Comments-A Small Place
Below is a readers guide and review to "A Small Place." What did you think about the book?
posted by book1 at 5:23 PM
1 comments
Friday, June 02, 2006
Readers Guide
A Small Place
The excerpt is drawn from the short (81 pages, large type) book Kincaid wrote about Antigua, the nine by twelve mile island in the British West Indies where she grew up. It was published in 1988.
1. Reading A Small Place.
Some readers are put off by Kincaid's anger--what she calls her "rage." In this book, it is directed at the British. Her rage also finds expression in Lucy, where it is directed toward herself, her mother and her island, and the people Lucy meets and lives with in the U.S. It reappears even more forcefully in Kincaid's most recent novel, The Autobiography of My Mother, published in 1995. This is a dark and bitter book about the losses and hatred caused by colonialism. In recounting the losses, one reviewer said,
But there is yet a greater loss. When the oppressed adopt their oppressor's view of themselves--a view designed to defeat them--it incapacitates their affections. That is their defeat. The saddest and deadliest harvest of oppression is not the mutual hatred that is natural between those at the top and those at the bottom but the incestuous, unnatural hate within the family of the conquered.
It is important to feel that anger and not simply deny or resent it. Let it in, even if in the end you cannot accept it. Intense anger is unsettling. It can even be threatening. Nevertheless, to read this book at any rate,we have to deal with it. It's also important to try to understand why Kincaid, Lucy, and Xuela feel such rage. It's equally important to try to read her words, her language, and think about her as a writer--as a West Indian writer but one who has lived in the States for many years.
Think as well about her writing in the frame of George Lamming's essay, "The Occasion for Speaking." He writes about exile and about English. Kincaid became a "voluntary" exile from Antigua, although some would argue that her exile was psychologically and politically forced. In certain respects, she resents having to write in the language of the conqueror, the criminal as she puts it in "A Small Place."
2. Questions for Reading.
What is so powerful, so explosive about her language? How does she express the rage?
What specifically is Kincaid saying about Antigua and the British? What did the British do and NOT do?
Why "can't she get beyond all that"?
What does she mean when she says, "For isn't it odd that the only language I have in which to speak of this crime is the language of the criminal who committed the crime. And what can that really mean?"
What is she saying about history in this statement?
"Yes, and in both these places you distorted or erased my history and glorified your own."
How does the speaker strike you? Is this simply an individual opinion or does she at some point seem to speak for the West Indies?
3. Issues for Reflection.
The rage. It is not unique and perhaps not explicable in a wholly rational or simple way. It comes in part from what she says:
"But nothing can erase my rage . . . for this wrong can never be made right and only the impossible can make me still: can a way be found to make what happened not have happened?"
On the PBS documentary about Thomas Jefferson, John Hope Franklin, a prominent African-American historian and a gentle and forgiving man, says that he forgives Jefferson for what he did (held slaves until he died), but that was, nevertheless, "a transgression against mankind" which can never be undone. Franklin does not express rage, but he is clear about his distaste and his criticism of Jefferson.
Not all feel that anger and rage, but many do.
The conflict of cultures. She writes about one culture overwhelming another ("you distorted or erased my history and glorified your own"). That results, perhaps in her case, certainly in her characters', in deeply conflicted, divided individuals who cannot wholly accept the culture of the dominant, who lose something of their own, and who sometimes devalue or despise their own cultures because they cannot help but see them through white eyes.
The experience of subjugation. She writes in A Small Place and elsewhere about what colonialism was like and about its consequences.
Independence. The British had established an economic and political system to benefit primarily white land owners and international commerce. They failed to include West Indians significantly in economic development and advancement. They did not prepare the majority population for governing. She is harshly critical of both the British and the Antiguan governments.
Lucy
Kincaid Bio
The excerpt is drawn from the short (81 pages, large type) book Kincaid wrote about Antigua, the nine by twelve mile island in the British West Indies where she grew up. It was published in 1988.
1. Reading A Small Place.
Some readers are put off by Kincaid's anger--what she calls her "rage." In this book, it is directed at the British. Her rage also finds expression in Lucy, where it is directed toward herself, her mother and her island, and the people Lucy meets and lives with in the U.S. It reappears even more forcefully in Kincaid's most recent novel, The Autobiography of My Mother, published in 1995. This is a dark and bitter book about the losses and hatred caused by colonialism. In recounting the losses, one reviewer said,
But there is yet a greater loss. When the oppressed adopt their oppressor's view of themselves--a view designed to defeat them--it incapacitates their affections. That is their defeat. The saddest and deadliest harvest of oppression is not the mutual hatred that is natural between those at the top and those at the bottom but the incestuous, unnatural hate within the family of the conquered.
It is important to feel that anger and not simply deny or resent it. Let it in, even if in the end you cannot accept it. Intense anger is unsettling. It can even be threatening. Nevertheless, to read this book at any rate,we have to deal with it. It's also important to try to understand why Kincaid, Lucy, and Xuela feel such rage. It's equally important to try to read her words, her language, and think about her as a writer--as a West Indian writer but one who has lived in the States for many years.
Think as well about her writing in the frame of George Lamming's essay, "The Occasion for Speaking." He writes about exile and about English. Kincaid became a "voluntary" exile from Antigua, although some would argue that her exile was psychologically and politically forced. In certain respects, she resents having to write in the language of the conqueror, the criminal as she puts it in "A Small Place."
2. Questions for Reading.
What is so powerful, so explosive about her language? How does she express the rage?
What specifically is Kincaid saying about Antigua and the British? What did the British do and NOT do?
Why "can't she get beyond all that"?
What does she mean when she says, "For isn't it odd that the only language I have in which to speak of this crime is the language of the criminal who committed the crime. And what can that really mean?"
What is she saying about history in this statement?
"Yes, and in both these places you distorted or erased my history and glorified your own."
How does the speaker strike you? Is this simply an individual opinion or does she at some point seem to speak for the West Indies?
3. Issues for Reflection.
The rage. It is not unique and perhaps not explicable in a wholly rational or simple way. It comes in part from what she says:
"But nothing can erase my rage . . . for this wrong can never be made right and only the impossible can make me still: can a way be found to make what happened not have happened?"
On the PBS documentary about Thomas Jefferson, John Hope Franklin, a prominent African-American historian and a gentle and forgiving man, says that he forgives Jefferson for what he did (held slaves until he died), but that was, nevertheless, "a transgression against mankind" which can never be undone. Franklin does not express rage, but he is clear about his distaste and his criticism of Jefferson.
Not all feel that anger and rage, but many do.
The conflict of cultures. She writes about one culture overwhelming another ("you distorted or erased my history and glorified your own"). That results, perhaps in her case, certainly in her characters', in deeply conflicted, divided individuals who cannot wholly accept the culture of the dominant, who lose something of their own, and who sometimes devalue or despise their own cultures because they cannot help but see them through white eyes.
The experience of subjugation. She writes in A Small Place and elsewhere about what colonialism was like and about its consequences.
Independence. The British had established an economic and political system to benefit primarily white land owners and international commerce. They failed to include West Indians significantly in economic development and advancement. They did not prepare the majority population for governing. She is harshly critical of both the British and the Antiguan governments.
Lucy
Kincaid Bio
posted by book1 at 5:22 PM
0 comments
Wikipedia Review
A Small Place is an essay published in 1988 by Jamaica Kincaid. The work is an indictment of the Antiguan government, the tourist industry and Antigua's British colonial legacy.
After experiencing a frustrating and complex childhood, Jamaica Kincaid expresses her opinions about the life of Antigua, a small island, in her book, "A Small Place." Kincaid was born and raised in Antigua. Reflecting back to her childhood, Kincaid shares her ideas about the American and European inhabitants. In this poetic style of writing, Kincaid grasps the reader's attention by vividly raising questions in our minds as she describes her own. The style she uses challenges the reader to look beyond the beauty of a place and explore the reality and truth behind that beauty. Kincaid begins the story with an outsider's point of view; a westerner expresses how wonderful Antigua is because of its Mill Reef Club right before Kincaid chimes in with the local's point of view. Two different opinions clash and leave you wondering, searching within yourself for answers.
After experiencing a frustrating and complex childhood, Jamaica Kincaid expresses her opinions about the life of Antigua, a small island, in her book, "A Small Place." Kincaid was born and raised in Antigua. Reflecting back to her childhood, Kincaid shares her ideas about the American and European inhabitants. In this poetic style of writing, Kincaid grasps the reader's attention by vividly raising questions in our minds as she describes her own. The style she uses challenges the reader to look beyond the beauty of a place and explore the reality and truth behind that beauty. Kincaid begins the story with an outsider's point of view; a westerner expresses how wonderful Antigua is because of its Mill Reef Club right before Kincaid chimes in with the local's point of view. Two different opinions clash and leave you wondering, searching within yourself for answers.
posted by book1 at 5:21 PM
0 comments
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