is portrayed as a young woman who has grown up in a country that had very little resources; this idea of a success story is appealing to an American reading audience; it's the rags to riches story-even if the riches are moderate. It's the proof that with wit and will, you can overcome obstacles in life. Kincaid carries with her this embodiment of the success story, even as she resist it. She criticizes the United States but characterizes the United Kingdom as comparatively worse. One reason is that in the US you are allowed to reinvent yourself whereas in the UK you always must deal with the limiting pressures of class. Kincaid refers to the UK as "the old suitcase" meaning that nothing fresh or possible can happen there, change is slow. Also. Kincaid has stated that its acceptable to criticize the United States within the country because there is a tradition of self[-examination there. Further, Kincaid fits within the model of one who has a right to confront colonial systems and the historical aftershocks because she grew up under a British colonial education system,which makes her a suitable spokesperson within the genre. Her biographical facts lend credibility to -her tactics, the reader questions her purpose for self-reference? Carte blanc permission is given to change the details, shift the names, invent facts because: She must have a reason for the disparities in her facts. She's confusing on purpose. What is her purpose?
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Narrative and Identity
Seriously, what a topic! The author, Paul John Eakin, approaches the study of autobiography in his new book, Living Autobiographically; How we Create Identity in Narrative with the following four chapters: (1) Talking about Ourselves: the Rules of the Game (2) Autobiographical Consciousness: Body, Brain, Self, and Narrative (3) Identity Work: People Making Stories and (4) Living Autobiographically.
For now, I will select material that focuses on a general question:
Who writes what..and what can be written? Later (or soon?---sooner or later!) I will address how these questions impact the reader of Jamaica Kincaid and the writer herself. On a personal level, these questions impact me as I write an autobiographically driven blog so I think about them every day.
I'm interested in autobiographical writers and the writing of autobiography because the genre places great decision making pressure on the author beginning with the question, who should write an autobiography or memoir? Once someone, the new author or the seasoned author, begins the process of writing, a slew of questions come up. What can I say? Who will be offended by this story? What should I cut or add for narrative flow, aesthetic, and literary reasons? And the most pressing question, what should I hide for privacy reasons?
Eakin begins with the idea that we talk about ourselves everyday, that we create stories in our minds even if we don't share them with others.
Two ways of looking at identity, episodic and continuous, are pointed to as in conflict with each other. Later, it seems to decide that both are really present...though he favors continuous.
What does that mean? When a person's identity is episodic, they are able to have a fresh start new identity without reference to the past...where she came from, who her parents were, ...the starting event can occur whenever...Eaken writes about a medically disabled person, who has to decide who he is every day. He can't remember the past and so is stuck in a cycle of self story creation. (Sounds like 50 First Dates, the movie) And too, he mentions a person who (Episcopalian) who choses to be new through spirit, I suppose. A continuous identity begins from the past and changes/shifts from that reference point. Reading about this makes me think about how these two ways of framing identity are implicated in notions of re-making identity through narrative.
Jamaica Kincaid changed her name and her vision of who she was in the world by moving from her home, observing how people live, writing about her insights and providing wittily bold opinions. Nonetheless, she continued to mark the place of her birth and circumstances as the genesis of who she became. She remade herself but in a continuous manner...however, that story of beginning in Antigua was contained by the narrative...in actual life, she stopped communicating with her mother for 20 years...she didn't send back money as was expected. She had a sense that her connection would bring her down or back to who she was and that was too psychologically dangerous. She has stated in her interview (insert) that she stopped communication with her family, and in Lucy she writes about the girl who won't read her family letters and will not write back. I think that narrative, the story about our lives, is continuous but in working out a new identity sometimes the past must be contained. People do this by lying about where they came from and about what happened as they were growing up. Even in their new recreated identity, they may have to lie to maintain who they currently are and even what they do.
Interestingly, Eaken puts forth the idea that there are rules that constrain the narrative and hold it to an idea of objective truth. I think Kincaid felt that her family would not support the reinvention of herself...and the stories she told in the form of writing and speech (interviews) helped her to figure out who she was and how she came to be. They also created space from that time when she lived in Antigua to the time she became her new self in the eastern United States. This containment strategy has an element of the episodic, Old Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson/New Jamaica Kincaid, and also includes continuous identity formation because her starting point is frequently referenced. The reader never forgets where Kincaid was raised and her difficult circumstances. Who Kincaid became is based a beginning subsequent events.
Who does the policing for truth in memoir...who gives permission to invent and where is the objectively verifiable truth line drawn....how much can be created by making the memoir, filling in the dialogue when Kincaid was four in Mr. Potter: the event of seeing her biological father is repeated and detailed even though it is unlikely that she could remember it to that extent. One reviewer was critical of this detail. His unbelief in the memory for Kincaid's detail and its significance to her is part of an attempt to police. Foucault refers to those who police institutions but Eaken mentions society as the controlling force. (check) I think this example supports the notion of society policing and also shows how it can be done to an author through a book review.
Eakin, Paul John. Living Autobiographically in Narrative Identity. Ithaca, NY; Cornell University Press 2008.
For now, I will select material that focuses on a general question:
Who writes what..and what can be written? Later (or soon?---sooner or later!) I will address how these questions impact the reader of Jamaica Kincaid and the writer herself. On a personal level, these questions impact me as I write an autobiographically driven blog so I think about them every day.
I'm interested in autobiographical writers and the writing of autobiography because the genre places great decision making pressure on the author beginning with the question, who should write an autobiography or memoir? Once someone, the new author or the seasoned author, begins the process of writing, a slew of questions come up. What can I say? Who will be offended by this story? What should I cut or add for narrative flow, aesthetic, and literary reasons? And the most pressing question, what should I hide for privacy reasons?
Eakin begins with the idea that we talk about ourselves everyday, that we create stories in our minds even if we don't share them with others.
Two ways of looking at identity, episodic and continuous, are pointed to as in conflict with each other. Later, it seems to decide that both are really present...though he favors continuous.
What does that mean? When a person's identity is episodic, they are able to have a fresh start new identity without reference to the past...where she came from, who her parents were, ...the starting event can occur whenever...Eaken writes about a medically disabled person, who has to decide who he is every day. He can't remember the past and so is stuck in a cycle of self story creation. (Sounds like 50 First Dates, the movie) And too, he mentions a person who (Episcopalian) who choses to be new through spirit, I suppose. A continuous identity begins from the past and changes/shifts from that reference point. Reading about this makes me think about how these two ways of framing identity are implicated in notions of re-making identity through narrative.
Jamaica Kincaid changed her name and her vision of who she was in the world by moving from her home, observing how people live, writing about her insights and providing wittily bold opinions. Nonetheless, she continued to mark the place of her birth and circumstances as the genesis of who she became. She remade herself but in a continuous manner...however, that story of beginning in Antigua was contained by the narrative...in actual life, she stopped communicating with her mother for 20 years...she didn't send back money as was expected. She had a sense that her connection would bring her down or back to who she was and that was too psychologically dangerous. She has stated in her interview (insert) that she stopped communication with her family, and in Lucy she writes about the girl who won't read her family letters and will not write back. I think that narrative, the story about our lives, is continuous but in working out a new identity sometimes the past must be contained. People do this by lying about where they came from and about what happened as they were growing up. Even in their new recreated identity, they may have to lie to maintain who they currently are and even what they do.
Interestingly, Eaken puts forth the idea that there are rules that constrain the narrative and hold it to an idea of objective truth. I think Kincaid felt that her family would not support the reinvention of herself...and the stories she told in the form of writing and speech (interviews) helped her to figure out who she was and how she came to be. They also created space from that time when she lived in Antigua to the time she became her new self in the eastern United States. This containment strategy has an element of the episodic, Old Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson/New Jamaica Kincaid, and also includes continuous identity formation because her starting point is frequently referenced. The reader never forgets where Kincaid was raised and her difficult circumstances. Who Kincaid became is based a beginning subsequent events.
Who does the policing for truth in memoir...who gives permission to invent and where is the objectively verifiable truth line drawn....how much can be created by making the memoir, filling in the dialogue when Kincaid was four in Mr. Potter: the event of seeing her biological father is repeated and detailed even though it is unlikely that she could remember it to that extent. One reviewer was critical of this detail. His unbelief in the memory for Kincaid's detail and its significance to her is part of an attempt to police. Foucault refers to those who police institutions but Eaken mentions society as the controlling force. (check) I think this example supports the notion of society policing and also shows how it can be done to an author through a book review.
Eakin, Paul John. Living Autobiographically in Narrative Identity. Ithaca, NY; Cornell University Press 2008.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
What do we think about ourselves?
I was looking at this link about writing autobiography. http://www.sarasota.k12.fl.us/bhs/bryan/bryan_auto.html It's a basic level class writing assignment; I thought it revealed some of the underlying assumptions that we have about autobiography. It is organized by a series of questions such as who you are in life and what does life mean to you? What is your outlook on the future? The introduction is grounded in basic facts about your life and the conclusion comes back to this data. It cites Augustine as the first autobiographer dating from around 400AD. This orientation is what most readers expect when they read an autobiography; but it significantly differs from many autobiographies, particularly Jamaica Kincaid.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Salon Interview by Dwight Garner
This frequently cited interview opens with a description of Kincaid's ability to project power:
"Jamaica Kincaid -- tall, striking, clear-eyed -- turns heads when she strides into the lobby of New York's swank Royalton Hotel one chilly day in mid-December. It's not that she is trying very hard, dressed comfortably as she is in rumpled khakis, green blazer, and a mustard-colored bandana. Kincaid simply projects a natural authority that attracts attention, and that spills over into her writing."
She answers questions about her family and writing; saying that she feels at ease in Vermont and that she did not plan to become a writer. She points out her difference from other writers as a reason for her success at The New Yorker,"But I am Exhibit A. Because I am not a man, I am not white, I didn't go to Harvard. The generation of writers from The New Yorker that I was a part of were white men who went to Harvard or Yale. And I was none of those things." I'm fascinated with her statement about her writing process which she claims is slow: that she thinks about everything before she writes. In another essay about her writing process, she describes a different method. It's mention in an article about Mr. Potter, too, I think. Yes, here it is.
http://partners.nytimes.com/library/books/060799kincaid-writing.html
But the one I'm thinking of now is about her new story that has a character, Mr. Sweet, who doesn't like his son because he is not ascetically/artistically gifted; he has clumsily thick hands whereas the father has fine, long and thin fingered hands. Is that autobiographical? It makes me feel so sad about Kincaid's boy, Harold, about his life being shared that way. Mr Sweet is a name that Alice Walker uses for her story, To Hell With Dying. Mr. Sweet is a man worth loving even though he is an alcoholic who mostly plays guitar and doesn't work regularly. Walker also wrote a group of essays published in a book called Anything Loved Can be Saved. I'm thinking about this because it seems like there is a connection. To Hell With Dying shows how a girl can love and value an old man enough to give him strength to carry on. This new story is about a father who cannot love his son, a father in a long tradition of fathers, who cannot love their sons. Here's a reading she did at Brandeis University about this work in progress. Click here to read about Mr. Sweet in "Jamaica Kincaid visits Brandeis":
http://www.brandeis.edu/wgs/event2006-2007Jamaica%20Kincaid.html
Garner's interview makes a good deal of fuss about Kincaid's looks, she even relays a story about a party that she attends wearing only bananas around her waist. She says she was poor when she first came to New York (after leaving her job as an Au par) but she made a living as a backup singer, secretary and model. She can't remember if she posed nude. ("I certainly hope I did!"-she laughs)
Another notable interview detail is that in a comment about The Autobiography of My Mother, she says that her own mother should have never had children. She says that the character, Xuella, is a woman who decides not to have children, "And that is an observation I've made about my own mother: That all her children are quite happy to have been born, but all of us are quite sure she should never have been a mother. " Then she begins to have a moment of reflection about what she has just said. " I feel comfortable saying that publicly, I think. I try not to corner my mother anymore. Because I have at my disposal a way of articulating things about her that she can't respond to. But I feel comfortable saying that the core of the book-and the book in not autobiographical except in this one way -derives from the observation that my own mother should not have had children." Kincaid then goes on to say that her mother loved her children when they were dying and that she doesn't know what her mother will do when her brother dies. I think Kincaid's angry...she is doing that emotional distancing again, which shows itself in cold speculation that seems toned-down and sad but really sounds insincere. When her brother Devon dies, will her mother no longer have someone to love? Will she grieve too much? What does Kincaid mean?
Kincaid's comment about the only autobiographical detail-the main character's choice not to have children (just as her mother shouldn't have had children) is not true either. There are other details that reflect actual biographical facts. For example, there is a scene where Xuella hides letters under rocks that actually occurred in Kincaid's life when she was sent to her mother's family in Dominica. The event was precipitated at nine years of age, by the fact that she dropped her baby brother when she was holding him. (She admits that she resented her displacement in the family but isn't sure if she dropped him on purpose.) As a result of this incident, her mother sends her away. The mixed Carib-African-Scot ancestry of Xuella is the same as her mother's and her mother also had an overbearing neglectful father whom she ran away from; although, Xuella was sent by her father to live with the La Battes when she was fifteen. It goes without saying that her mother was raised in the same setting of the novel- Dominica, too. I found an introductory essay in America's Best Travel Writers where Kincaid as the editor of the series, writes about some of this in detail. I will expand later.
http://www.salon.com/05/features/kincaid.html
"Jamaica Kincaid -- tall, striking, clear-eyed -- turns heads when she strides into the lobby of New York's swank Royalton Hotel one chilly day in mid-December. It's not that she is trying very hard, dressed comfortably as she is in rumpled khakis, green blazer, and a mustard-colored bandana. Kincaid simply projects a natural authority that attracts attention, and that spills over into her writing."
She answers questions about her family and writing; saying that she feels at ease in Vermont and that she did not plan to become a writer. She points out her difference from other writers as a reason for her success at The New Yorker,"But I am Exhibit A. Because I am not a man, I am not white, I didn't go to Harvard. The generation of writers from The New Yorker that I was a part of were white men who went to Harvard or Yale. And I was none of those things." I'm fascinated with her statement about her writing process which she claims is slow: that she thinks about everything before she writes. In another essay about her writing process, she describes a different method. It's mention in an article about Mr. Potter, too, I think. Yes, here it is.
http://partners.nytimes.com/library/books/060799kincaid-writing.html
But the one I'm thinking of now is about her new story that has a character, Mr. Sweet, who doesn't like his son because he is not ascetically/artistically gifted; he has clumsily thick hands whereas the father has fine, long and thin fingered hands. Is that autobiographical? It makes me feel so sad about Kincaid's boy, Harold, about his life being shared that way. Mr Sweet is a name that Alice Walker uses for her story, To Hell With Dying. Mr. Sweet is a man worth loving even though he is an alcoholic who mostly plays guitar and doesn't work regularly. Walker also wrote a group of essays published in a book called Anything Loved Can be Saved. I'm thinking about this because it seems like there is a connection. To Hell With Dying shows how a girl can love and value an old man enough to give him strength to carry on. This new story is about a father who cannot love his son, a father in a long tradition of fathers, who cannot love their sons. Here's a reading she did at Brandeis University about this work in progress. Click here to read about Mr. Sweet in "Jamaica Kincaid visits Brandeis":
http://www.brandeis.edu/wgs/event2006-2007Jamaica%20Kincaid.html
Garner's interview makes a good deal of fuss about Kincaid's looks, she even relays a story about a party that she attends wearing only bananas around her waist. She says she was poor when she first came to New York (after leaving her job as an Au par) but she made a living as a backup singer, secretary and model. She can't remember if she posed nude. ("I certainly hope I did!"-she laughs)
Another notable interview detail is that in a comment about The Autobiography of My Mother, she says that her own mother should have never had children. She says that the character, Xuella, is a woman who decides not to have children, "And that is an observation I've made about my own mother: That all her children are quite happy to have been born, but all of us are quite sure she should never have been a mother. " Then she begins to have a moment of reflection about what she has just said. " I feel comfortable saying that publicly, I think. I try not to corner my mother anymore. Because I have at my disposal a way of articulating things about her that she can't respond to. But I feel comfortable saying that the core of the book-and the book in not autobiographical except in this one way -derives from the observation that my own mother should not have had children." Kincaid then goes on to say that her mother loved her children when they were dying and that she doesn't know what her mother will do when her brother dies. I think Kincaid's angry...she is doing that emotional distancing again, which shows itself in cold speculation that seems toned-down and sad but really sounds insincere. When her brother Devon dies, will her mother no longer have someone to love? Will she grieve too much? What does Kincaid mean?
Kincaid's comment about the only autobiographical detail-the main character's choice not to have children (just as her mother shouldn't have had children) is not true either. There are other details that reflect actual biographical facts. For example, there is a scene where Xuella hides letters under rocks that actually occurred in Kincaid's life when she was sent to her mother's family in Dominica. The event was precipitated at nine years of age, by the fact that she dropped her baby brother when she was holding him. (She admits that she resented her displacement in the family but isn't sure if she dropped him on purpose.) As a result of this incident, her mother sends her away. The mixed Carib-African-Scot ancestry of Xuella is the same as her mother's and her mother also had an overbearing neglectful father whom she ran away from; although, Xuella was sent by her father to live with the La Battes when she was fifteen. It goes without saying that her mother was raised in the same setting of the novel- Dominica, too. I found an introductory essay in America's Best Travel Writers where Kincaid as the editor of the series, writes about some of this in detail. I will expand later.
http://www.salon.com/05/features/kincaid.html
Maryln Snell Interview: Jamaica Kincaid Hates Happy Endings
This interview addresses the contentiousness that Kincaid seems to express in her writing. I like it because she is owning up to her anger directly, which by the way, is her style. The interview discusses going public about her brother's death, the frequently occurring theme in her work of powerful over the powerless, and her writing as a way of living/experiencing. This link adds a reader reaction post-a-comment section that is packed full of comments. One reader thinks that Kincaid needs to get over her anger, another complements her for the short story, "Girl" and says that while she was translating it into her own language (a group in India) she realized that her mother was hard on her sister in the same way as in the story. She understands that this was her mother's reaction to an oppressive society and that really it is a way of bonding with the elder sister. Then, she asks for Kincaid's email because she needs to ask permission for the translation. (Why doesn't she write the publisher for permission?) It also has one reader who I find delightful! She post a prayer of forgiveness for Kincaid-and it is long-to help Kincaid get over the anger she feels about her mother and her birth country! I guess this reader just glossed over the fact that Kincaid said she never wants to forget where she came from and what it tells her about how the world is organized; she doesn't want to be happy...or to forgive.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/1997/09/snell.html
http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/1997/09/snell.html
Another Biography
This is an article that gives an overview of Kincaid's work, its themes, popular and critical reaction. It begins with a summary of Kincaid's life. Some common errors in Kincaid's biography are the dates given for leaving Antigua (Was she 16 or 17?), her name and those of names her family, (she was Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson, her mom was Annie (?) Richardson, her father (biological-Mr. Potter) is her step-father (Mr. Richardson) but in many conversations she mentions her father but she means the step-father so it is easy to get confused. Plus, Kincaid seems to confused detail on purpose because it is part of her approach to make the reader question facts. In other words, the whole concept of discovering a fact is false. In the Bonetti interview, she refers to this tendency of perceiving the real as a tendency of Western civilization whereas in Antigua facts (such as death) are not so certain.
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/kincaid_jamaica.html
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/kincaid_jamaica.html
Reasonably Reliable Biography
Jamaica Kincaid grew up on a small island near St. John, sometimes when I read her work I feel as though I have been to some of the places she describes; I have been to Antigua but the ambiguity I have absorbed by reading her makes me doubt myself. One of those settings is church in St. Johns where I walked around and remembered the description of a child's funeral. Kincaid observes the women wore white, grieved loudly, and she discusses the vomiting of one of the relations, who likely is the mother. That scene is described in one of the essays in A Small Place. Kincaid is so detached that it seems that she must be either angry or fearful of reabsorbing the limitations of her small -and small-minded-home island. She mentions that she was re-inventing herself as a writer in the Bonetti interview, probable she was in the process of this new self-formation at that time.
Kay Bonetti Interview 1992
Jamaica Kincaid has many interviews that are available on the Internet. These are of interest because a reader can track the shifting and solidifying of her thought over time. I want to organize the interviews here. The first one I have posted is the Kay Bonetti interview in the Missouri Review. This interview mentions these works: At the Bottom of the River; Annie John; Lucy; and The New Yorker, "Talk of the Town" series. Culture: Thematically, it references the West Indian tradition of writing about home and people (mother-daughter relationship)-her home island being Antigua. She praises the United States for allowing her the opportunity to re-invent herself and asserts that in the United Kingdom this self-invention opportunity would not have been available. She refers to the cultural tolerance of ambiguity in Antigua as compared to England. She says that "dead is dead "in England but in Antigua "dead might not be dead"-that the ambiguity of her home island is part magic and/or illegitimacy; and, she refers to Western civilization or thought orientation as "the real thing" orientation. Her opportunities were limited in Antigua because she was a girl-gifted-but a girl nonetheless. She provides this example to explain the unfairness and gender discrimination found in Antigua; the Gwen character in Annie John was exceptionally talented but she only became a supervisor somewhere, however, one of the boys who beat her up because she won a prize in school (instead of him) became a cabinet member in the corrupt government. Race: She is not offended by George Trow calling her "My sassy black friend" because "she seemed sassy and was black". The British books and authors she read as a child were mentioned: Jane Eyre, Keats, Wordsworth, Milton's Paradise Lost and the Christian bible.Bonetti, Key. "An Interview with Jamaica Kincaid," The Missouri Review, Columbia, MO. 1992,15:2, 124-42.
http://www.missourireview.org/content/dynamic/view_text.php?text_id=1947
On Autobiography and the similarities between Lucy and herself she says:
"She had to have a birth-date so why not mine? She was going to have a name that would refer to the slave part of her history, so why not my own? I write about myself for the most part, and about things that have happened to me. Everything I say is true, and everything I say is not true. You couldn't admit any of it to a court of law. It would not be good evidence."
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Who is Jamaica Kincaid?
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.
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