The Individual and Society

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Girl

Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid (1949–) is a writer from Antigua in the West Indies. Born Elaine Potter Richardson, she adopted Jamaica Kincaid, the choice of ‘Jamaica’ evoking the West Indies. She left Antigua at the age of sixteen, and later settled in America, where she started publishing in magazines. Her works include the novels Annie John (1985), Lucy (1990), and The Autobiography of My Mother (1996), the short story collection At the Bottom of the River (1983), a book-length essay about Antigua, A Small Place (1988), and My Brother (1997), a memoir of her brother's death from AIDS.

Kincaid’s work is characterized by a strong awareness of the colonial history of the West Indies. Several of her works are centred around the difficulties ...