I hope you found this little book very eye-opening.
When I read it the first time, I was startled
by Kincaid’s vengeance and anger.
This impression still stays with me after
many readings of the book.
In this presentation, I hope to show you how
Kincaid presents her arguments as well as
the connections it makes to neocolonialism.
If you have read the book carefully, I think
you can see Kincaid’s version of Antigua.
Please remember that A Small Place is a work
of creative non-fiction, part travel essay,
part treatise, and part historic narrative.
Your skills of reading literature should be
applied to reading this book.
I wanted to include a writer like Kincaid
in this class because she represents the common
experience of many contemporary Caribbean
writers, who leave their countries and immigrate
to the United States.
If you remember other writers from this course,
some of them landed in England.
After independence, the United States creates
the pull that tugs these writers away from
their home countries.
The United States with its close proximity
to the Caribbean allows a lot of these writers
to have a transnational relationship to their
nations: they are able to travel and communicate
back and forth between the US and their country
of origin.
However, Kincaid is really the exception to
this rule, despite writing about Antigua in
five of her works (to date).
She definitely has love-hate relationship
to her home and often vacillates between these
extremes in her works.
She has written about her immigration experience
fictionally in her novel, Lucy.
When I first designed this course, I am not
lying when I say that A Small Place was the
first text I thought about teaching for this
course.
Partly because I was introduced to Caribbean
literature through this text and partly because,
of all the works in the Caribbean canon, this
book is one-of-kind.
I wanted students to confront the paradoxes
Kincaid presents.
After all, many of you may be tourists (perhaps
multiple times) to the Caribbean.
Although this book may not provide instructions
on behavior, it may make you think beyond
Sandals or Beaches or Paradise Island and
make you contemplate all the history and people
you could meet on your “holiday.”
For this book, I wanted to show another angle
of the Caribbean both in terms of content
and in location.
Antigua and Barbuda is part of the Leeward
Islands (one).
As you can see, Dominica is also part of this
island group.
Together, along with many more, smaller islands,
Antigua and Barbuda have an estimated population
of 80,000 people (two).
However, according to the Tourist Arrival:
Year in Review 2015 published by the government,
this twin island nation had over 900,000 tourists!
This large disparity points toward the author’s
positions in the book.
While the book discusses Antigua generally,
one specific setting she describes is the
former public library.
The picture on the left (one) shows what the
former, old library on Market Street used
to look like.
Although the picture shows the library immediately
before it was razed, I think it demonstrates
the spirit of Kincaid’s description.
The quote on the right provides a small example
of Kincaid’s rhetorical force in this book.
She uses the rhetorical device of erotema
to ask questions (through the narrator) to
the reader.
Kincaid wants us to contemplate why a library
would be on Market Street, the original location
of the market.
The library, home of knowledge and a site
to learn, has been commodified.
Kincaid asks these questions to make us see
how the library and its content are not priorities
for the government.
Kincaid uses second person very effectively
throughout the book in my opinion.
She is directly addressing her probable American
readers who may be picking up her book as
they try to learn about globalization and
world systems, particularly economics.
In this quote, Kincaid uses asides through
her parentheses to add jabs to the punches
she is throwing in the sentence, which continues
for many more lines and lives in a multiple-page
paragraph.
Her point in this quote is that history has
written out the stories of the laborers and
slaves in place of “brilliant” shop keepers
of England.
Her diatribe about the wristwatch drips with
irony because it has been used to regulate
the daily lives of those very laborers who
have been exploited by those same shop owners.
The irony of the watch is more powerful because
her audience (or the tourist reading this
history on vacation) are on holiday, where
you will not be bothered by time.
This quote thus ends this way: “and so 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”
(10).
Holiday, as a term, is the common word for
vacation in Great Britain.
I like this word better than vacation because
it suggests a complete break for the normal:
you do odd ceremonies on holidays, you spend
more money on holidays, you eat extravagant
foods on holidays, you do not worry about
time during holidays, and you enjoy yourself
guiltlessly on holidays.
The American word “vacation” does not
convey all of these feelings.
This quote summarizes the essence of Kincaid’s
perspective in the book.
This quote traces the evolution of colonialism,
imperialism, and finally neocolonialism.
Exploitation!
Exploitation!
Exploitation!
Kincaid’s argument is not shared by every
writer in the Caribbean, for some writers
see that Western interactions have created
opportunities for new life and culture.
Derek Walcott’s essay “The Muse of History”
provides an interesting counterargument to
Kincaid’s.
Please watch these videos for Stephanie Black’s
amazing documentary Life and Debt, which explains
how the International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank lend money to developing nations.
A Small Place was used for some of the narration
of that film.
The video on the left (video one) explains
the procedures of the IMF.
The video on the right (video two) shows how
the Jamaican dairy industry has to operate
according to loan stipulations.
Here are great resources for your research
paper for this course.
Another great resource is The Caribbean Development
Portal, which has information about each member
nation pertaining to all areas of their societies.
