Post-colonialism

1
Post-colonialism

• Chris 487200441 Dan 487200166
• Sheena 48200049 Sean 488200163

2
Jamaica Kincaid

• born in 1949 on the island of Antigua
• moved to New York as an au pair in 1965 and began
  to study
• first writing for a magazine and then writing
  fictions novels based on personal experience
• Annie John A Small Place
• My Mother

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The History of Antigua

• The History of Colonization
• In 1493, arrival of C. Columbus
• In 1632, the first settlement from the British
• As a sugar-producing island, importing slavery
  until 1838
• As a British colony until 1967
• On Nov. 1, 1981, Antigua was granted full
  independence.

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Colonialism Post-colonialism

• Colonialism
• The direct control of one country or society by
  another over politics, commerce and culture.
• Politic Control? Governor General
• Cultural Control? Church Education
• Post-colonialism
• The historical phase to restore the pre-colonial
  culture on linguistic, racial, national and
  individual identity
• Post-colonial literature? conflict
  contradictions, and the sense of liberation of an
  individual living in a Post-colonial state

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Hierarchical Structure

• Authority Figures in Annies Stages

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Different Stages

• A. At School
• 1. Teachers Students
• 2. Students Students
• B. In Annies Family
• 1. Mother Daughter
• 2. Mother Grandfather
• 3. The Neglected Father

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Teachers Students

• Miss Edward
• A typical representative of evil image in
  Annies perspective.
• 1. Guilt Trip Ask a student who is supposed not
  to know the answer ? Ask another who would know
  the answer ?Force the first one to repeat ? The
  sense of guilty grows inside the first student.

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Teachers Students

• Miss Moore
• Punishment on Annie
• 1. Remove her position as prefect
• 2. Annie was ordered to copy Book I and II of
  Paradise Lost (Hell, describing how Satan
  rebelled God)

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Students Students

• 1. Hilarene
• A disgusting model of good behavior and keen
  attention to scholarship
• 2. Ruth
• A girl who knows a little about the West
  Indies, model of dunce
• She came from England and her father is a
  missionary (cultural colonizer, but with low
  social status)

10
Mother Daughter

• Mothers Expectation
• Annies mother always hopes that her daughter
  could perform well at school. Sometimes, she may
  even cry for her daughters bad behavior.
• Mothers Indifference
• Annies mother did not comfort and caress her
  cheeks when Annie was
• cheated to eat breadfruit.

11
Mother Grandfather

• Mothers Mocking
• She turned to my father and laughed as she
  said, So the great man can no longer just get
  up and go.
• Mothers rebellion influenced Annie
• Annie wrote the same sentence under the
  portrait of Columbus.
• Annies defying forms the distance.

12
The Neglected Father

• We can hardly realize what Annies father did in
  this story because the father image in the
  Antigua world always designates to those who work
  outside and not at home all the time.
• Besides, Annie was in the age of forming her own
  female center and female identity world. She may
  not care much about the man figures.

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Rebellion (The lesson and Columbus in Chains)

• A. Against authority
• B. Silence
• C. Imagination
• D. Bad behavior

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More about Columbus in Chains

1. How is the narrator related to the pupils (Ruth
   and Hilarene) and the teachers (esp. Ms. Edward)?
   
2. How to characterize Ms. Edward's way of education
   and Miss Moores (The Lesson)?
3. Why is Columbus significant?
4. Why is Columbus related to the narrator's
   grandfather?