Severing The (M)Other Connection

The Representation of Cultural Identity in Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John

Bibliographic Data

ID3237980
AuthorsH Adlai Murdoch (corresponding author)
Year1990
Volume13
Issue2
Pages325
Publication date1990-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCallaloo (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0161-2492 • E-ISSN: 1080-6512
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2931710
OpenAlexW2315354627
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited2

assonance with the world around her, identifies with the image of the other in the form of her mother in an effort to establish a coherent self. This symbiotic relationship appears to function until the falseness of its premise is exposed to her, an event which is specifically precipitated by a primal scene. This, in turn, gives rise to a new perception of the mother as being both racially and culturally different. The mother's creole Dominican past becomes opposed to Annie's Antiguan cultural formation, so that the mother's cultural separateness and foreignness are interpreted as a form of racial difference. This idea of racial difference as a subset of foreignness thus initially terminates the primary stage in which Annie seeks her identity through the (m)other. In conjunction with the primal scene, it also gives rise to Annie's perception of her mother's abdication of authority, precipitating her rejection of that unique sense of unity that had bound them together. It is subsequent to the illumination conveyed by this episode that Annie's rebellion

Aesthetics · Art · Connection (principal bundle · Geometry · Identity (music · Political science · Representation (politics · Sociology · Anthropology · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law · Mathematics · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies

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