Understanding Jamaica Kincaid
Justin D. Edwards
Understanding Jamaica Kincaid introduces readers to the prizewinning author best
known for the novels Annie John, Lucy, and The Autobiography of My Mother. Justin
D. Edwards surveys Jamaica Kincaid’s life, career, and major works of fiction and
nonfiction to identify and discuss her recurring interests in familial relations,
Caribbean culture, and the aftermath of colonialism and exploitation. In addition
to examining the haunting prose, rich detail, and personal insight that have brought
Kincaid widespread praise, Edwards also identifies and analyzes the novelist’s primary
thematic concerns—the flow of power and the injustices faced by people undergoing
social, economic, and political change.
Edwards chronicles Kincaid’s childhood in Antigua, her development as a writer,
and her early journalistic work as published in the New Yorker and other magazines.
In separate chapters he provides critical appraisals of Kincaid’s early novels; her works
of nonfiction, including My Brother and A Small Place; and her more recent novels,
including Mr. Potter. Edwards discusses the way in which Kincaid both exposes the
problems of colonization and neocolonization and warns her readers about the dire
consequences of inequality in the era of globalization.
Understanding Contemporary American Literature
Matthew J. Bruccoli, series editor
April 2007, 192 pages
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Justin D. Edwards is a professor of
English at the University of Wales,
Bangor. His previous books include
Exotic Journeys: Exploring the Erotics
of U.S. Travel Literature, 1840–1950;
Gothic Passages: Racial Ambiguity
and the American Gothic; and Gothic
Canada: Reading the Spectre of a
National Literature.
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