Image: good hair zine. “Jamaica Kincaid.” Flickr, 22 Sept. 2011, https://www.flickr.com/photos/55331948@N05/6173076978/, CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED
Exercise
Use active reading to determine context clues to help answer the following questions about Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” as you prepare to discuss this text in class.
1. What genre or type of writing is this piece? What qualities tell you this? What distinct writing conventions (technique, language, mechanics) do you observe?
2. What can you infer about the author, time period, and location of this text by examining context clues? Jot down any words in the piece that hint at a specific setting to help support your answer.
3. Who is the narrator? How do you know? What point of view is this text written from?
4. How many characters are represented in this piece? What is the relationship between the characters?
5. How would you describe the overall tone of this piece? What evidence are you using to support this?
6. What can you infer about the purpose and intended audience for this piece?
7. How can we apply feminist criticism (unit 1) to this text?
Jamaica Kincaid, birthname Elaine Potter Richardson, was born on the island of Antigua (which was under British rule at the time). She was the oldest child, and her parents pulled her out of school to help raise her three younger brothers. Her parents discouraged both her writing and her formal education.
Kincaid was sent to New York at age 17 to work as an au pair so she could send money home to her family. She broke ties with her family, took night classes, and became a writer, publishing under the pseudonym Jamaica Kincaid.
Her writing often explores themes of colonialism, identity, gender, and cultural heritage. Kincaid’s writing is also often characterized by its lyrical prose, intense emotions, and exploration of complex relationships.
“Girl” first appeared in The New Yorker in 1979.
Stop and Reflect
In what ways does knowing the historical and cultural context help you better understand “Girl”?
How does “Girl” blur the lines of genre?
How might the tensions between the narrator and the authority figure represent something beyond a mother/daughter relationship?
