A Small Place

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So, maybe it takes one to know one. Jamaica Kincaid's 'A Small Place' seems to me to be a scream of rage and frustration over her past and because of the intentionally created decrepitude and degradation of Antigua. Like me, she has good reasons to scream in rage. Perhaps her heightened sense of unending injustice is more noble than mine, idk, too, as her agony is about the overall legacy of slavery rather than a subset like mine of child abuse or gender inequality. She certainly writes better than I can. Oblomov: 'Oh Stalin industrialised Russia, but you just have to mention the mass executions'. See how daft that sounds? Kincaid also reflects on the Queen's visit in 1985, and how "when the queen came, all the roads that she would travel on were paced anew, so that she would have been left with the impression that riding in a car in Antigua was a pleasant experience." It is examples like these that make me lose my faith in humanity. Sadly, it also reminded me of Petina Gappah's An Elegy for the Easterly, in which she described how Zimbabwe's shanty towns were forcibly cleared for the Queen's visit in 2005, which affected over 700.000 Zimbabweans directly through loss of their homes or livelihood. It is all the more frustrating that the West (Great Britain especially since these actions were prompted by the Queen's visit) did not take the appropriate measures.

A Small Place is divided into four loosely structured, untitled sections. The first section begins with Kincaid’s narration of the reader’s experiences and thoughts as a hypothetical tourist in Antigua. The reader, through Kincaid’s description, witnesses the great natural beauty of the island, while being sheltered from the harsher realities of the lives of those who must live there. Kincaid weaves into her narrative the sort of information that only an “insider” would know, such as the reason why the majority of the automobiles on the island are poorly running, expensive Japanese cars. Included in her guided tour are brief views of the mansions on the island, mostly gained through corruption or outright criminality. She also mentions the now-dilapidated library, still awaiting repairs after an earthquake ten years earlier. The tour continues at the hotel, and Kincaid concludes the section with a discussion of her view of the moral ugliness of being a tourist. In her work, Jamaica Kincaid presents an anti-imperialist dialogue which is particularly critical of tourism and government corruption, both of which became prevalent after independence. She criticizes Antigua's dependence on tourism for its economy. Kincaid also mentions the damage caused by the 1974 earthquake, which destroyed many buildings. The author also explains how many people in office were charged with all forms of corruption. This social critique led to it being described as "an enraged essay about racism and corruption in Antigua" by one reviewer. [3] Major ideas [ edit ] Tourism as a neo-colonial structure [ edit ]friendsofthesanfranciscopubliclibrary Edition 1st Farrar, Straus and Giroux pbk. ed. External-identifier Oblomov: You've literally wished death on every country in the Middle East for 9/11, you hypocrite. Jamaica Kincaid is an award winning author and essayist. Her short yet provocative essay A Small Place describing life in her native Antigua has earned inclusion in the book 500 Great Books by Women by Erica Bauermeister. In this essay, Kincaid details foreign presence in Antigua and its influence on her native population. Kev: ' To expand your reading list and move past the all smothering bubble of Western literature', blah, blah, no one cares. Get to the point. What have you read for this 'project'? urn:lcp:smallplace00kinc_0:epub:3ce9fdfd-96d3-4379-a2b8-24be0a541ef1 Extramarc University of Toronto Foldoutcount 0 Identifier smallplace00kinc_0 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t2v41v05m Isbn 9780374527075

Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2012-03-05 18:36:41 Boxid IA179301 Boxid_2 CH121122 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City New York Containerid_2 X0008 Donor I will always be grateful to Stephanie from the blog @ Literary Flits for sending me her copy of this as it's a small book and she was done reading it! Part 1 - Poorly written, second-person, sanctimonious, stream of consciousness invective, that appears to have been written by an inebriate. This is the 3rd Kincaid book I've read and she's always been a favorite. Where do I even begin with this one? ...It's brutal. Its brutal for the reader (especially if you are a reader who is white), for Antiguans, the Antiguan government and the tourism industry. Kincaid's 'A Small Place' is full of vitriol. She spews harsh criticisms on her native island's truly dishonest and disappointing leadership as an extension of colonialism. She also critiques the whole essence of travel, tourism and even tourists - who are mostly white. At some point, I wondered if Kincaid condoned xenophobia, because the way she describes the ways fellow Antiguans and other folks from the Caribbean dislike tourists (to the point where she actually insults white tourists), it could be seen as quite hateful. But then again, I read this book/memoir as a satire, so taking Kincaid's frank critique to heart is missing the point. A Small Place is a work of creative nonfiction published in 1988 by Jamaica Kincaid. A book-length essay drawing on Kincaid's experiences growing up in Antigua, it can be read as an indictment of the Antiguan government, the tourist industry and Antigua's British colonial legacy.Sela, Maya. “An Improbable Story, my Life.” Haaretz. June 16, 2010. Accessed July 31, 2016. http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/an-improbable-story-my-life-1…. Kincaid, Jamaica. “In Conversation: A Conversation with Jamaica Kincaid.” Interview by Loh, Alyssa. The American Reader, 2013. Accessed July 31, 2016. http://theamericanreader.com/a-conversation-with-jamaica-kincaid/ It is just a little island, the unreal way in which it is beautiful now, is the unreal way in which it was always beautiful. The unreal way in which it is beautiful now that they are a free people, is the unreal way in which it was beautiful when they were slaves." As many of y’all know, this last point is super relevant to my current field of work, urban and regional planning. As I continue to learn about racial capitalism in housing and the real estate state, I am questioning whether it’s even possible to substantively resist these market-driven systems while working as a planner. However, A Small Place indicates how my other professional interests (archival work) are by no means separated from the legacy of colonial violence: “You loved knowledge, and wherever you went you made sure to build a school, a library (yes, and in both of these places you distorted or erased my history and glorified your own.)” In short, working to resist the exploitation of oppressed people, false notions of objectivity, and revisionist histories will follow me in every occupation!