LITR 5831 Colonial-Postcolonial
Literature
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Lisa Hacker
Derek Walcott and Jamaica Kincaid: Peace and Anger
in Postcolonial Literature
Introduction:
A gifted writer can align words together in such a fashion
that the reader is emotionally, spiritually, and academically shifted. Whether
it be memoir or make-believe, formal or fanciful, the work produced by one
writing with passion and conviction can not only be cathartic for the writer,
but also life-changing for the reader. I have always been fascinated with the
underlying motivation of the writing genius that has the ability to produce such
a response, and two writers in particular have moved me in this way during this
course. The works of Derek Walcott
and Jamaica Kincaid have spoken so strongly to me this semester that I felt
drawn to look further into not only their body of work, but also the influences
upon the writers themselves. Although Walcott and Kincaid are both postcolonial
writers, their writing appears to reflect greatly differing attitudes towards
the process of colonization, the colonizing country, and the after-effects of
postcolonial independence.
In Walcott’s writing, I see an acceptance of his country’s history that
reflects neither callous disregard to the pain of the past, nor a resigned level
of indifference. He acknowledges the agony and angst of one who has been
colonized, but he also reaches out with boldness to grasp the good that is
within his reach as a result of this history. He chooses not to dwell in the
past, but to live for the present. He is not held captive or crippled by his
past, and because of that freedom he produces work that appears more hopeful.
With Kincaid, I see an entirely different perspective. I see a
writer who cannot grasp the good before her because she cannot pull her foot
from the sticky mud of the past and step forward.
That good, as I see it, is peace in one’s spirit. Kincaid’s writing is
poignant and powerful, but it is also so negative that it leaves me wondering,
at times, if she has found peace with that past. A failure to find peace can
produce powerful writing as well, but the inability to find that peace also
produces writing that is somewhat stagnant if the writer is stuck on an
emotional merry-go-round.
I realize that these assumptions are based on surface readings
of a limited number of texts, and without knowing the writer on a more intimate
level, they can reflect a great deal of error in judgment. My desire with my
research, therefore, is to further explore these assumptions. I want to find
confirmation of my theories, either affirmative or negative, through a deeper
level of study in not only their work, but also in the history of their
countries, their literary criticisms, and
past student posts and papers. In this
process, I hope to achieve a greater understanding of both writers and to better
appreciate their place in the “new canon” of multicultural literature.
Historical background and Colonization of Antigua and St.
Lucia
www.wikipedia.com
and
www.visitslu.com
The information that I found on the history and
colonization of Antigua, the home country of Kincaid, and St. Lucia, the home
country of Walcott, was very similar. Both islands were originally populated by
the Carib Indians, who initially were able to fend off repeated attempts at
colonization by the Europeans. These attempts at colonization began when
Christopher Columbus landed in Antigua in 1493, mistakenly believing that he had
found the much sought after trade route to China.
In Antigua, colonization began in 1632 with the
British, while in St. Lucia it was the French who were able to negotiate the
development of the first European settlement on that island. For both islands,
African slaves were shipped in to run the settlers’ plantations, growing crops
such as sugarcane, ginger, tobacco, and indigo.
Antiguan slaves were granted their emancipation in
1834, but as is the case with forced emancipation, true liberty was not
achieved. With limited rights and no buying power, the slaves were still
economically dependent on the plantation owners. Independence from the United
Kingdom came in 1981, but the island still remains part of a constitutional
monarchy under the rule of Queen Elizabeth the II.
For St. Lucia, the negotiation of the development of
the first European settlement on the island in 1746 was just the beginning.
After the initial French settlement, the Caribs tried repeatedly to chase the
French off the island, and all the while the British were still trying to get
their hands on the island, as well. For approximately 150 years the “ownership”
of St. Lucia passed back and forth between the British and the French as the two
nations battled fiercely for control. All in all, the island changed possession
14 times. In 1814, with the Treaty of Paris, ownership was granted to the
British. St. Lucia gained its independence from Britain in 1979.
Under British control, both islands followed similar
patterns, including the institution of English as the national language. And
while St. Lucia eventually came under British control, it still retained French
influence as well, including the French-based dialect called
patois.
Derek Walcott-The Writer’s Background
Walcott was born in St. Lucia in 1930, while the island was
still under British rule. He is known as a writer who openly refers to the
conflicts that arise from his heritage with humor, boldness, and acceptance.
“Walcott has self-mockingly referred to his split allegiances to his
Afro-Caribbeans and his European inheritances as those of a ‘schizophrenic,’ a
‘mongrel’, a ‘mulatto of style’” (Norton 2770).
Not only was Walcott raised with two different national
influences, but he was also the product of racially mixed relationships. Both of
his grandmothers were of African descent, while both of his grandfathers were
white European.
One of the issues that Walcott has struggled with in his life
and career as a writer is his love of his Caribbean heritage, and also his love
of the English language that was imposed upon him by the colonizing nation. “He
has repeatedly asked how the postcolonial poet can both grieve the agonizing
harm of British colonialism and appreciate the empire’s literary gift” (2770).
In his youth, while studying at the
University of the West Indies in Jamaica, Walcott claims that it was probably
for the best that he did not receive the scholarship to Oxford University that
he desired. Uncertain as to how his writing would have developed in England,
Walcott acknowledges the excitement that existed as he studied in Jamaica.
“There was the excitement of a new Caribbean being created…Obviously colonialism
was there and racism and history and so on. We had our anger, but it was kind of
great to be angry-it had its own vigor. It wasn’t at all sour or vengeful.” (www.nalis.gov)
It is that lack of anger that is so
apparent in Walcott’s writing that at times distinguishes him from other
postcolonial writers. Amongst his peers, that lack of anger has sometimes been
perceived as passivity to inequality. “Some authors have argued that Walcott’s
treatment of the socio-economic inequalities that stem from colonialism is often
questionable…that Walcott is dangerously close to accepting powerlessness and to
viewing inequalities as unchangeable.” (www.ejournals.org)
.
Jamaica Kincaid-The Writer’s Background
Jamaica Kincaid was born in St. John’s, Antigua, in 1949,
while the island was still under British rule. Kincaid is known for her sharp
criticisms of the colonizer. Educated at the colonial Princess Margaret School,
Kincaid claims that her education “was so ‘empire’” that she “thought all the
great writing had been done before 1900.” (Norton 2567).
Kincaid was sent to America at the age
of 17 by her mother, who desired her to work as an au pair. While living in New
York, Kincaid attended community college for several years and was then awarded
a scholarship to Franconia College in New Hampshire. She dropped out after a
year and began to write. (www.voices.cla.umn.edu)
.
Because her writing consistently
addresses the unjustness of colonialism, some have accused her of being a
depressing writer. Kincaid’s answer to that accusation is not one of denial, but
of embrace. “I like to be depressing. I feel it’s my duty to make everyone a
little less happy. You know that line in the Declaration of Independence, ‘the
pursuit of happiness’? I’ve come to
think that it has no meaning at all. You cannot pursue happiness.” (www.enj.fju.edu)
.
While some critics complain that
Kincaid is too angry and negative in her writings, particularly harboring
excessive anger towards England, others find beauty in her angst. “Whether
critics praise or condemn Kincaid’s ‘angry tone’, the earnest content and
lyrical form of her prose in irrefutably engaging…Perhaps the most striking
quality in Kincaid’s writing is its honesty.” (www.voices.cla.umn.edu)
.
Derek Walcott’s “A Far Cry from Africa”
In this poem, Walcott begins by reflecting on the Mau Mau
uprising in Kenya in the 1960’s, when the Kenyan citizens were struggling to
come out from under British colonial rule. When guerilla warfare erupted between
the British and the rebelling Mau Mau natives, Kenyan citizens were forced to
take sides, and many chose the side of the British. In the end, more than 11,000
Mau Mau were killed and more than 70,000 were tortured and maimed.
Walcott’s perspective is one which sees both sides of the
battle. On the one hand, he sees the actions of the oppressive British regime as
abominable.
“Corpses are scattered through a paradise.
Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries:
“Waste no compassion on these separate dead!”
Statistics justify and scholars seize
The salients of colonial policy.
Yet on the other hand, Walcott also sees that the rebelling
Mau Mau are implicit in the atrocities, as casualties on both sides reveal:
What is that to the white child
hacked in bed?
To savages, expandable as Jews?
Walcott alludes to the evils of colonialism when he writes:
The violence of beast on beast is
read
As natural law, but upright man
Seeks his divinity by inflicting pain.
With both sides being wrong in their thoughts or actions,
Walcott acknowledges that he does not know which side to align himself with.
Just like the Kenyans are divided between the rebelling Mau Mau and the
British-loyal Kiyuyu, In the end he, too, feels divided when he reflects on his
own personal heritage:
I who am poisoned with the blood
of both,
Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?
I who have cursed
The drunken officer of British rule, how choose
Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?
Betray them both, or give back what they give?
How can I face such slaughter and be cool?
How can I turn from Africa and live?
For Walcott, this poem is about so much more than just a
political statement. While unrest brews in his native Africa, it also brews
within his spirit. The conflict of empathy for both sides in the war extends to
conflict within his own spirit. The Africa in him is at war, in a sense, with
the England in him. A product of
both countries, Walcott is unwilling and unable to give up one, to sacrifice one
heritage in order to completely embrace the other.
Like the innocent baby that King Solomon commanded by split in
two in order to settle the issue of maternity, Walcott sees himself as a split
entity, torn between two mother nations and unwilling to turn his back on either
one.
Jamaica Kincaid’s “A Small Place”
For those who believe that Kincaid’s writing is too angry, the
essays in this collection are probably the justification of their judgment. With
bitter prose that reads like a thorough tongue-lashing, Kincaid chastises the
American or European tourist who finds refuge in her home country. She resents
the fact that tourists come to Antigua to get away from the stresses of their
day to day lives, yet when they arrive, they fail to understand the history of
the country. Kincaid addresses the following issues pertaining to Antigua’s
colonized past:
1.
England is indifferent or
unaware to the fact that their colonization of Antigua was wrong:
“They don’t seem to know that this empire business was all
wrong and they should, at least, be wearing sackcloth and ashes in token penance
of the wrongs committed, the irrevocableness of their bad deeds, for no natural
disaster imaginable could equal the harm they did…”
(92 The Post Colonial Reader).
2.
The hurt from colonialism
still throbs:
“Do you ever try to understand why people like me cannot
get over the past, cannot forgive and cannot forget? There is the Barclays Bank.
The Barclay brothers are dead. The human beings they traded, the human being who
to them were only commodities, are dead. It should not have been that they came
to the same end, and heaven is not enough of a reward for one or hell enough of
a punishment for the other…” (93 The Post
Colonial Reader).
3.
People are ignorant of
the fact that England has robbed Antigua of its identity:
“I cannot tell you how angry it makes me to hear people
from North America tell me how much they love England, how beautiful England is,
with its traditions…But (in Antigua) what I see is the millions of people, of
whom I am just one, made orphans: no motherland, no fatherland, no gods, no
mounds of earth for holy ground, no excess of love which might lead to the
things that an excess of love sometimes brings, and worst and most painful of
all, no tongue. 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?”
(94 The Post Colonial Reader).
Kincaid also takes great pains in berating the
typical tourist for his ignorance when he arrives. One issue that she reflects
on is the tourist’s desire to come to Antigua and have beautiful weather for the
duration of his stay. This is something that is expected, Kincaid says, “where
the sun always shines and where the climate is deliciously hot and dry for the
four to ten days you are going to be staying there…” (257 Anthology of African
American Literature).
What upsets Kincaid so much about this expectation
is the fact that a place that never rains is not a desirable place to live, yet
it is a desirable place to vacation.
“Since you are on your holiday,
since you are a tourist, the thought of what it might be like for someone who
had to live day in, day out in a place that suffers constantly from drought, and
so has to watch carefully every drop of fresh water used (while at the same time
surrounded by a sea and an ocean-the Caribbean Sea on one side, the Atlantic
Ocean on the other), must never cross your mind.” (258 Anthology of African
American Literature)
So, the tourist comes with the expectation that
Antigua will be what he wants it to be, with no regard for what is necessary for
a comfortable existence for its own people, who don’t have the option of
jetting in and out.
Kincaid also addresses the issue of preferential
treatment of whites at the country’s airport.
“Since you are a tourist, a North American or
European-to be frank, white-and not an Antiguan black returning to Antigua from
Europe or North America with cardboard boxes of much needed cheap clothes and
food for relatives, you move through customs swiftly, you move through customs
with ease. Your bags are not searched.” (258
Anthology of African American Literature)
For Kincaid, it is not simply an issue of giving
tourists a pleasurable experience as they enter the country. The assumption is
there that while white tourists pass through with ease, the native Antiguans are
delayed, hassled, perhaps even prevented from bringing into the country the
things they would like to bring. Even the country itself brings strife upon its
own.
After pointing out that the tourist should pray for
good health while on vacation, because even the Antiguans prefer to seek medical
treatment outside of their own country, Kincaid also points out the dilapidated
state of many of the country’s buildings, which have been waiting to be repaired
for years. She reminds the tourist of the evils of colonialism, but then
‘comforts’ them with the following affirmation:
“…you needn’t let that slightly
funny feeling you have from time to time about exploitation, oppression,
domination develop into full-fledged unease, discomfort; you could ruin your
holiday.” (260 Anthology of African American Literature)
Before she concludes this particular essay, Kincaid
lets the tourist in on a little secret that would give any jetsetter a queasy
stomach: the beautiful water that he wades in during the day has been
contaminated with the waste that he flushes down his fancy hotel commode, since
Antigua does not have a proper septic management system.
“That the native does not like the tourist is not
hard to explain. For every native of every place is a potential tourist, and
every tourist is a native of somewhere. Every native everywhere lives a life of
overwhelming and crushing banality and boredom and desperation and depression,
and every deed, good and bad, is an attempt to forget that. Every native would
like to find a way out, every native would like a rest, every native would like
a tour. But some natives-most natives in the world-cannot go anywhere. They are
too poor.” (264 Anthology of African American Literature)
“The Quest for Caribbean Identities:
Postcolonial Conflicts and Cross-Cultural Fertilization in
Derek Walcott’s Poetry”
By Catherine Douillet
This article explores at an in-depth level several of
Walcott’s poems, proposing that the “intricate relationships between the
colonized and the colonizer and the ways in which the Caribbean self embraces
and is split between different places and loyalties are central themes of
Walcott’s writing.” Walcott is
presented as belonging to a class of writers that call on the Caribbean self to
assert itself more aggressively in the postcolonial world.
It is noted in this article that during the 1960s and 1970s,
Walcott was a severe critic of other writers who focused on the “history of
colonial suffering” while his writing, in contrast, “explores the wounds of
colonial history and the Caribbean’s various connections to Europe.” Walcott’s
writing, Douillet says, serves to unite, not to divide. She also credits his
writing with easing cultural tensions and racial divisions.
While analyzing Walcott’s writing, Douillet also addresses the
issue of writers who are on the other side of the spectrum, including those who
remain trapped “in the angry contemplation of the wrongs of past history.” In
contrast, Douillet says, Walcott seeks to create a new type of world literature
that does not attempt to explain history, but also does not attempt to forgive
it. In doing so, he essentially takes the power and control away from the past.
For Walcott, therefore, “a new Caribbean culture can be
re-born anew out of the ashes of the past.” It is this premise which provides
the sense of peace and hope that is in Walcott’s poetry.
This article also makes some assertions about Walcott’s
Nobel nomination and award that I found interesting:
“The conferment of the Nobel Prize of Literature of course
does not happen in a political void and is not simply a reflection of purely
literary talents, but also of what some social circles seem to favor. The fact
that Walcott was chosen as a recipient of the prestigious award speaks to his
agenda of cross-fertilization and positive regeneration, which the Nobel
Foundation seems to favor, as much as to his literary genius.”
In other words, because Walcott brings a positive
message, he is in a better position to be recognized by the Nobel Foundation?
Hmmm…I’m wondering what Kincaid would think about that…
In defense of Walcott perhaps being labeled as too soft on the hard issues, Douillet insists that “Walcott’s agenda of cross-cultural fertilization never denies or subdues the importance of the colonial scar or the long-term disempowerment of people of African descent.” He did, however, choose to be a writer who embraces hope instead of despair.
Kincaid’s “A Small Place”
By Anthony Bongiorni
In this essay posted on
www.postcolonialweb.org, Bongiorni examines the
issues that Kincaid presents in “A Small Place” and also questions the
bitterness that she has against England and white tourists.
Bongiorni begins by acknowledging the point “that resonates
with all of us”: the feelings of envy and depression that can arise when someone
sees great wealth in others, particularly when it is compared to our lack of
wealth. While agreeing with that point, however, the writer goes on to attack
many of the remaining tenants of Kincaid’s essay.
If today’s Antiguans have simply picked up the
“ill-mannered” Brits’ corrupt form of government, he asks, then why is it that
today’s British government is far less corrupt than Antigua’s?
According to Kincaid, all of the good
British stayed home, and only the bad British came to Antigua to corrupt it.
“The problem with this argument is that it ignores
the possibility that there are good people in Antigua…If the only ones who
adopted Britain’s corrupt colonial ways were the few government ministers on the
island, wouldn’t the vast majority of good people kick them out and create a
better, cleaner government?”
The writer also resents Kincaid’s “confrontational
second-person style” or narrative. He sees this as an attempt at shifting blame.
“To Kincaid, the buck mysteriously stops with the reader. Given that the reader
has the time to read the book, is likely literate and probably lives in North
America or Europe, he or she represents (in Kincaid’s mind) the corruptor of the
Antiguan people.”
Bongiorni ends his essay with a powerful conclusion
that forces the reader to ask hard questions:
“There are certainly many postcolonial problems that
Kincaid has every right to be upset about. However…her readers are not more
responsible for Antigua’s problems than she herself is. Britain cannot be
whipped in perpetuity for the mistakes of colonialism. No one in Britain caused
an Antiguan government official to take millions in bribes for an industrial
plant…these people did what they did because they wanted the enrichment crime
brings without having to suffer any penalties. Antigua’s lax system of
government oversight has made the cost of criminality so low, that almost anyone
can make a profit on it. For this the British can only be blamed for not
ensuring that Antigua’s government was full and fair before they left.”
Previous Student Postings/Midterms/Research Journals
“Insights on Colonial and
Postcolonial Literature”, by Luis A. Saenz:
“A Far Cry from Africa clearly depicts Walcott’s
attitudes towards his two cultures. Although he struggles to identify with one
culture, his love for both are obvious. In this context, Walcott produces a
dialogue between his British and African descent. He establishes his racial
identity by depicting the evils of his English culture in order to show
compassion towards it through his African heritage.”
“Constructing a Nation on a Lie of
Imperialism”, by Nicole Wheatley:
“English street names, English holidays at school,
English style government-all forced upon Antigua because it was taken as an
English colony. This is the purest form of how postcolonial literature uses
language to express the lie of imperialism to the colony the English inhibited.
Kincaid could not have expressed imperialism in literature better than she did
in ‘A Small Place’.”
“Dominance and Obsession”,
by Cristen Lauck
“It seems as though the people who are colonizing
feel a sense of entitlement over those that are being colonized, while the
people who are being colonized are consumed, sometimes obsessed, with the idea
of being controlled…Kincaid focuses (A Small Place) on those that colonized her
land and assumed they are all power-obsessed, “bad minded people” who only
controlled them with ill-intent…Kincaid also doesn’t consider that maybe not all
of the English wanted to control her land.”
Conclusion:
When I first began visualizing this journal, I believed that I
would end up proving my own assumptions with complete conviction. Although I
enjoyed the writing of both of these authors, I felt a sense of judgment towards
Kincaid for her bitter, often antagonistic passages. However, I do not believe
that I was a reader without empathy, and Kincaid is certainly a writer who has
earned it.
I cannot begin to imagine myself in the place from which both
she and Walcott exist and write. After all, I am not divided to the vein as
Walcott is. My heritage is simple and clear cut. I am also more closely
associated with the ignorant tourist whom Kincaid judges with caustic venom in
“A Small Place”. My shelves at home are filled with trinkets from my vacation
destinations, including the Caribbean. And if I wanted to prove my cultural
distance with a slamming gavel, I could even confess that I’ve twice been a
missionary…to Africa.
The literary criticisms and poetic analyses that I’ve read
tended to both prove my original assumptions and also challenge them. I do
believe that my thoughts on Walcott are still quite correct. It is clear to me,
especially as I read Douillet’s essay, that
Walcott is writing from a place of greater peace than Kincaid.
But I’m not as certain as I was before that that place of
greater peace is superior to Kincaid’s.
Literature would not hold the fascination that it does for me
if all voices were the same. I feel now as though I have a kinder, less
judgmental assessment of Kincaid
and her more harsh, critical words. And I think that without the contrast
between the two writers, my limited
understanding of postcolonial writers would be even less than it now is. By
examining their differences, I better appreciate their similarities.
I ran out of time to include commentary on all of my research.
I can see haphazardly arranged at my feet “Preface to Frantz Fanon’s ‘Wretched
of the Earth’” and Walcott’s
“Prodigal”. But I know that there are several issues that I’ve uncovered during
my research that I would like to do further reading on.
The one issue that I keep thinking about, however, is the
issue of tourism in postcolonial countries and the economic pressure that forces
those countries to maintain and pander to their colonizer country and to the
tourist trade in general. Antigua is certainly not alone. I’ve traveled to quite
a few places and have experienced a lot of what Kincaid referenced in “A Small
Place”, but now I am looking back on those experiences through a different set
of eyes.
I am thinking about the wooden spoon that I bought in
Zimbabwe. Actually, I traded for it. I remember that day in the market at
Victoria Falls so clearly because it was so humbling. The woman I bartered with
that day got the last of my Zim dollars, but she also walked away with an empty
baby wipes container that I had been carrying around in my duffel bag.
She was delighted to get it because she planned on using it as
a lunch box for her son.
Kincaid might look at my wooden spoon and find it to be
nothing more than another symbol of inequality in the postcolonial world. But I
look at it and I remember a day when a mother from Texas and a mother from
Africa had a wonderful conversation about child rearing.
When I saw the spoon, I immediately thought of my soup pot.
The spoon is very long and thick, and I told the woman it would be great for
cooking a pot of beans.
“No,” she said, taking the spoon from my hands and smacking
herself in the butt with it. “For baby.”
We both laughed, and in that moment, concepts of imperialism
and colonialism and all the other isms that still stand between our countries
evaporated, and two mothers came to an agreement:
The common ground is there, if we are willing to embrace it.
Works Cited
Gates, Henry Louis Jr. and McKay, Nellie Y., Eds. The Norton
Anthology of African American Literature. New
York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2004, 2566-2576.
Print
Greenblatt, Stephen, Ed. The Norton Anthology of English
Literature. New York: W.W. Norton and Company,
2006, 2770-2776. Print
Kincaid, Jamaica. “A Small Place”. The Post-Colonial Studies
Reader. Eds. Bill
Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. New
York: Routledge, 2003, 92-94. Print.
Lauck, Cristen.
Dominance and Obsession
Martone, Micahel and Williford, Lex, Eds. Touchstone Anthology
of Contemporary Creative Nonficton. New
York: Simon and Schuster, 2007, 257-264. Print
Saenz, Luis A. Insights
on Colonial and Postcolonial Literature
Wheatley, Nicole.
Constructing a Nation on a Lie of Imperialism
www.ejournals.library.vanderbilt.edu/ojs/index.php/ameriquest.article/viewAricle/169.html
www.eng.fju.edu.tw/worldlit/caribbean/interview1.html
www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Walcott.html
