Mina L. Sommerville-Thompson
Tarrant County College, Northeast, “Caribbean Postcolonial Women’s Writing: Bildungsroman in the Diaspora”
bildungsroman = initiation to adult
When women tell stories about their own mothers and family members, ancestral myths.
stories laced with memory, loss, poverty?
extreme displacement
Caribbean Postcolonial women create stories unique
immigrant women writers rely on mother-daughter trope
cultural elements of rich oral storytelling heritage
tragic-laced family history
sustained narratives between mothers and daughters
deeper and darker from ancestral well of memories
Why are characters so manifested in ruins of historical violence?
motherland Africa, cultural heritage
African slaves remained more connected on Caribbean plantations
pidgin
creole dialects
Creole became valued xx to pass down stories.
Kincaid Annie John
defined by cultural continuity
rearticulation and reaffirmation
over-protective mother, rebellious daughter
mother’s importance in Kincaid
“fertile soil of my mother’s life”
daughters’ words seem to mimic slave thoughts
anti-colonial motifs in semi-autobiographical stories
subversive talent for playing marbles
dispossessed descendant of African matriarchy
as child worships mother’s touches, as teen rebels against mother’s deceptive voice
She continued her discussion of Kincaid’s work and went on to discuss two works by another author.