Jamaica Kincaid is recognized in mainstream American literature as one of the world’s leading women writers of Caribbean descent. As a result of her accusations and satires against European colonial rule, academics have tended to interpret her work in terms of race, gender, and class in a single anti-colonial and post-colonial political way. In A Small Place, Jamaica Kincaid traces the history of Antigua from the landscape to reveal its current situation under the influence of postcolonialism. With the help of postcolonial theories, the article analyzes the manifestations and causes of Antigua’s lack of national identity from three perspectives: economic, political, and cultural. The article analyzes the identity of the Antiguan “other” and the reasons for it from the linguistic and cultural perspectives and points out that Kincaid explores the possibilities and ways for the nation and the people to acquire a complete identity by reflecting on the legacy of colonialism and the potential impact of post-colonialism.
In A Small Place, Kincaid seeks to reveal the fog of rhetorical illusions shaped by the colonizer and expose the real world. She denounces white Western supremacy and native corrupt regimes and repeatedly uses the term “human trash” to directly express. In the book, tourists and readers are asked not only to see the blue sea and tropical atmosphere of Antigua but also to see the reality of the lives of the local Antiguan people. When tourists in a driving cab see a small house in front of a ramshackle public toilet with a sign that reads “Piggott’s Primary School” and “Harberton Hospital”. How wrong it is to have no doubts about it. Such places as hospitals and schools are so bad where the lives of the people and the education of the people are at stake. Is this place really the tourist attraction described by the colonists? As a tourist, “What if you have a bad heart… What if you happen to have a heart attack while traveling? What if the cab you are riding in suddenly has an accident?” Kincaid’s scolding” language not to keep international tourists away from the island. Rather, it was a way to keep them from being used by the colonizers. It is a tool for the colonialists to make profits and hide the truth of history. And Kincaid reminds people: “See the blue sea and the tropical pristine atmosphere here but ignore the suffering here.” This sea area has been submerged in many sugar cane slaves. It has also witnessed how many black people were sent to other countries. At that time this seemed to be a beautiful sea. However, due to over-exploitation of tourism, there is often domestic wastewater discharged into the sea and it has not been treated. In the long run, this seemingly beautiful will eventually disappear. This primitive atmosphere satisfies the curiosity of tourists but the local people are forced to disguise their other thinking to keep running the tourism.
Faced with the lingering legacy of the old colonial past and the trauma of the new colonization, Kincaid does not suppress his anger or adopt a euphemistic tone like other writers of his generation but uses her “angry” language to accuse the evils of colonialism and express his resistance to the colonial culture. As a descendant of the colonized who has lived in Europe and the United States for many years, she angrily exposes the evils of colonialism and its legacy. She angrily exposes the illusion created by the colonizers. She presents the real colonial history and the current situation to the world. She expresses her hatred for colonialism and her hate for the incompetent Antiguan government. She does not want to do unto others as they have done unto us but to be equal and free. The history of suffering must not be forgotten, and the future of justice must be pursued. Today, in the globalization of peace and development, there are still many places like Antigua, described as A small place, that is controlled by the colonial powers, which needs to be changed.
Resource from:
Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place, academia, 1988.
“Antigua Guatemala Today.” https://www.hotelcasa-antigua.com/antigua-guatemala/
“The Ugliness of Tourism .” https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/smallplace/themes/
Hello,
I would like to begin by saying thank you for the background information that you provided us in the beginning of your presentation. It provides valuable information and informs us of what we should be expecting as we continue to read through your presentation.
Secondly, I believe you did an amazing job of explaining “A Small Place”. you provided us many quotes as well as did a great job of telling us the value of those quotes!
I really enjoyed reading your context presentation. It provides a lot of informative background information that is great to know before reading this novel for the week. Great Post!
great post, it makes me curious to learn more about the harms of tourism, especially since I thought that tourism was profitable to the places being visited. Perhaps it will change my outlook when I visit other cultures.