At the Bottom of the River (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Jamaica Kincaid
- First Published: 1982
- Type of Work: Short stories
- Genres: Short fiction, Impressionistic literature
- Subjects: Girls, Maturation or coming of age, Self-discovery, Mothers, Parents and children, Philosophy or philosophers, Caribbean, Magic or magicians, Blacks, Gender roles, Immortality, Nature, Psychology or psychologists, Self, Supernatural, Superstition, Surrealism
- Locales: Antigua, West Indies
Form and Content
At the Bottom of the River has been called ten short “pieces” rather than stories because its unconventional, lyrical style suspends linear narrative and realistic characterization. Kincaid’s balancing of what is said with how it is said emphasizes language, an issue of concern for many women writers. Threads of language from the Bible, epics, and folk tales are woven together into fragments of the world as seen through the eyes of an African Caribbean girl. Most of these pieces appeared in The New Yorker and The Paris Review, yet...
[The entire page is 2441 words long]
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