1. Stories of growth (4) : a black girl’s
Individuation through Separation from (m)other: Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid

2. Annie John as a bildungsroman
Major Question – [stories of forced separation in WSS, Abeng and “Bright Thursday”]
Why the voluntary and permanent separation from Antigua and from her mother in particular?
Kincaid: “I was always being told I should be something, and then my whole upbringing was something I was not: it was English” (Cudjoe 219).

3. Outline Kincaid Annie John “Circling Hand” “A Walk to the Jetty”
About colonialism and Antigua
And her mother
Annie John
“Circling Hand”
“A Walk to the Jetty”

4. Jamaica Kincaid: Bio (1)
Born Elaine Potter Richardson in St. Johns, Antigua in 1949; lived with her step-father, mother, and three brothers
father: a carpenter and cabinetmaker
mother: a homemaker and political activist.
Completed her secondary education under the British system
Lecture given by Jamaica Kincaid Date: September 22, 2009 Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalayas (2005) M

5. Jamaica Kincaid: Bio (2)
Left Antigua (before its Independence) when she was 17.
As the eldest of four, and the only girl, she was apprenticed to a seamstress, then plucked from school, where she was excelling, and sent to the US as an au pair ("really a servant")
changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid because her family disapproved of her writing. (source)

6. Antigua A lot more blacks than white people;
No experience of “freedom apprenticeship” (four-year waiting period) after Emancipation in “Freedom was immediate but total.” (Murdoch 99)
Economy suffers until tourism replaced sugar industry.
A British colony till 1967.

7. Kincaid on Colonialism & Antigua
Within the structure of the British educational system imposed upon Antiguans, Kincaid grew to "detest everything about England, except the literature" (Vorda 79).
A Small Place: rage at colonialism & the failure of Antigua independence
"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?"
“You distorted or erased my history and glorified your own")

8. Kincaid about her mother
She "should never have had children."
“She loves us when we‘re dying - not when we’re thriving because then we don‘t need her.” (source)
She favors her sons over Kincaid.

9. Annie John Back to our central question:
What makes Annie change her views about her family and esp. her mother?
pp – 12-year-old Annie’s views o her mother
p. 136 – 17-yr-old Annie’s view
Related issues
1. closeness to the mother;
2. the mother’s teaching (the young-lady business)
3. The mother’s social position and her relations with the father

10. Mother-Daughter Relationship in Annie John
Major Factors:
Caribbean society: a male-dominated society in which the men are allowed to be irresponsible about housework, and enjoy sexual relationships outside marriage.
Mother as a social institution to teach her girl to be socialized (= Englishized; lady-like)

11. Mother-Daughter Relationship in Annie John: Examples
“Figures in the Distance” Pre-occupation with death; a girl without a mother –”a shameful thing” (8)
“The Circling Hand” –
Pre-Oedipal symbiosis with the mother 
Forced to separate herself from the mother; sent to be educated, witnessing the parents’ sexual intercourse (primal scene).

12. Annie’s independence process
“Columbus in Chain”: [mainly about her rebellion at school, resisting British education]; at the end, mother is turned into a crocodile p. 84
“Gwen” (a perfect pretty type) “The Red Girl” (lower-class) -- Exploring her own sexuality.
“Somewhere, Belgium”: age 15,
out for a boy;
mother and daughter with two faces (one polite and loving, and the other hateful) called a slut by her mother after conversing with a boy -- “Well, …like mother like daughter” (p. 102);
wants a trunk of her own.

13. Annie’s independence process (2)
“The Long Rain”
Fascination for the father (112-13)
Illness; grandmother’s (Ma Chess) care-taking -- a substitute for the mother (pp )
“A Walk to the Jetty” -- Leaving Antigua
Waking up with Sadness and Readiness to leave
Taking note of everything around her  sadness;
Resentment against her parents and the environment – readiness.

14. “The Circling Hand”: Questions for Group Discussion
1. Mother-Daughter Relationship:
1-1 Describe the mother and daughter’s closeness.
What kind of gender model does the mother offer Annie? e.g. p ; Group 2
What's the significance of the trunk? P. 20
1-2 What role does the father take in this part? How does the mother relate to both of them. How do we know more about the society thru’ their relationships?
[Optional] Do you remember being close to your mother, or father, and admiring them? Since when did the relationship change? Group 1
2. What does the title mean? What “finishes” her happy childhood and love for the family (p. 32). Only the parent’s sex? --Group 6

15. “A Walk to the Jetty” Questions for Group Discussion
4. Is Annie’s separation from her family and the past inevitable and absolute? e.g “never” “for the last time” Aren’t there contradictions between her readiness to leave and her sadness?
Is it appropriate for Annie to criticize her parents? Are you sympathetic with her hatred of the mother? Pp Group 4
5. What does she reject in leaving the place? Can you relate to her need to leave the place forever? pp Group 5
6. Describe the narrative style of one-day progress with flashbacks, the use of repetition and/or symbolic descriptions.--Group 3

16. “The Circling Hand” 1. The symbiotic stage: (pp. 13-25)
Examples of the daughter’s complete identification with the mother. pp
-- Physical intimacy (bathing); 14
-- protective 14-15
-- Mother’s gender role model: shopping; doing housework [cooking, washing clothes] p ; 25;
-- admiring the mother 18-19; be like the mother p. 139
-- sharing cloth
-- continuation of identity -- the Trunk P. 20 (the mother’s past + Annie’s sourvenir + story-telling)

17. “The Circling Hand” 1-2 1. The symbiotic stage: (pp. 13-25)
-- the father’s role – outsider; has a lot of women;
-- Someone to be sympathized with (Annie—wants to give him a mother);
-- Served and mothered by his wife p. 24
“A Walk”
-- builds and makes a lot of things in the house;
-- p. 132 – 35 years older than his wife; sickly

18. “The Circling Hand” (2) 2. Separation: not just by the parents–
the changes at age 12
in Annie’s body p. 25; p. 27 ( Persepolis)
her schooling -- p. 29
The changes in the mother’s attitudes:
The mother’s distanciation:
her dresses p. 26; trunk ritual p. 27; differentiation
the mother’s expectations of her:
“young lady business” pp – turning her back at Annie
Housework 29-30

19. “The Circling Hand” (2)
Why does the mother do this? Is it necessary for the mother to be so stern?
Possible Reasons –
The mother’s preoccupation with housework;
Her failure to smooth the transition from Annie’s childhood to puberty;
Her being influenced by the dominant British values.

20. “The Circling Hand” (3) 3. the primal scene
the importance of the circling hand? P. 30
What role does the father take after this scene?
Context: Annie’s wanting to “reconquer” her mother

21. The mother’s hand 1. Mother’s Hands -- taking care of Annie;
-- doing housework;
“white, bony, dead, left out in the elements” –distanced from her
a revision of feminine Oedipus as well as the “primal scene”
Annie recognizes the father’s power quite late; power conveyed thru’ the mother’s serving hand.

22. “A Walk to the Jetty” --separation
A. From Mother
(“Circling Hand” 1.different dresses—A’s bitterness and hatred
2. Enforced “lady” education — mother’s disappointment
3.stop kid’s talking---awareness
4.after the turning point—“All that was finished” talk back.)
5.complete separation--- “never to be fooled again” “hypocrite” 147
6. Talk back 136 – mother’s image degraded
7. On guard against the mother’s love and expectations 147

23. “A Walk to the Jetty”—the Past
Walking away from the past (memories of education and transitional objects)
Education:
Ms. Dulcie the seamstress, p. 138
first experience of buying things 139
saving money 140
library
Memories -- Transitional objects: interests that she has outgrown: glasses (141), porcelain dog (142)
Memories -- Love – Mother & Gwen 137
 cannot deny the mother’s good intention in educating her and love for her;
 do we need to reject things we are no longer interested in or people who are no longer on a par with us?

24. “A Walk to the Jetty” –separation from the social norms (2)
B. From the social norm(and oppression)
1. to be a lady  e.g. exploited by Ms Dulcie 138
2. marriage  sexual inequality
3. Gwen constrained by marriage and ignorance p. 137
4. The community –does not even want to say good-bye

25. “A Walk to the Jetty”
Contradictory signs of independence + signs of nostalgia in this chapter?]
Independence vs. Nostalgia:
Name, address,
separation: her listing of what she “never wants to see”; joy at not having to see them. pp ;
her attention at what’s “hers” and what’s on her p
remembering a lot;
Fear of vacancy and of hole:
the moment of getting out of bed 133
fear of falling into the water 143
contradictory feelings at the wharf: 144; 145, 146, 147

26. Walking to Empty Oneself
Does not know why it is an absolute departure for her 134
Passing through the place as if she were in a dream 143
Resisting the mother when she says she’s always her mother.  Resisting the permanent control.
Emptied out at the end

27. Conclusion –Separation from the (m)other
The mother is already an disadvantaged Other.
[stories of forced separation]
WSS – Annette-- post-emancipation society;
Abeng – Kitty: caught in between black and white skin
“Bright Thursday” – Myrtle: eager to whiten her daughter.
[voluntary and permanent separation] from
the patriarchal and colonial society in Antigua