Seeking Mother's Soul:A Womanist Reading Of The Autobiography Of My Mother

Jamaica Kincaid, an Antiguan-born American novelist, is praised as one of the most important and prominent women writers in contemporary American and Caribbean literature. Most of her works are characterized by an exploration of mother-daughter relationship. There is no exception of The Autobiography of My Mother in which Kincaid's troubled relationship with her mother is vividly shown. This novel, the masterpiece of Kincaid's, has been a bestseller and received wide recognition across the country since its publication.Based on the basic theory of Alice Walker's womanism and its development and improvement as well as the supplement of feminism. This thesis makes a tentative analysis of the protagonist-Xuela from the theoretical perspective of womanism, which is first put forward by Alice Walker and perfected by some influential womanism advocators such as Sherley Anne Williams and Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi. In the dissertation, the damaging effects of patriarchy on women's body and mind are exposed and it elaborates on the resistance of a woman fighter-Xuela who bravely rebels against patriarchy and colonial culture and tradition. In addition, she offers to help and unite both black women and men. She cares much about sisterhood which is a manifestation of the culture of black people.This thesis gives an analysis on Xuela's whole life which is made of "patches-piecing-wholeness" and makes a further study about the process of Xuela's seeking her mother and her nation. Concerning the perspective of the study into the work, textual analysis is employed. By doing so, readers are expected to probe into the inner world of the protagonist, Xuela, and to have a better understanding of Xuela's brave and wise resistance against patriarchy and colonialism in three aspects:language, religion and emotion. Moreover, Xuela's self-making and self-fulfillment can show readers the way to get a complete identity. More importantly, the thesis also discloses that Xuela not only acts as a feminist who makes every effort to maintain and protect the rights as a woman but also as a universalist who shows much concern about her own nation and positively defends the unique norms and culture of her great country.