Jamaica Kincaid

“I would be lost without the feeling of antagonism that people have towards me. I write

out of defiance.” Presented By

Latisha Barnes

Biography

Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter Richardson, May 25, 1949 in St. John’s, Antigua, in the West Indies

Her father was a carpenter and a cabinet maker while her mother was homemaker and a political activist

When she was 17 she fled the island, leaving behind her family, and her family name, to North America as Jamaica Kincaid

Biography Continued…

Kincaid was known to be a brilliant child by her teachers but she was also known to be troublesome

Kincaid grew up in poverty and sensed isolation from her mother and her environment and she also suffered from her mother’s emotional remoteness

All of these things contributed to Kincaid fleeing her native country

Biography Continued…

Kincaid landed in New York City where she started her first job as an au pair for an upper class family where she worked for three years

Later she left this work to study photography at the New School for Research and then went on to Franconia College in New Hampshire but she didn’t receive a degree

Biography Continued…

Returning back to New York, Kincaid became a regular contributor to the New Yorker Magazine, writing for nearly twenty years (1976-1995)

Biography Continued…

Kincaid now resides in Bennington Vermont with her husband,Allen Shawn, a composer, and their children

Kincaid teaches creative writing at Bennington College and Harvard University and continues to create prose for her readers

Her Works

In 1978, Kincaid’s first piece of fiction was published in the New Yorker, and it became part of her first book, At the Bottom of the River (1992).

This short story collection was composed of series of lyrical poems

Works Continued…

Annie John (1983) is a book where Kincaid draws upon her the isolation and wonder of her childhood in Antigua

This novel also touches on the nature of a mother/daughter relationship

In 1985 it received the Ritz Paris Hemingway Award

Works Continued…

In 1997 My Brother was published in which Kincaid received the National Book Award

My Brother is a chronicle of her relationship with her youngest brother, during her losing battle with AIDS

Works Continued…

In 1988 Kincaid wrote A Small Place, which address foreign visitors to her country and what it signifies in a lyrical and sardonic way

Works Continued…

In Lucy, Kincaid examines and scrutinizes the American way of life.

Challenging issues of mother/daughter relationship, sexuality, love, marriage, and puberty are prevalent

Other Works

The Potter (2002) Where the Land

Meets the Body (1994)

Jamaica Kincaid: A Critical Companion

The Autobiography of My Mother (1996)

My Garden (2001)

Whispers From the Cotton Tree Root (2000)

Seed Gathering Atop the World (2002)

My Favorite Plant (1998)

Talk Stories (2001)

Other Works Continued…

Anne, Gwen, Lilly, Pam and Tulip (1989) “Song of Roland” (1993) “Ovando” (1989) “Antigua Crossing” (1978)

Themes in Work

Antigua Relationships- mother/daughter, siblings Imperialism Colonial Society Eurocentric Culture Family Loss Freedom Identity Sex

Kincaid’s Native Land Antigua, West Indies

Antigua

Antigua (pronounced An-tee-ga) is located in the middle of Leeward Islands in the Eastern Caribbean

Antigua’s History

First European contact of the island was by Christopher Columbus in 1493 who sighted the island in passing and named it Santa Maria la Antigua

In 1632, a group of Englishmen from Sr. Kitts established a settlement there with Christopher Codrington’s arrival

The island then entered into the sugar era Most Antiguans are of African lineage, descendants

of slaves brought to the island to labor in sugarcane fields

History Continued…

By the end of the 18th century was a valuable commercial colony and controlled the major sailing routes to and from the region’s rich island colonies

Horatio Nelson arrived in 1784 to establish British naval facilities at English Harbor to enforce stringent shipping laws

Under Nelson reigned King William IV      

History Continued…

In 1834, under William’s reign, Britain abolished slavery in the empire

Antigua immediately established full emancipation

Antigua became self -governing in 1967 but didn’t become an independent nation in Commonwealth until 1981.

The End “I hope never to be at peace! I hope to make my life

manageable, and I think that it’s fairly manageable now. But—oh, I will never accept peace. That seems death. As I sit here enjoying myself to a degree, I never give up thinking about the way I came into the world, how my ancestors came from Africa to the West Indies as slaves. I just could never forget it. Or forgive it. It’s like a big way that is still pulsing.”

Jamaica Kincaid