Motherlands, mothercultures, mothertongues: women's writing from the Caribbean

In this article I wish to consider issues relating to women's writing in the Caribbean, with particular focus on the works of Jean Rhys from Domenica, Jamaica Kincaid from Angtigua and Zee Edgell from Belize. However, the general argument could also be extended to Merle Hodge, Erna Brodber, Jan Shinebourne, Beryl Gilroy, Lorna Goodison and many others. Firstly I want to sketch out briefly some background to the position of Caribbean women writers and the general theme of motherlands in terms of the idea of literary Cribbean others, the colonial experience, cultural mothers and more importantly the whole question of the centrality of female bonding, tradition, language and culture in the works of the writers mentioned. Space prevents any detailed discussion of poetry though the argument I hope will be applicable there too