Talk:Jamaica Kincaid

William Shawn
I don't think the implication of this phrasing is that William Shawn wrote her books--it's just significant because she met her husband through her boss, who is also a literary figure of note. Kincaid's work at the New Yorker is pretty famous (it's where she published Lucy and "Girl", for starters) and probably deserving of a whole section here. So, I went ahead and restored the sentence.

The article could use some serious expansion, though, which might help put that factoid into more perspective; it's been on my to-do list for a long time, but I never seem to get around to it. You up for it? --Dvyost 20:57, 4 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Another anon removed poor Allen from Kincaid's life, and again, pending discussion I've put him back--see above. This article remains in bad need of expansion to put all this in perspective, but I think the key is going to be adding material rather than removing it.  --Dvyost 16:25, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Subject person?
Why is subject person linked? What would that article be about if it were an article? Chick Bowen 03:37, 7 January 2006 (UTC)


 * No idea; I think I'll remove it for now and then someone can relink if necessary later. --Khazar 06:37, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Conversion to Judaism?
The List of Caribbean Jews article has Jamaica Kincaid listed as a convert to Judaism. Does anyone have information confirming this? If so, it is something that is surely important enough to warrant inclusion in this article. Israelite9191 05:10, 5 June 2007 (UTC) She has mentioned her conversion in a published article, I think in the New York Times.--

Early LIfe
As a former employer, mentor, and friend, I added detail to her early life.--

Dead links
The last two external links are apparently dead. They should be removed or updated, but I could not find replacements. Wilson44691 (talk) 19:39, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

Revising Entry
I am currently revising the entire article and will add themes and criticism and praise as sub sections under writing. Redwellie14 (talk) 16:04, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

adding a full text source
I am adding a link to a full text version of "A Biography of a Dress". The link points to a legitimate source with full copyrights.Oddty (talk) 11:12, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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from undue weight section at Antigua and Barbuda
" Kincaid is largely influenced by her life both on the island and overseas in the United States. Kincaid's work reflects the circumstances of living in a former crown colony until Independence in 1981. She was educated under British colonial education, and as such has been described as a prominent anti colonialist author . Born in 1949 and moving to the United States in 1966 at 17, Kincaid experiences of living under foreign control and seeing Antigua’s transition to Independence from within an imperial country is expressed in some of her most notable books, Lucy and A Small Place. After her first collection was published with great success in 1983, Kincaid quickly began being thought of as one of the most important fiction writers of the new decade . For many, Kincaid is considered to be a prominent postcolonial author, offering a novelistic approach to the history and contemporary life on the island. Many of Kincaid's books focus on themes of modernity, post-modernism, and globalization and the relationship and affects of colonialism on the "native". Literary critics have suggested her work, "A Small Place" which has been described as "postcolonial literary text about the impact of tourism in the Caribbean nation of Antigua", focuses on the "exploitation of the Caribbean islands by colonialism and the neocolonialist abuses of the tourism industry". Kincaid's work as been associated by literary critics with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's argument that literature is an agent of change. Doing so suggests her works aims to challenge the asymmetrical actions surrounding imperialism, colonialism, and tourism. Kincaid also largely focuses her writing on intersectionality and gender often alluding to a discourse of female gender and colonial relations, especially those of black women. She reveals the importance of place, time, and positionality in the representation of race, class and gender.

Much of Kincaid's work has been deemed autobiographical and influenced by Subaltern Studies, including "A Small Place", and "Lucy"*. It as been argued from multiple literary critics, that Kincaid uses the capacities of autobiography to express a consciousness of marginalized groups in a postcolonial setting.

Kincaid's pointed style of writing is largely critiqued as an attack on colonialism and corruption that has been said to "back readers into the corner". Kincaid has also been critiqued for imposing mythical ideas of "noble enslavement" of Antiguans as an attempt to escape from common ideas of humanity and consequences. Kincaid constructs her texts to positions Antiguan's as powerless and thus evading their true lack of eloquence and power. For critics, both literary and postcolonial, this becomes and issue because it tends to dismiss or lessen the actions of subjects such as, for example, the corruption and organized crime within Antigua and Barbuda's government ."

"Her writing has been criticized."
Her writing has been criticized.
 * Well, gollee! Has there ever been a writer worthy of the name who hasn't been criticized?   The substance of the criticisms is encyclopedic, but the mere fact of criticism doesn't make the grade as a stand-alone statement. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  19:43, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

Just to clarify, criticism of work isn't because she's "angry" it's because she paints whole populations with a broad brush. She's also a hypocrite. 70.18.211.222 (talk) 20:43, 27 October 2018 (UTC)