A FEMINIST-POSTCOLONIAL READING OF MATERNAL RELATIONS IN LUCY"

Abstract

This paper compares maternal relations in the novel Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid (1990), using the feminist-postcolonial approach. It states that the strained relationship between Lucy and her mother is not merely personal but a merger of patriarchal power and colonialism. The discussion revolves around the role of the mother as a nurturer and transmitter of repressive cultural ideologies, and repression of the maternal authority by Lucy as a form of feminist rebellion and postcolonial resistance. The research applies a qualitative textual analysis that consists of a close reading of Lucy and feminist theories and the postcolonial perspective (Bhabha, Fanon, Spivak). As the results show, the resistance manifested in the story, such as the way Lucy rejects the letters of her mother, her attraction to sexual agency, and her exile, underscores the subject of women, both gendered and colonized, to dual colonization. The study makes a contribution to feminist and postcolonial theory by revealing the contexts in which Kincaid locates the issues of identity and resistance, and the definition of self in the close but also political realm of maternal relationships.