Jamaica Kincaid: Postmodern Literary Concepts Explored - Essay Sample

Introduction

The chosen writer in the contemporary literature for this discussion is Jamaica Kincaid. Postmodernist literary ideas follow a different set of themes and strategies of a novel when compared to modernist literary concepts (Turlington 3Popul 7). Postmodernist writers experimented with subjectivity as well as inner life. Some of the literary concepts associated with the postmodernist literary ideas include structural puzzles, unreliable narrators, the breaking of high/low culture, gender bias, sexuality, and defamiliarization (Unit 7) (Popul 7). Kincaid's work portrays postmodernist literary concepts such as unreliable narrator, sexuality, gender bias, and structural puzzles.

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Kincaid uses the postmodernist literary concept of unreliable narrator using the second person point of view. For example, the story is told from the perspective of the mother addressing the young daughter. The speaker addresses the 'girl' as "you" (Jamaica 1) and the audience associates with this 'girl' who is being addressed. From the above examples, the narrator is unreliable, and the reader can only make assumptions about the second point of view when reading the story. Kincaid also used structural puzzles in the story to depict the writing style of the postmodernist era. These are evident on the construction of sentences including the use of long sentences, excess usage of semi-colons as well as the open ending of the short story. In the first paragraph of the story, the author only used one comma, and the other sentences are long separated by semicolons (Jamaica 1). The long sentences lack action, and clear plot and this affects the understanding of the plot.

Gender bias is evident in the short story with the author using only two female characters, the mother and daughter (Jamaica 1). Kincaid's is also one-sided because the mother is just addressing the girl on how to become a responsible woman. The perspective of a woman is presented all through with no information about men in society. The one-sided story adds to the postmodernist literary idea of sexuality whereby the parents gave their children advice and endless rules on how to live. For example, the mother is addressing the girl to wash clothes on different days and put them at specific places to dry, dress well and speak like a lady (Jamaica 1). Female sexuality is highly defined and how it represents a woman and shapes the behavior of a young girl in society. Sexuality in the story defines what women should and should not do and thus limiting their freedom.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the postmodernist ideas of sexuality, gender bias, structural puzzles and unreliable narrator in expressing issues in the society. The discussion confirms that Ppostmodernist writers experimented with subjectivity as well as inner life of characters in their literary works.

Works Cited

Jamaica, Kincaid. "Girl." Unit 8-World Literature II Materials.

Unit 7: Popul Vuh. Ed. A. Recino, A., Delia Goetz, and Sylvanus Griswold Morley. "Popul Vuh. Unit 7: The Book of the People." (1954).

Turlington, Anita. Compact Anthology of World Literature: The 17th and 18th Centuries (Part 6). Dahlonega, GA: University of North Georgia Press. N.d.