A Study On "Third Space" In The Autobiography Of My Mother

The Autobiography of My Mother(1996)is a critically touted autobiographical fiction by Jamaica Kincaid(1949-),who has earned well-deserved renown as a most notable Caribbean-American woman writer.This novel taken shape as an autobiography of the originally motherless protagonist Xuela,proffers an retrospective account about her anguished encounters on the island of Dominica in the wake of its political independence.It showcases the efforts Xuela exerts in turning the tide of such misfortune,and also brings into being an imaginative representation of her late mother.Via Xuela's narrative,the author tactfully divulges the lingering aftermath of colonization in the Caribbean regions,shedding light on the survival and identity predicaments of the marginalized communities under the dominant binarism and broaching a third space oriented philosophy.Adopting this perspective,the thesis intends to investigate the varied conflicts daily confronted by the Dominican people,which breeds the in-between space and necessitates its construction.Besides,it aims to probe deep into the way Xuela breaks through limitations inflicted by axes of social differentiation to reconstruct her identity and empower herself by means of strategic hybridity.Moreover,this study attempts to explore narrative techniques employed in the text and illustrate how Kincaid has thus undermined conventions for the external form of novel to further implicate her third space wisdom and furnish another practical supportOrganized around the core topic of third space that The Autobiography of My Mother has well embodied,this study approaches the novel from three respects.Chapter one conducts an analytical investigation into the status quo of Dominica brimming with oppositions and conflicts from dimensions of gender,race and culture as an race-class collaborative project.In the first place,within the tug between self-worth and established gender roles supporting the patriarchy,women represented by Mrs.LaBatte and men by Mr.Pacquet have cultivated distorted self-perception,the former descending to accessories to males while the latter ontologizing their dominance in gender power structure In addition,white supremacy has interfered with the development of personal subjectivity within ethnic groups.Typifying the Dominican populations with African stock,Xuela's teacher internalizes the standards set by the colonizers and is thus convinced of her being as an insignificant object;Moira exemplifies the vanquishers who monopolize power to consolidate subjectivity through otherizing the black community.Lastly,western cultures aggressively intrude as they attenuate and debase the local ones,incessantly encroaching on the ideology of the Caribs.In a word,the hegemonic system has introduces a binary mechanism governed by the either/or rule that specifies a polarization between people and their immutable superiority and inferiority,which oppresses the non-central groups and deforms social relations.Chapter two examines Xuela's practice in defying the fixity of identity as well as hierarchy and her pursuit for a liminal space between binary poles.In terms of gender,Xuela reintegrates the previously dissociated self and body through exploration and reverses the stereotyped exploited status of women in the power dynamics in her love affair with Roland.From the respect of race,the protagonist calls into question the yardsticks that gauge the status of individual stipulated by the enslavers,upsetting the relation between the colonizers and the colonized in her marriage with Philip from England.On the cultural dimension,Xuela affiliates herself to a powerful syncretic culture based on broader knowledge and deconstructs the hegemony of the colonial cultures by repudiating and metamorphosing them.The border-crossing of the heroine renders it possible for her to outgrow the seemingly inextricable tragedies and offers an exemplar in resisting against tyrannies and striving for equality for the marginalized.And her state of being in-between is the so-called third space.The last chapter rivets on the narrative artistry that obscures the culturally constructed boundaries with reference to the subject,time and nature of contents,and forms a structural third space in this novel.Firstly,the author effectuates the mother's narration through the internally focused statement of Xuela and makes up a story of the "plural-I",reconfiguring relations in the self-other dyad;besides,Kincaid intersperses the chronological narrative with flashbacks that facilitates the partial temporal chaos and eventually interweaves the past and present with the integrated daughter-mother subject;furthermore,the author transmutes the genres between novel and autobiography,and remaps the factual with the fictitious in the daughter-mother story,reiterating her celebration for syncretism of identity,rewriting the history of the colonized communities in Dominica and interrogating the authenticity of the Western-centered historical narrative at the same time.Unifying the contents with external form,Kincaid again instantiates the unstableness of the dichotomy borders and reaffirms her vindication for third spaceTo sum up,this thesis avers that in The Autobiography of My Mother,Kincaid has unmasked the Caribbean miseries under the historical burden of colonization,harshly censures the sinister colonial practices and herein introduces a visionary view of third space,which advocates the destruction of stereotyped oppositions and the elimination of conventionalized differentiations in perception and practice.Thus the construction of hybrid syntheses and a reexamination of identity and relationships between human beings and between cultures are emphatically encouraged.Significantly,the third space ideology proposed by Kincaid also provides inspirations for the marginal groups to get out of their predicaments,leading them to reflect upon proactive revolts against the inherently oppressive hegemony and the entire binary system of knowledge,relocate their identity and reconfirm their subjectivity,so as to reconstruct their own history and head for equality,freedom and autonomy.