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Postcolonial literature

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Post-colonial literature. Velma Pollard s 'My Mother' The ... The author - Velma Pollard. 1937: born in Jamaica. is a lecturer at the Department of Education ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Postcolonial literature


1
Post-colonial literature
  • Velma Pollards
  • My Mother

2
The Caribbean
3
Jamaicas history
  • 1655 conquered by the British
  • import of African slaves
  • ? today about 95 are of African descent

4
Jamaicas history
  • 1850 modern-day migration began as a
    job-hunting strategy
  • 1962 Independence
  • USA Emigrants first choice instead of Britain

5
The author - Velma Pollard
  • 1937 born in Jamaica
  • is a lecturer at the Department of Education
  • special academic interest teaching language in a
    creole-speaking environment, language in
    Caribbean literature

6
Narrative technique
  • first-person narrator
  • a girl tells the story from her point of view.
  • ? Velma Pollard identification
  • ? autobiographical?

7
Content - My Mother (1989)
financial reasons
JAMAICA
NEW YORK
? mother
? girl grandmother
years later
death
funeral
final understanding
visit
8
Setting (atmosphere)
  • JAMAICA
  • the girls home
  • NEW YORK
  • alien city
  • reader gets positive impressions
  • negative impressions
  • ? heartless, cold, scary

9
Setting (pictures)
10
Characters - Girl
  • Her opinion on New York
  • ? dingy stores and tiny disorganised offices
  • ? Everybody was running and everybody looked
    frightened.
  • ? But you could see that all this had become
    natural.

11
Characters - Girl
  • mother stranger
  • no understanding for her mothers reasons
  • ? just realises that shes gone
  • ? disappointment when her mother doesnt come
    home for vacation
  • irritation
  • ? the guide-lines at home were less clear

12
Characters - Girl
  • shes proud of her mothers gifts
  • feelings of guilt after her mothers death
  • ? the last letter should have shown more
    gratitude than the others
  • her dead mother American
  • ? The woman in the coffin was not my mother
  • after her visit in NY better understanding

13
Characters - Mother
  • left for financial reasons
  • important proper language
  • ? she couldnt offer guide-lines either - only
    vague hints like the necessity for me to speak
    properly

14
Characters - Grandmother
  • important gratitude
  • ? ... if her daughters sacrifice was not to
    be meaningless
  • is overcharged with the situation

15
Characters - Woman
  • assumption the mother was in England to earn
    money
  • shes been there herself and doesnt have a good
    opinion of Britain
  • ? An you sih des big finneral shi have? She
    wouldnt have get it in Englan you know. Since
    one oclock she woulda gaan an if they cremate
    ar, while we drinking a cuppa tea, she bunnin.

16
Language - Jamaican Creole
  • based on English with influences from several
    West African languages
  • not bad English
  • indicator for a persons background and his
    intentions

17
Language - Jamaican Creole
  • ? woman at the funeral
  • She brags by using British expressions (cuppa
    tea) in the usual Jamaican Creole to show off
    her great experience in life.
  • ? Britain important for showing
    sophistication.

18
Analysis British influence
  • historical reasons ? emigration for
    survival
  • for those who left their home, life changed
    dramatically
  • ?The mother in the story has to leave her family

19
Analysis British influence
  • ? She has to give up her identity
  • Cheap, curly wigs hugged their temples
    protecting their black youthfulness and hiding
    their kinky strands.
  • ? She becomes American
  • The woman in the purple dress and black shoes
    (...), the highly powdered face, framed by jet
    black curls ....

20
Analysis British influence
  • Consequences for the girl
  • ? she never gets to know her mother but realises
    her difficult life when she visits NY
  • I was glad I was a guest in the great USA and a
    guest didnt need a wig.
  • ? she couldnt mourn at her mothers funeral but
    in NY she weeps for her

21
Analysis British influence
  • When all their great wreaths with purple
    American ribbons had long faded ...
  • ... my maiden-hair fern started to grow.

22
Analysis British influence
  • The British Empire vanished
  • ...but Jamaica still exists!
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