Jamaica Kincaid: Difference between revisions

{{short description|Antiguan-American novelist,writer essayist,(born gardener, and gardening writer1949)}}

| nationality = {{hlist|Antiguan|American}}

| education = [[Franconia College]] (no degree)

| website = <!-- www.example.com -->

Jamaica Kincaid was born '''Elaine Potter Richardson''' in the city of [[St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda|St. John's]], on the island of [[Antigua]], on May 25, May 1949.<ref name="emory">{{cite web|url=https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2014/06/10/kincaid-jamaica/|title=Kincaid, Jamaica|last=Slavin|first=Molly Marie|website=Postcolonial Studies|publisher=[[Emory University]]|access-date=November 18, 2017}}</ref> She grew up in relative poverty with her mother, a literate, cultured woman and homemaker, and her stepfather, a carpenter.<ref name="emory" /><ref name="salon" /><ref name="bbcws">{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/features/womenwriters/kincaid_life.shtml|title=Her Story|website=[[BBC World Service]]|access-date=November 18, 2017}}</ref><ref name="ebsco">{{Cite web |url=http://www.ebscohost.com/ |title=ArchivedEBSCOhost Online Research Databases &#124; copyEBSCO |access-date=November 20, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303062748/http://www.ebscohost.com/ |archive-date=March 3, 2014 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> She was very close to her mother until her three brothers were born in quick succession, starting when Kincaid was nine years old. After her brothers' births, she resented her mother, who thereafter focused primarily on the brothers' needs. Kincaid later recalled,

In aan interview for ''[[The New York Times]]'' interview, Kincaid also said: "The way I became a writer was that my mother wrote my life for me and told it to me."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/10/19/home/kincaid-annie.html|title=Paradise with Snake|last=Kenney|first=Susan|date=April 7, 1985|work=The New York Times|access-date=August 7, 2018}}</ref>

Kincaid received, (and frequently excelled in), a British education growing up, as Antigua did not gain [[independence]] from the [[United Kingdom]] until 1981.<ref name="emory" /><ref name="bbcws" /><ref name="Garis" /><ref name=encyclopedia.com>{{cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/miscellaneous-english-literature-20th-cent-biographies/jamaica-kincaid|title=Jamaica Kincaid|website=Encyclopedia of World Biography|publisher=[[Encyclopedia.com]]|access-date=November 18, 2017}}</ref> Although she was intelligent and frequently tested at the top of her class, Kincaid's mother removed her from school at 16 to help support the family when her third and last brother was born, because her stepfather was ill and could no longer provide for the family.<ref name="bbcws" /> In 1966, when Kincaid was 17, her mother sent her to [[Scarsdale, New York|Scarsdale]], a wealthy suburb of [[New York City]], to work as an ''[[au pair]]''.<ref name="Levintova">{{cite journal|last=Levintova|first=Hannah|title="Our Sassy Black Friend" Jamaica Kincaid|url=https://www.motherjones.com/media/2013/02/interview-jamaica-kincaid-see-now-then|journal=[[Mother Jones (magazine)|Mother Jones]]|issue=January/February 2013|access-date=June 25, 2013}}</ref> After this move, Kincaid refused to send money home; "she left no forwarding address and was cut off from her family until her return to Antigua 20 years later".<ref name=encyclopedia.com />

In 1979, Kincaid married the composer and [[Bennington College]] professor [[Allen Shawn]], son of longtime ''[[The New Yorker]]'' editor [[William Shawn]] and brother of actor [[Wallace Shawn]]. The couple divorced in 2002. They have two children: a son, Harold, the music producer/songwriter Levelsoundz, a graduate of [[Northeastern University]], a music producer/songwriter who is the founder of Levelsoundz; and a daughter, Annie, who graduated from Harvard and now works in marketing. Kincaid is president of the official Levelsoundz Fan Club.

Kincaid is a keen gardener who has written extensively on the subject. She is a [[Conversion to Judaism|convertconverted]] to [[Judaism]] in 2005.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ujc.org/page.aspx?id=26506|title=Black Jews: A Minority Within a Minority|author=Halper, Donna|publisher=United Jewish Communities|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228091356/http://www.ujc.org/page.aspx?id=26506|archive-date=February 28, 2009|url-status=dead|access-date=August 3, 2010|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

While working as an ''au pair'', Kincaid enrolled in evening classes at a community college.<ref name=":2">Benson, Kristin M., and Hagseth, Cayce. (2001). [[hdl:11299/166247|"Jamaica Kincaid."]] ''Voices from the Gaps''. [[University of Minnesota|University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy]]. Retrieved August 7, 2018.</ref> After three years, she resigned from her job to attend [[Franconia College]] in [[New Hampshire]] on a full scholarship. She dropped out after a year and returned to New York,<ref name="emory" /> where she started writing for the teenage girls' magazine ''Ingénue'', ''[[The Village Voice]]'', and ''[[Ms. (magazine)|Ms.]]'' magazine.<ref name=Busby>{{cite book|title=[[Daughters of Africa]]|chapter=Jamaica Kincaid|first=Margaret|last=Busby|date=1992|page=772|publisher=Jonathan Cape|location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-67/looking-back-anger-jamaica-kincaid#axzz6f0UpDy00|title=Jamaica Kincaid: Looking Back In Anger — A Jamaica Kincaid chronology|first= Jeremy|last= Taylor |author-link=Jeremy Taylor|journal=[[Caribbean Beat]]|issue=67 |date=May–June 2004|access-date=27 November 2020}}</ref> She changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid in 1973, when her writing was first published.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/worldlit/caribbean/jam~1.htm|title=Jamaica Kincaid|website=Department of English Language and Literature|publisher=[[Fu Jen Catholic University]]|access-date=November 18, 2017}}</ref> She described this name change as "a way for [her] to do things without being the same person who couldn't do them — the same person who had all these weights".<ref name="Garis">{{cite journal|last=Garis|first=Leslie|date=October 7, 1990|title=Through West Indian Eyes|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/07/magazine/through-west-indian-eyes.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm|journal=New York Times Magazine|access-date=June 18, 2013}}</ref> Kincaid explained that "Jamaica" is an English corruption of what Columbus called Xaymaca, the part of the world that she comes from, and "Kincaid" appeared to go well with "Jamaica".<ref name="Sander">{{cite web|last = Sander|first = R.|title = Review of Diane Simmons, Jamaica Kincaid|url =http://www.thecaribbeanwriter.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=612&catid=13:volume10&Itemid=2&section=volume|work = Caribbean Writer: the Literary Gem of the Caribbean|publisher = University of the Virgin Islands|access-date = June 25, 2013}}</ref> Her short fiction appeared in ''[[The Paris Review]]'', and in ''The New Yorker'', where her 1990 novel ''[[Lucy (novel)|Lucy]]'' was originally serialized.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2502|title=Jamaica Kincaid|last=Ippolito|first=Emilia|date=July 7, 2001|website=The Literary Encyclopedia|access-date=November 18, 2017}}</ref>

Kincaid is a writer, whose's work has been both praised and criticized for its subject matter because it largely draws upon her own life, and because her tone is often perceived as angry.<ref name=":2" /> Kincaid counters that many writers draw upon personal experience, so to describe her writing as autobiographical and angry is not valid criticism.<ref name="salon">{{cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/2013/05/05/jamaica_kincaid_people_say_im_angry_because_im_black_and_im_a_woman_partner/|title=Jamaica Kincaid: People say I'm angry because I'm black and I'm a woman|last=Loh|first=Alyssa|date=May 5, 2013|website=[[Salon (website)|Salon]]|access-date=November 18, 2017}}</ref> Jamaica

Kincaid was named the 50th commencement speaker at [[Bard College at Simon's Rock]] in 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://simons-rock.edu/news/kincaid-commencement.php|title=Jamaica Kincaid Named Simon's Rock Commencement Speaker {{!}} Bard College at Simon's Rock|website=simons-rock.edu|language=en|access-date=2019-03-09}}</ref>

Kincaid's unique style has created disagreement among critics and scholars, and as [[Harold Bloom]] explains: "Most of the published criticism of Jamaica Kincaid has stressed her political and social concerns, somewhat at the expense of her literary qualities."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/jamaicakincaidbl00haro_0|title=Jamaica Kincaid|publisher=Chelsea House|year=1998|isbn=0791047814|editor-last=Bloom|editor-first=Harold|location=Philadelphia|lccn=98014078|oclc=38580188|url-access=registration}}</ref> As works such as ''At the Bottom of the'' River and ''The Autobiography of My Mother'' use Antiguan cultural practices, some critics say these works employ [[magical realism]]. "The author claims, however, that [her work] is 'magic' and 'real,' but not necessarily [works] of 'magical realism'." Other critics claim that her style is "modernist" because much of her fiction is "culturally specific and experimental".<ref>Frederick, R. D. (2000). "Jamaica Kincaid", ''Columbia Companion to the Twentieth-Century American'', pp. 314–319. Retrieved October 21, 2015.</ref> It has also been praised for its keen observation of character, curtness, wit,<ref name="bbcws" /> and lyrical quality.<ref name=":2" /> Her short story "[[Girl (short story)|Girl]]" is essentially a list of instructions on how a girl should live and act, but the messages are much larger than the literal list of suggestions. [[Derek Walcott]], [[List of Nobel laureates in Literature|1992 Nobel laureate]], said of Kincaid's writing: "As she writes a sentence, psychologically, its temperature is that it heads toward its own contradiction. It's as if the sentence is discovering itself, discovering how it feels. And that is astonishing, because it's one thing to be able to write a good declarative sentence; it's another thing to catch the temperature of the narrator, the narrator's feeling. And that's universal, and not provincial in any way".<ref name="Garis" /> [[Susan Sontag]] has also commended Kincaid's writing for its "emotional truthfulness," poignancy, and complexity.<ref name="Garis"/> Her writing has been described as "fearless" and her "force and originality lie in her refusal to curb her tongue".<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/books/review/see-now-then-by-jamaica-kincaid.html|title=Home Truths: 'See Now Then,' by Jamaica Kincaid|last=Eberstadt|first=Fernanda|date=February 22, 2013|work=The New York Times|access-date=June 8, 2018|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Giovanna Covi describes her unique writing: "The tremendous strength of Kincaid's stories lies in their capacity to resist all canons. They move at the beat of a drum and the rhythm of jazz…"<ref name=":0" /> She is described as writing with a "double vision"<ref name=":0" /> meaning that one line of plot mirrors another, providing the reader with rich symbolism that enhances the possibilities of interpretation.

The reception of Kincaid's work has been mixed. Her writing stresses deep social and even political commentary, as Harold Bloom cites as a reason why the "literary qualities" of her work tend to be less of a focus for critics.<ref name=":0" /> Writing for [[Salon.com]], Peter Kurth called Kincaid's work ''My Brother'' the most overrated book of 1997.<ref>{{Cite web|title = The worst books of 1997|url = http://www.salon.com/1997/12/24/24worst/|date=December 25, 1997|access-date = 2015-11-08|first = Dwight|last = Garner|work=Salon}}</ref> Reviewing her latest novel, ''See Now Then'' (2013), in ''The New York Times'', [[Dwight Garner]] called it "bipolar", "half séance, half ambush", and "the kind of lumpy exorcism that many writers would have composed and then allowed to remain unpublished. It picks up no moral weight as it rolls along. It asks little of us, and gives little in return."<ref>{{Cite news|title = 'See Now Then,' Jamaica Kincaid's New Novel|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/books/see-now-then-jamaica-kincaids-new-novel.html|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 2013-02-12|access-date = 2015-11-08|issn = 0362-4331|first = Dwight|last = Garner}}</ref> Another ''New York Times'' review describes it as "not an easy book to stomach" but goes on to explain, "Kincaid's force and originality lie in her refusal to curb her tongue, in an insistence on home truths that spare herself least of all."<ref name=":1" /> Kate Tuttle addresses this in an article for ''The Boston Globe'': "Kincaid allowed that critics are correct to point out the book's complexity. "The one thing the book is," she said, "is difficult, and I meant it to be."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2013/11/02/jamaica-kincaid-writing-and-critics/sDZyZ6xPKoIQZDAy4tmSPO/story.html|title=Jamaica Kincaid on Writing and Critics|last=Tuttle|first=Kate|date=November 2, 2013|work=[[The Boston Globe]]|access-date=June 9, 2018|archive-date=June 12, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612162145/https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2013/11/02/jamaica-kincaid-writing-and-critics/sDZyZ6xPKoIQZDAy4tmSPO/story.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Some critics have been harsh, such as one review for ''Mr Potter'' (2002) that reads: "It wouldn't be so hard if the repetition weren't coupled, here and everywhere it occurs, with a stern rebuff to any idea that it might be meaningful."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/12/books/nowhere-man.html|title=Nowhere Man|last=Harrison|first=Sophie|date=May 12, 2002|work=The New York Times|access-date=August 7, 2018}}</ref> On the other hand, there has been much praise for her writing, for instance: "The superb precision of Kincaid's style makes it a paradigm of how to avoid lots of novelistic pitfalls."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jul/01/featuresreviews.guardianreview31|title=Jamaica Kincaid: Annie John|last=Smiley|first=Jane|date=2006-07-01|website=the Guardian|language=en|access-date=2018-06-09}}</ref>

In February 2022, Kincaid was one of 38 Harvard faculty members to sign a letter to the ''[[The Harvard Crimson]]'' defending Professor [[John Comaroff]], who had been found to have violated the university's sexual and professional conduct policies. The letter defended Comaroff as "an excellent colleague, advisor and committed university citizen" and expressed dismay over his being sanctioned by the university.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/2/4/comaroff-sanctions-open-letter/ |title=38 Harvard Faculty Sign Open Letter Questioning Results of Misconduct Investigations into Prof. John Comaroff |access-date=2022-02-08}}</ref> After students filed a lawsuit with detailed allegations of Comaroff's actions and the university's failure to respond, Kincaid was one of several signatories to say that she wished to retract her signature.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/02/08/metro/3-graduate-students-file-sexual-harassment-suit-against-prominent-harvard-anthropology-professor/ |title=3 graduate students file sexual harassment suit against prominent Harvard anthropology professor |website=[[The Boston Globe]] |access-date=2022-02-08}}</ref>

{{ExpandIncomplete list|date=AugustNovember 20212023}}

*''[[See Now Then]]'' (2013)<ref group=lower-alpha>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/books/jamaica-kincaid-isnt-writing-about-her-life-she-says.html|title=Jamaica Kincaid Isn't Writing About Her Life, She Says|last=Lee|first=Felicia R.|date=February 4, 2013|work=The New York Times|access-date=August 7, 2018}}</ref>

;Stories<ref group=lower-alpha>Short stories unless otherwise noted.</ref>

* {{cite journal<!--citation bot bypass--> <!--|author=Kincaid, Jamaica |author-mask=1--> |date=September 7, 2020 |title=A heap of disturbance |department=In the Garden |journal=The New Yorker |volume=96 |issue=26 |pages=24–26 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/07/the-disturbances-of-the-garden <!--|accessdate=2021-08-17-->}}<ref group=lower-alpha>Online version is titled "The disturbances of the garden".</ref>

* 2004: American Academy of Arts and Letters<ref name="now.tufts.edu">{{cite web|url=http://now.tufts.edu/commencement-2011/jamaica-kincaid|title=Jamaica Kincaid|work=Tufts Now|publisher=[[Tufts University]]|access-date=June 14, 2013|archive-date=June 15, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615191526/http://now.tufts.edu/commencement-2011/jamaica-kincaid|url-status=dead}}</ref>

* 2010: Center for Fiction's Clifton Fadiman Medal for ''Annie John''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.booktrade.info/index.php/showarticle/26488|title=Book Trade Announcements - Jamaica Kincaid Winner Of Center For Fiction's Clifton Fadiman Award|website=Booktrade.info|access-date=November 18, 2017|archive-date=December 23, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161223060754/http://www.booktrade.info/index.php/showarticle/26488|url-status=dead}}</ref>

* 2021: [[Royal Society of Literature]] International Writer<ref>{{cite web|url=https://rsliterature.org/2021/11/inaugural-rsl-international-writers-announced/|title=Inaugural RSL International Writers Announced|website=Royal Society of Literature|date= November 30, 2021|access-date= December 253, 20212023}}</ref>

* [http://core.ecu.edu/engl/deenas/caribbean/kincaid.htm Writers of the Caribbean, East Carolina University: Jamaica Kincaid] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170608023123/http://core.ecu.edu/engl/deenas/caribbean/kincaid.htm |date=June 8, 2017 }}

[[Category:20th-century African-American women writers]]