Postcolonial Fiction and the Outsider within: Toward a Literary Practice of Feminist Standpoint Theory Author(s): Brooke Lenz

Reviewed work(s): Source: NWSA Journal, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Summer, 2004), pp. 98-120 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4317054 . Accessed: 11/03/2012 18:18
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PostcolonialFiction and the OutsiderWithin: Towarda LiteraryPracticeof Feminist Standpoint Theory

BROOKE LENZ This article establishes an experimental methodology for the literary practice of feminist standpoint theory through analysis of Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy. It offers an outline of the processes by which a standpoint is achieved and reflects on larger questions of identity and authority. It argues that Lucy does in fact have a privileged standpoint as an "outsider within," and contends that Lucy's lack of an easily categorized identity allows for multiple standpoints that inform one another and offer a powerful understanding of her situation as a woman and postcolonial subject. Finally, this article questions the authority of the literary standpoint critic. Keywords: Standpoint theory/ postcolonial theory/ postcolonial literature/ hybridity/ feminist literary criticism I Whatever may say aboutbeingblack,andCaribbean, femalewhen I'm and I sittingdownat the typewriter, am not that.SoI think it's sortof limitedand stupidto call anyoneby these names.... Mylife is not a quotaor an actionto affirman ideaof equality.My life is my life. -Jamaica Kincaid' Feminist standpoint theory has undergone a number of theoretical and epistemological permutations since Nancy Hartsock first named and defined it in 1983, and it continues to provoke discussion among feminist theorists.2 Along with Hartsock, a number of scholars from diverse disciplines have contributed to and identified with standpoint theorizing, including Evelyn Fox Keller, SandraHarding, Dorothy Smith, and Patricia Hill Collins. These scholars, working more or less independently of one another, have maintained that marginalized groups of people have less interest in preserving the status quo and occupy a unique position from which to view the culture from which they are marginalized. For these theorists, standpoint refers not to perspective or experience but to an understanding of perspective and experience as part of a larger social setting-that is, a standpoint is an intellectual achievement that reflects political consciousness. Despite its more colloquial usage, the term standpoint refers not to a rigid or permanent stabilization of perspective, but rather to a fluid and dynamic negotiation of experience and point of view that can be temporarily stabilized in orderto interrogate dominant ideologies.
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Standpoint theorists anchor their methodology in "outsider within" positions-positions inhabited by groups who are included in dominant cultural practices but are nevertheless, and for various reasons, unable to fully participate in them. The identification and exploration of such positions as places from which a "less false" standpoint on social, political, and historical power relationships originates characterize and motivate standpoint approaches. This theoretical position provokes a number of questions: What is the process through which a standpoint is achieved, and how can that standpoint be recognized? Is a stable, categorically clear identity a prerequisite for a standpoint? Is it possible to have multiple, changing standpoints, and if so, how can the insights and analyses provided by those standpoints be communicated? Does the outsider within really have a privileged (i.e., more objective or less false) standpoint? Such questions highlight the tension between individual and group knowledge, the problematic poles of epistemic relativism and universalism, that complicate (and often frustrate) both standpoint theory in particular and feminist theory more generally. On the one hand, feminist standpoint theory seeks to understand social structures from a variety of locations; indeed, as Susan Hekman reasons in her consideration of standpoint theory, "If there are multiple feminist standpoints, then there must be multiple truths and multiple realities. This is a difficult position for those who want to change the world according to a new image" (Hekman 2000, 19). This difficulty is addressed by Patricia Hill Collins, who insists in her response to Hekman, "[T]he notion of a standpoint refers to historically shared, group-based experiences. Groups have a degree of permanence over time such that group realities transcend individual experiences ... standpoint theory places less emphasis on individual experiences within socially constructed groups than on the social conditions that construct such groups" (2000, 43).3 Because standpoint theory begins from the position of the marginalized, it necessarily posits difference as one of its operational variables-difference, that is, as characterized by socio-economic status, race, gender, sexuality, and so on. And yet, such a focus on difference can foster the tendency to enforce rigid categorizations rather than to interrogate the social conditions that construct group perspectives, creating boundaries among different groups of women that, while clearly exposing the falsity of universals, simultaneously obscure the commonalities among women, the shared circumstances that foster similar and related, if not identical or equal, oppressions. Such a step limits the transformative potential of women's insights by removing their analyses from the particularities of their circumstances to an abstract, categorical realm. Such a step, that is, equates women with the categories into which they can be placed, rather than examining the conditions that solidify rigid categories and thus challenge solidarity among various groups. This move is, as Jamaica

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Kincaid so frankly puts it in describing her situation at the typewriter, "limited and stupid." Standpoint theory can, I think, encouragethe interrogationof rigid categorizations by confronting and questioning both highly individualistic and broadly essentialist claims, both of which discourage communication and solidarity among women who are differently situated. Though it does begin with the perspectives of marginalized peoples, standpoint theory acknowledges that individual experiences, and the interpretations of those experiences, vary among members of any social group. Likewise, standpoint theory recognizes that such variations, rather than mitigating the possibility for wider application, in fact deepen and strengthen our understanding of the positions at which various forms of oppression intersect. As Hekman argues: ratherthan unias Feministstandpoint theorydefinesknowledge particular of it versal;it jettisonsthe neutralobserver modernistepistemology; defines ... subjectsas constructed relationalforcesratherthan as transcendent. by Thenew paradigm knowledge whichfeministstandpoint of of theoryis a part and involvesrejecting definitionof knowledge truthas eitheruniversalor the relativein favorof a conceptionof all knowledgeas situatedand discursive.
(2000, 25)

Indeed, as Collins concurs, "we cannot separate the structure and thematic content of thought from the historical and material conditions that shape the lives of its producers" (1991, 42). Feminist theorists working from standpoint epistemologies can, by considering the complex circumstances in which marginalized peoples experience oppression, produce analyses that are both sensitive to individual perceptions and cognizant of the wider social forces that organize experience. Although standpoint theory has largely been practiced within the social sciences, it seems that literary criticism is a particularly fertile ground for such considerations, particularly as the field is already structured to consider the experiences and perspectives of literary charactersas both specific to those individuals and indicative of larger social realities. Additionally, the field invites a multiplicity of interpretations,which continuously expand the meanings of any given text and modify the context in which that text can be appropriated approached.Because of its attenor tion to social and ideological constructions and its openness to alternative readings, literary criticism offers an ideal site for an examination of the processes and provocations of standpoint theory. Likewise, standpoint theory can offer a number of advantages to literary critics, especially in terms of its attention to the production of knowledge. Standpoint theory offers a conceptual framework focused on the deconstruction and decentralization of dominant ideologies. Particularly for those feminist and postcolonial critics already engaged in questions of marginality, its focus on outsider within perspectives elaborates the

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investigation of marginalized points of view, as well as the relationships between dominant and subjected individuals and groups,by requiring the critic to consider such relationships and perspectives not as stable or permanent, but as perpetually negotiated and developmental. Fundamentally concerned with the process by which a social and political consciousness develops from experience, standpoint theory also encourages specifically situated and politically invested readings, allowing the literary critic the opportunity to investigate the situation from which he or she engages in
critical practice.

Despite this potential, few literary critics identify as standpoint theorists, perhapsbecause standpoint theory appearsto rely on claims to truth, claims that are often difficult for critics so involved with interpretive strategies to justify.4Yet the practice in standpoint theory of privileging particular perspectives as "less false" is, as Nancy Hartsock explains, an "ethical and political rather than purely 'epistemological"' choice; furthermore, for standpoint theorists, the idea that "some knowledges are 'better' than others" proceeds from "the self-conscious transformation of individuals into resistant, oppositional, and collective subjects" (2000, 41). Collins elucidates the effects of power on privileging particular standpoints further: "The amount of privilege granted to a particular standpoint lies less in its internal criteria in being truthful . .. and more in the power of a groupin making its standpoint prevail over other equally plausible perspectives" (2000, 48). Standpoint theorists thus base their "truth" claims not on any universal epistemological standard,but rather on deliberate and self-conscious analysis of power relationships that reify dominant ideologies and obscure the knowledge producedfrom marginalized locations. The methodology of standpoint theory thus posits that no truth claims are devoid of political investment; its objective is in part to expose the political investment surrounding otherwise unexamined and generally accepted "truths." For literary critics, this methodology offers a conceptual frameworkthat can direct both long-standing and emerging interests into productive new avenues. This essay, then, is something of an experiment in method, an attempt to direct my investigation of identity and point of view, standardvariables in literary criticism, in new ways. My purpose is also to pursue the questions that I see as particularly provocative in current standpoint theorizing, and that I think can be usefully explored through JamaicaKincaid's Lucy. An especially provocative text for such a project, Lucy offers both an outline of the processes by which a standpoint is achieved and communicated-processes that have been insufficiently described by standpoint theorists-and an opportunity for reflection on larger questions about identity, multiplicity, difference, power, and authority currently facing both standpoint theory in particular and feminist theory more generally. As "the Visitor," the main character,Lucy, does, I think, have a privileged standpoint as an outsider within that allows the reader to see

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particular truthsor realitiesthat arenot apparent someonemorefully to of assimilatedinto dominantideologies.An adequate exploration Lucy's standpoint,however,must focus not only on her questions,judgments, and analysesof the interactionbetween the powerfuland the powerless and of the social and political realities of her situation,but also on the of as development herstandpoint it changesin relationto hernegotiation of herexperiences identity-a negotiationthat is particularly and indicative of herpostcolonial her position,whichcomplicates senseof belonging to particularsocial groups.Lucy'sstrugglesto establishand createher own identity,however,do not mitigatethe forceof heranalyses;herlack of a stableor easily categorized identity,rather,allows for multipleand that informone anotherandoffera morecomplex changingstandpoints andpowerfulunderstanding herpositionvis-a-visAmerican(andAntiof culture.Lucy,like Kincaid, blackandCaribbean female;yet is and guan) and being blackand Caribbean female in itself neithersummarizesher life nordescribesher standpoint.
I don'tthink of myselfas an outsider for becauseof my racebecause, onething, whereI grewup I was the same raceas almost everyoneelse. And I did not feel I was an outsiderbecauseof my sex. Manypeoplewere the same sex as me also. Butstill, I did feel that I was an outsider.... It's true that I noticed things that no one else seemedto notice. And I think only peoplewho are outsiders this. do
-Jamaica Kincaid5

In her discussion of the outsiderwithin, Collins argues that black women in Americaare positionedat a crossroads wheremultipleforms of oppression intersect,andthat this positionoffersa valuable placefrom whicha standpoint theoristcaninterrogate dominantdiscourses. Particularly in their roles as servantsfor white families, Collins argues,black women have seen naturalizedsocial structuresdemystified.6 similar A
situation confronts Lucy, and her observations from that position mirror those that Collins articulates. As a "young woman from the fringes of the world" transplanted from the Caribbean island on which she grew up (presumablyAntigua) to an urban American center (presumablyNew York)wrappedin "the mantle of a servant" (95), Lucy assumes a position in the home of her employers, Mariah and Lewis, that both places her within the family setting and separates her from that family in tangible ways-in the maid's room, although she is not the maid, and as "the girl," "as in 'the girl who takes care of the children"' (58). Although there is some mutual affection between Lucy and her employers that facilitates and sharpens Lucy's understanding of her employers' worldview, she never becomes an insider, "one of the family," so to speak-she remains an outsider within, the Visitor. Lucy summarizes, "They said I seemed not to be a part of things, as if I didn't live in their house with them, as if they weren't like a family to me, as if I were just

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passingthrough,just sayingone long Hallo!,andsoon wouldbe sayinga As So quickGoodbye! long!It was verynice!"(13). Collins suggests,from of the perspective the blackwoman,this distancebetweenwhite family and black female servant is inevitable;whateverelse the relationship between masterand servantis, it is alwaysa relationshipof economic, social, and personalinequality-a relationshipthat precludesthe kind of personalfreedomand social equality that "beinga part of things" requires.Despite mutual affection,and often becauseof the discomfort with which the invited intimacy of the servant'sinvolvementwith the family is receivedby the master,the master-servant dynamicinvariably reaffirms, even solidifies,the outsiderpositionof the servant. and It is fromherpositionwithin andoutsideof the familythat Lucycomes to observeand pass judgmenton Lewis and Mariah,their political and economicaffiliations,and their social interactions.Lucyis particularly the consciousof the luxuriesthat accompany lifestyle of heremployersand luxuriesthat arenot only material, alsopersonal political-and it but is in her analysesof these luxuriesthat Lucyachievesa fledglingstandinflectedwith a widersocial and point, her first perceptions identifiably the politicalunderstanding. Perhaps most obviousinsightsLucydevelops are those that concernthe character her employersand their friend, of Dinah. Of Lewis,Lucynotes, "Itwasn'tthat speakingfranklyhad been bredout of him;it was justthata manin his positionalwaysknewexactly what he wanted,and so everythingwas donefor him" (119).Of Mariah, Lucycomments:
Mariahwas beyonddoubtor confidence. thought,Thingsmust havealways I goneherway,andnot just forherbut foreverybody has everknownfrom she eternity;she has neverhad to doubt,and so she has neverhad to growconfident;the rightthing alwayshappensto her;the thing she wants to happen happens. AgainI thought,How does a personget to be that way?(26).

In both of these comments,Lucynotes the ease with which desiresare fulfilledforLewisandMariah, lackof struggle, evenconsciousness, the or in their lives. Her oft-asked question,"Howdoes a personget to be that way?"indicatesboth a sinceredesireto understand thoughtlessness the that accompaniesMariah'sway of being and, I think, an interrogation of entitlement-why is a personin Mariah'sposition able to, and even allowed to exist in such a vacantstate, innocent of political and social consciousness? Lucy's perception Dinah emphasizesthe dangers the of of lack of struggleandreflectionthat characterize employers, well as her as the extent to which she is alreadyawareof her own strugglesforidentity andsocial position.Shecomments:
To a personlike Dinah, someonein my positionis 'the girl'-as in 'the girl
who takes care of the children.' It would never have occurred to her that I had

sized herup immediately, I viewedheras a clich6,a somethingnot to be, that

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a somethingto rise above,a somethingI was veryfamiliarwith: a womanin love with anotherwoman'slife, not in a way that inspiresimitationbut in a way that inspiresenvy.(58) Lucy's categorization of Dinah reflects her embrace of the power to name, to understand someone else solely in terms of a group identity. This is precisely the power under which Lucy'sservitude is made possible; because she is young, and female, and black, and "from the islands," to Dinah, Lucy is merely a servant, merely "the girl." By categorizing Dinah as "a cliche, a something not to be," Lucy engages in the very process by which she has been equated with her various group identities. Lucy's position here is responsive, an immediate reaction to a person Lucy dislikes and associates with women her mother has disliked, despite vast and, at this point, relatively unanalyzed differences in culture and privilege; nevertheless, this response to Dinah is insightful, especially as it results precisely from Lucy's cultural and social outsider status and reveals an important reality that is invisible to Mariah, an insider to whom such a realization would be especially valuable. Lucy's insight, though an immediate reaction, facilitates a growing consciousness of the ways in which categorical structures privilege some and oppress others. In confidently claiming the right to categorize, Lucy begins a conscious process that will eventually lead to an interrogation of the wider implications of such categorization. As she will later comment, "Iwas not good at taking ordersfrom anyone, not good at waiting on other people. Why did someone not think that I would make a good doctor or a good magistrate or a good someone who runs things?" (92). This question integrates an identification of individual characteristics with a wider interrogation of the process by which those characteristics are trumped by (voluntary or involuntary) group affiliation. Before she comes to such an interrogation, however, Lucy makes use of various categorizations to identify herself in opposition to her employers and to clarify the power differentials in their relationships. When she accompanies the family to its summer home, Lucy notices the attitude with which Mariah claims her territory, which includes the house itself as well as the wider community surroundingit. Reacting against Mariah's sense of ownership, Lucy comments, "I wanted to say to [Gus], 'Do you not hate the way she says your name, as if she owns you?' But then I thought about it and could see that a person coming from Sweden was a person altogether different from a person like me" (34). This insight is deepened when Mariah makes a comment about feeding the minions. Lucy reflects: "'Minions.' A word like that would haunt someone like me; the place where I came from was a dominion of someplace else" (37). Although Lucy recognizes a certain correlation between her servant position and Gus's relationship with Mariah, national origin makes quite a difference in their circumstances; contrary to Gus's apparent tolerance

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of Mariah'sproprietaryattitude, Lucy's reaction reflects her own position as a member of a formerly colonized and enslaved group, a position that Gus does not share. Mariah remains oblivious to this kind of reflection, even claiming Indian ancestry in an attempt to alleviate her privilege as owner/master; Lucy reports: "Mariah says, 'I have Indian blood in me,' and underneath everything I could swear she says it as if she were announcing her possession of a trophy.How do you get to be the sort of victor who can claim to be the vanquished also?" (40-1). Lucy recognizes this statement, contrary to Mariah's intentions, as further evidence of Mariah's privilege, both in her position as a member of dominant groups and in her ability, as a member of such groups, to ignore that very privilege, to claim an oppressedidentity. This claim strikes Lucy as both offensive and patently absurd. It is, as Lucy realizes, a fundamentally false assumption that group identity necessarily imparts particular skills (like hunting and fishing, abilities which Mariah claims are enhanced by her Indian blood), and it is oppressive to circumscribe ethnic identity in this way, reducing people to their group characteristics. Moreover, Mariah's claim to an oppressed identity is ultimately invalid; in contrast to Lucy's analysis of her own marginalized position, Mariah's claim to a similar position is completely devoid of the kind of lived experience and thoughtful reflection Lucy considers in developingher standpoint. Through this encounter, Lucy begins to recognize complications that arise from categorization and to analyze the social forces working in her relationship with Mariah more thoughtfully. For Lucy, the problems and omissions occasioned by Mariah's lack of social awareness are compounded by her liberal politics. Mariah's environmentalism and feminism in particular provoke Lucy to reflect on the ways in which Mariah'scommitments misinterpret or ignore the realities with which she is presented. As a member of an organization committed to preserving the countryside surrounding her summer home, Mariah, despite her genuine concern, fails to understand that privilege has costs. Lucy notes, "Like her, all of the members of this organization were well off but they made no connection between their comforts and the decline of the world that lay before them. I could have told them a thing or two about it. I could have told them how nice it was to see them getting a small sip of their own bad medicine" (72).Fromher own experiences of environmental and social decline on a formerlycolonized island, Lucy recognizes the relationship between ownership and devastation, a relationship that Mariah either cannot or chooses not to see from her privileged position. Likewise, Lucy recognizes that Mariah's highly ideological feminism cannot adequately account for her own experiences and perspectives. When Lucy explains her sense of betrayal at being ignored by her mother after the birth of her brothers, Mariah attempts to soothe Lucy's anguish through an application of liberal feminism:

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Mariah wantedto rescueme. Shespokeof womenin society,womenin history, But womenin culture,womeneverywhere. I couldn'tspeak,so I couldn'ttell her that my motherwas my motherandthat society andhistoryandculture andotherwomenin generalwere somethingelse altogether. Mariahhad ... completelymisinterpreted situation.... My life was at once something my than that:forten of my twentyyears,half moresimpleandmorecomplicated the of my life, I hadbeenmourningthe endof a love affair,perhaps only true love in my wholelife I wouldeverknow.(131-2) The universal oppression of women does not explain Lucy's anguish, and Lucy objects to the reduction of her complicated relationship with her mother-a relationship that she understands to have shifted from extreme intimacy (indeed, she refers to herself and her mother as "identical") to shocking and unjustified separation-to a blanket statement about women's burdens. Similarly, Lucy's experiences have relayed an understanding of the respective positions of men and women different from the roles in which Mariah believes. Because of this perspective, Lucy predicts the dissolution of her employers' marriage long before Mariah realizes what is happening. She reflects on Mariah's shock, commenting that where she comes from: knew that men have no morals,that they do not know how to Everybody behave,that they do not knowhow to treatotherpeople.It was why men like laws so much;it was why they hadto inventsuch things-they needa guide. Whenthey arenot surewhat to do, they consultthis guide.If the guidegives them advicethey don'tlike, they changethe guide.This was somethingthat I knew;why didn'tMariahknow it also? And if I were to tell it to her she wouldonlyshowme a bookshehadsomewhere whichcontradicted everything I said-a book most likely written by a woman who understood absolutely
nothing. (142)

Lucy's knowledge of relations between women and men results from her experiences growing up in a society where men have children by numerous women and accept little responsibility for their behavior, but it also results from reflection on the ways in which this attitude affects social and political structures. In Lucy's estimation, Mariah's liberal feminism lacks a carefully wrought combination of lived experience and intellectual reflection from alternative and contradictory positions. Lucy's insights expose the hypocrisy and thoughtlessness of the privileged, the powerful, from the perspective of the less privileged, the powerless, the outsider within. It is not merely Lucy's membership in particular groups that determines her position or her insights as an outsider within; indeed, as SandraHarding notes, "standpoints are critically and theoretically constructed discursive positions, not merely perspectives or views that flow from their authors unwittingly because of their biology or location in geographical or other such social relations" (Harding 1998, 17). It is Lucy's consciousness of the ways in which the intersections of

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her various group memberships situate her that allows her to occupy a position from which unique and insightful analyses proceed-that is, the outsider within's position is not inherently constituted by "less false" perspectives, but rather affords a social location from which particular experiences and critical analysis may combine to "bringinto focus questions and issues that were not visible, 'important,' or legitimate within the dominant institutions, their conceptual frameworks, cultures, and practices" (Harding 1998, 17). The social and political reflections that accompany her analyses suggest that Lucy has struggled to understand the relationship between the powerful and the powerless, that she has moved from reflection on her own individual knowledge and experience to a more comprehensive understanding of social relations. In so doing, she has achieved a standpoint, sharpened by her growing insider knowledge of dominant ideologies, but achieved nonetheless by her constant, conscious and analytical work of negotiation with and reaffirmation of her outsider position. Indeed, Lucy's insights throughout the novel continue to develop and become more complex, especially as she strives to establish her identity in contradistinction to her mother and Mariah. It is through this effort at self-definition and self-determination that Lucy begins to consider her experiences more thoughtfully and to react to her situation more radically. It is during the continuing evolution of this process that her postcolonial position, characterized chiefly by her determination to create a hybrid identity groundedsolely in neither the characteristics of the colonized nor those of the colonizer, becomes much more salient and provocative. The one thing I did not have was self-consciousness. didn'twant to know I whatI was doing.
-Jamaica Kincaid7

I supposeif my perspective changed wouldbe that I'mnow a politically has it consciousperson.

-Jamaica Kincaid8

Although she does occupy a position similar to that of the outsider within as articulatedby Collins, Lucy is not an African-Americanwoman; she is a Caribbean woman with both African and Carib Indian ancestry. Her position as a postcolonial subject supplies a historical and political awareness of the tensions between the colonizer and colonized that cannot be exploredadequatelythrough Collins's model.9An investigation of Lucy's standpoint must consider her position vis-a-vis America as well as Antigua. Just as Mariah's white, middle-class, liberal feminism does not apply to the particularities of Lucy's situation, so too is Collins's version of black feminism inadequate to elucidate the effects of imperialism on Lucy's consciousness. It is necessary, as Paula Moya insists in her discussion of Chicana theorist Cherrie Moraga,to "take into account the

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mutual interaction of all the different social facts which constitute [any given individual's] social location, and situate them within the particular social, cultural, and historical matrix in which she exists" (1997, 137). This directive is necessary to avoid overlooking the particularities of Lucy's subject position as a woman from the so-called "ThirdWorld,"still a danger in American feminist approaches,as is an excessive reliance on "experience"in such investigations as what Joan Scott calls "uncontestable evidence" or as a mere exposure of "repressivemechanisms" without attending to the ways in which experience is constructed or in which difference is "constituted relationally" (Scott 1992, 24, 25).10It is necessary to carefully examine the conceptual matrix from which Lucy's standpoint arises, especially as that standpoint evolves through her negotiation of identity. This negotiation exemplifies Moya's "realist theory of identity," which emphasizes the extent to which "identities are subject to multiple determinations and to a continual process of verification.... It is in this process of verification that identities can be (and often are) contested, and that they can (and often do) change" (Moya 1997, 139).1" The contestation and change in Lucy'sidentity formation simultaneously alter her standpoint, moving it from a kind of responsive observation, a "not wanting to know what she is doing," to a politically engaged consciousness. This evolution complicates her initial insights and illustrates the ways in which her position as a postcolonial subject whose identity is formed in borderland spaces creates a changing consciousness that reflects multiple standpoints. Determined to "open up an interrogatory, interstitial space" that "displays and displaces the binary logic through which identities of difference are often constructed" (Bhabha 1994, 3), Lucy forms her identity in between the legacy of her colonial upbringing and her new encounters with the privileged. Moreand morepeoplewho look like me cling to their narrowdefinitionsof themselves.... Butit is reallya sign of defeatwhenyou cling so much.What you oughtto do is take back.Not just reclaim.Takeanything.... Justtake it. That'sjustfine.
-Jamaica Kincaid12

In her examination of Lucy, Kristen Mahlis (1998)offers a useful summary of Lucy's attempts to assert her independence from her mother and from Mariah. She argues, "Lucysees her mother's numerous prohibitions and attempts to guide her daughter'sbehavioras an extension of the power that colonizers exercise over the colonized, and Lucy instinctively resists the silencing power of these authorities, refusing to 'become an echo,' whether of her own mother or of the 'mother country' Britain" (169). Having left her home, Lucy attempts to shed the restrictions placed on her by her mother by ignoring her mother's numerous letters, by leaving nursing school, and by asserting her sexuality. Through these actions, Lucy asserts her right to define herself as different from her mother, whom

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she sees, as Mahlis notes, as representativeof a kind of imperial authority that seeks to impose its own vision of identity and properbehavior on the subjugated.Lucy's most straightforwardrejection of her mother comes as a reaction to her father's death, the news of which is delivered by Maude, a seeming paragon of the virtues Lucy's mother admires. Lucy insists, "'I am not like my mother. She and I are not alike. She should not have married my father. She should not have had children. She should not have thrown away her intelligence. She should not have paid so little attention to mine. She should have ignored someone like you. I am not like her at all"' (123). Despite this summary denunciation, Lucy's rejection of her mother is incomplete, and Lucy continues to value the experience and knowledge gleaned from her mother and from her country of origin; when Lucy's relationship with Mariah degenerates after she announces her desire to leave, for example, she remembers her mother's injunction to "make sure the roof over my head was my own; such a thing was important, especially if you were a woman" (144). This piece of advice comes to define Lucy's fledgling independence after she leaves Mariah'shome, "aslong as I could pay for it" becoming a phrase that she calls "the tail that wagged my dog" (146).Although she opposes her mother's wishes and refuses to return to her home, Lucy continues to acknowledge her origins. Likewise, Lucy both rejects Mariah and all she represents and appreciates the kindness and the opportunities that Mariah provides for her. Mahlis summarizes: Lucyassertsherdifference fromMariah, difference springs a that fromthe profounddisjunction betweentheirrespective historiesandtheirsocialstanding. Lucymaintainsa criticaldistancefromMariah's of privilege. .. Lucyis life awarethat Mariah's commitmentto makingLucy'oneof the family'emerges froma combination Mariah's of 'goodness' generosity Mariah's and and need to erasethe profound inequalitiesimplicitin the relationsof domesticlabor.
(1998, 172-3)

Despite her frequent desire to point out Mariah's hypocrisy or vacuous social consciousness, Lucy often refrains from such encounters because she cannot bear to see Mariah, whom she has come to love, pained by her comments. Lucy admires Mariah's compassion, and although she understands that Mariah's gifts, extra wages, and other kindnesses are attempts to alleviate her discomfort with the master-servant relationship, Lucy also acknowledges the extent to which Mariah encourages her to make her own decisions and become independent. Unlike her mother, Lucy realizes, Mariah acknowledges that Lucy may have needs and desires that cannot be fulfilled within the confines of what Mariah considers appropriate. Lucy comes to understand that Mariah is a compassionate, generous employer, genuinely concerned about her personal growth and well-being. Despite the disconnection between her circumstances

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and Mariah's response to those circumstances, Lucy admires Mariah's concern: "I had said to her that my life stretched out ahead of me like a book of blank pages. As she gave me the book, she reminded me of that; and in the way so typical of her, the way that I had come to love, she spoke of women, journals, and, of course, history" (163).More important, Lucy also comes to recognize, especially through the dissolution of her employers' marriage, that Mariah, while privileged in various ways, is simultaneously troubled by and trapped within structures beyond her understanding or control. This realization is something of a comfort to Lucy; she comments, "To me it was a laugh and a relief to observe the unhappiness that too much can bring;I had been so used to observing the result of too little" (87). Mariah's unhappiness ultimately bonds her to Lucy; though their circumstances are quite different, the effects of those circumstances are shared. Although she does come to love and appreciateMariah, Lucy nevertheless asserts her independence from her and insists on defining herself in opposition to Mariah, who, despite her setbacks, remains quite privileged. As Jamaica Kincaid summarizes, "Lucy is the sort of person who, no matter what happens to her, would never identify with the victors" (Vorda 1993, 101).Having spent her life under her mother's rule, Lucy refuses to remain subjugated,choosing instead to identify with her namesake, Lucifer, whose decision to reign in hell rather than serve in heaven proceeds from a refusal to be defined and controlled by someone else, regardless of the circumstances surrounding that control. This choice is neither simple nor easy, but rather reflects Lucy's deliberate attempts to reaffirm her outsider within status, aligning herself with neither her subjugated past identity nor with her present opportunities to internalize dominant ideologies. Lucy's identification isolates her, but provides a necessary step in her determination to create her own hybrid identity, one that resists the wholesale acceptance of a single worldview and borrows instead from both her upbringing in Antigua and her present circumstances in America. Additionally, this determination responds to certain cultural realities-Lucy can never entirely shed her origins and fully embrace the privileges of the colonizer, nor can she recover and embrace a traditional island identity that has already been appropriatedand/or erased by imperialism.13Cognizant of these realities, Lucy attempts to formulate an independent identity chosen from the most suitable options available. Kincaid explains, "What Lucy doesn't want is to be possessed again. She has just escaped a certain possession from her mother, and she doesn't want to be possessed again. I think at the end of the book she wishes she could be possessed and loved, but she can't at this point in her life. I suppose that what she is saying is that she wishes time would pass quickly to allow herself to be consumed" (Vorda1993, 103).

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Lucy's struggle to appreciate her mother and Mariah and yet define herself in opposition to both of them reflects a consciousness of her powerlessness and a determination to exercise power in her own affairs. Representing Antigua and the past, Lucy's mother embodies authority, imperialism, and control; representing American privilege and the present, Mariah embodies a problematic benevolence ensnared in its own social trappings. Lucy sees accepting either of these identities as a colonization of the self, an obsequious surrenderto the more powerful; in her efforts at self-definition and self-determination, she cannot embrace either of these identities, but instead borrows from them both, claiming hybridity as her right. This claiming complicates her initial standpoint; as she struggles to create her identity, Lucy's standpoint changes and multiplies. These multiplicities emphasize the association between Lucy'sinsights and her position as a postcolonial subject. Though her initial observations mirror those commonly noted by black women in America, the insights Lucy develops as she begins to negotiate a hybrid identity reflect a standpoint more rooted in the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized than Collins's model suggests. Complications in Lucy's standpoint arise primarily along the lines of race relations, cultural imperialism, and aesthetic affinity. An important complication arises on the journey to her employers' summer home. Lucy notices, "The other people sitting down to eat dinner all looked like Mariah's relatives; the people waiting on them all looked
like mine.
. .

. On closer observation, they were not at all like my rela-

tives; they only looked like them. My relatives always gave backchat"(32). While this observation does demonstrate an awareness of race relations as they are commonly defined in America, it also emphasizes the fact that Lucy does not identify with the waiters. Kincaid explains: I don'tmakethose distinctionsaboutwhite AmericaandblackAmerica,and that'snot the distinctionI wouldhavemade.I wouldhavemadethe distinction betweenprivilegeandpowerandno privilegeandno power.... Skincolouris ultimatelyof no importance-it's a shorthand It wouldhavebeen false to ... havesomeonefrom[Lucy's] be background raceconsciousbutnot falseforher to be consciousof the disparity power.(Wachtel in 1996,60-1) Indeed, rather than identifying with the waiters because of the physical characteristics they share with her, Lucy rejects that identification on the basis of their powerlessness. In this respect, Lucy's rejection activates what Kevin Meehan calls "stock paradigms available for the purpose of distancing Caribbeansfrom African Americans and denigrating the latter as more passive and subservient than the former" (1999, 263). This dismissal of the African-Americanwaiters does reflect Lucy'ssense of superiority; her relatives, she insists, "alwaysgave backchat."Although she does seem to realize that she will be identified with African Americans as long

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as she lives in Americabecauseof the way she looks,she simultaneously rejectsthat affiliation.As Meehanarguesat some length:
First ... in rejecting the black porters on the train, Lucy is laying claim to

the right to throw off her own historicalburdensby escapingto the United States.... Secondly... by distancingherselffromthe blackporters(whoin their ascribedsilence and subservience becomevisible signs of that history fromwhich she is fleeing),Lucyannouncesher [of slaveryand imperialism] entryinto the dominantNorthAmericannationalnarrative participating by in anothercornerstone rulingclass ideologyin the U.S.,whichis devaluing of andtakingone'sdistancefromblackpeople.... Howdoyouget to be a person of colorin New Yorkcity who only hangsout with white people? (1999,263)

AlhoughMeehanis correctto note that Lucy'srejectionof the waiters activatesher attemptto distanceherselffrom social andpolitical structures, such as slaveryand imperialism,that privilegesome and oppress others,his reversalof her "Howdo you get to be that way?"querysimplifies the dynamic at work in Lucy'sconsciousness.Thoughshe does not identify with the waiters,neither does Lucy identify with Mariah and the diners.She notes, "Mariah not seem to notice what she had did in commonwith the diners,or what I hadin commonwith the waiters. She actedin her usual way,which was that the worldwas roundandwe all agreedon that, when I knew that the worldwas flat and if I went to the edge I would fall off" (32).In this observation, Lucy advancestwo importantinsights:first, the fact that she notices the groupaffiliations, andalso noticesthatMariahdoesnot, eventhoughshe ultimatelyrefuses to categorizeherselfalong those lines, emphasizesthe extent to which she is in factawareof the implicationsandlimitationsof herdecisionnot to identify;second,Lucy'sinsistence that the worldis flat articulatesan of awareness the precariousness her own positionin a worldin which of such categorizations so determinate. are Ultimately,her rejectionof the waitersis not aboutrace-it is aboutpower,a consciousdecisionto create a thirdspacebetweenthe privileged oppressed, spacein which Lucy and a bothembraces ownpersonal her situationandattempts definethatsituto ationin contrastto culturallyenforced binaryopposition. awareness Her of privilegeandpowersimultaneouslyrecognizesthe disparitybetween the dinersandthe waitersandresists completeidentification with either group.Moreover, decisionto inhabita positionidenticalwith neither her the waitersnorthe dinersillustratesthe primacyof self-identification in earninga standpoint-Lucyconsciouslyanddeliberately choosesa standpointthatreflectsherhistoricalandsociallocation,rather thanaccepting a categorical positionimposeduponherby others. Anothercomplication ariseswhenMariah's affectionfordaffodils provokes Lucy'shostility. WhenMariahfirst rhapsodizes aboutthe beauty of daffodils,Lucyinformsherof the Wordsworth poem14 was madeto she memorizeand recite;the angerwith which Lucyreflectson this event,

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indicativeof what she calls "theheight of my two-facedness . outside .. false, inside true" (18),summarizesLucy'sresponseto the violence of which has, as Lucylaterprotests,alienculturalimperialism,the project in atedher fromher own cultureand surroundings favorof beautiesshe will only encounteryearslater,aftershe has left herhome. Lucycannot restrainherbitternessandangerwhen she finally sees Mariah's "beloved on this alienation.Shereports: daffodils," cannothelp commenting
As soon as I said this, I felt sorrythat I had cast her beloveddaffodilsin a and a scene she hadneverconsidered, scene of conquered conquests; scene a of brutesmasquerading angelsandangelsportrayed brutes.... It wasn't as as herfault.It wasn'tmy fault.Butnothingcouldchangethe factthatwhereshe saw beautifulflowersI saw sorrowandbitterness.(30)

At this point, Lucyis not merelyexposingMariah's lack of politicaland social consciousness; is objecting a historyof culturalimperialism she to in which her own culturehas been erasedandwritten overin the hand of the colonizer.Mariah'sdesire to provideLucy with joy by showing her somethingas lovely as daffodilsreproduces imperialistproject, the Mariah with the markof the colonizerandLucywith the mark inscribing of the colonized.This momentepitomizesthe colonialpredicament that Lucyis trying to leave behind;her standpointthus alters as she moves froma criticalregard Mariahto a widerreflection oppressive of on historical, political,andculturalforces. Lucy'scritiqueof culturalimperialismbecomesmorecomplicated as she developsan artisticaesthetic.Herdiscoveryof the museuminitiates a complexalteration herstandpoint she beginsto deconstruct in as group
identities and claim new affinities. Mariah escorts Lucy to a Gauguin exhibit, presumably to offer reinforcement of her island woman identity; however, Lucy experiences a different kind of empathy. She comments: I don'tknow if Mariahmeant me to, but immediatelyI identifiedwith the yearningsof this man; I understoodfinding the place you are born in an unbearable prison and wanting something completelydifferentfrom what you are familiarwith, knowingit represents haven.I wondered a aboutthe detailsof his despair, I felt it wouldcomfortme to know.Of coursehis life for couldbe foundin the pagesof a book;I hadjustbegunto notice that the lives of men alwaysare.(95) Lucy's identification with Gauguin's despair represents a complex multiplication of her affinities. Through this identification, Lucy begins to break down the barriers between the categories into which she can be placed and those in which Gauguin can be placed, noticing a correlation between their common desire to escape. However, the identification stops with that correlation, as Lucy discovers the attention given to the predicament of a European man and the extent to which his resistance, though ultimately short-lived, places "the perfume of a hero about him" (95).

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Lucy recognizes, in a surge of feminist and postcolonial consciousness, the extent to which her situation as a servant woman "fromthe fringes of the world"makes her own struggles invisible, unrepresentable.Likewise, Lucy recognizes, as she will later recognize when Paul shows her a picture of herself, naked from the waist up and cooking, that the struggles of a person like Gauguin (and like Paul) become representable through the possession of people like her, through artistic expression used as a form of othering, of domination. This recognition provokes anger; Mariah approaches,and Lucy reflects, "The look on my face must have shocked her, for she said, 'You are a very angry person, aren't you?' and her voice was filled with alarm and pity. PerhapsI should have said something reassuring; perhaps I should have denied it. But I did not. I said, 'Of course I am. What do you expect?"' (96). Through this encounter, Lucy comes to understand more fully the connections between her social location and her oppression, the extent to which her various group identities, though inadequate to describe her personally, circumscribe, exploit, and discount her experiences and perspectives. This understanding deepens when Lucy attends a gathering of artists in Paul's apartment. Like Gauguin, she observes, these artists are mostly men: "It seemed to be a position that allowed for irresponsibility, so perhaps it was much better suited to men," she comments (98). Beyond this observation, however, Lucy extends her assessment of Paul and his colleagues into a reflection on the possibilities affordedthese artists and the impossibilities for anyone in her homeland to assume such an identity. Nevertheless, Lucy chooses to align herself with these people, primarily because of their resistance to propriety, to the control exerted by dominant ideologies; she continues: AndI thought,I am not an artist,but I shall alwayslike to be with the people who standapart.I hadjust begunto notice that peoplewho knew the correct way to do things such as holda teacup,put foodon a forkandbringit to their mouth without making a mess on the front of their dress-they were the for peopleresponsible the mostmisery,the peopleleastlikely to endupinsane or paupers. (98-9) By aligning herself with the artists, though not identifying with them, Lucy again works to create a hybrid space, a social location from which her standpoint can be in dialogue with but not assimilated into more dominant perspectives. Such creationbecomes more concrete as Lucy begins to use photography as a form of exploration and expression. Lucy never considers herself an artist; she does, however, use art to observe and to investigate. As Jacqueline Doyle argues, "Through distance and keen observation, she reverses the imperialist gaze and moves toward her own distinctive, postcolonial vision of the world and her place in it.... The gaze she turns on herself and her surroundings is distant, critical, and also open to knowledge and

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experience" (1999, 60, 66). Photographyproves to be an ideal medium for Lucy, in itself a medium that inhabits a marginal space in Western art. Lucy takes pictures of ordinary objects, attempting to mimic the photographsMariah has shown her-photographs that remind her of people she knew at home and that, while depicting ordinary people doing ordinary things, look extraordinary.Her use of photographyis experimental, and though she does not quite achieve the desired effect, she is stimulated by the effort, questioning, "Why is a picture of something real eventually more exciting than the thing itself?" (121).Though she cannot yet answer this question, Lucy's appropriationof Western art forms functions as a complicated claiming of imperialist art as her own; although it has been imposed upon her with a kind of violence, the art of the colonizer becomes something exciting, something Lucy recognizes as useful and powerful, something she has a right to take and to use to develop and reflect her own aesthetic and her own standpoint. I write aboutmyself for the most part,and aboutthings that have happened to me. Everything sayis true,andeverything sayis not true.... I aim to be I I true to something,but it's not necessarilythe facts.
-Jamaica Kincaid'5

It is through her negotiation of identity and the attending changes in her perceptions that Lucy's standpoint develops out of a fairly straightforward awareness of power differentials to a more varied, postcolonial consciousness that must integrate multiple realities and changing identities. In "coming to voice," Lucy both exposes the thoughtlessness of privilege and interrogates easy categorizations of the Other. For feminist theorists, this kind of narrative, focused through the standpoint of a "Third World"woman, is especially important, as SandraHarding argues, "not because poor, Third World women are 'more oppressed' . . . but, rather, because thought that begins from conceptual frameworks developed to answer questions arising in their lives starts from outside the Eurocentric conceptual framework within which .. . feminist ... studies have been largely organized" (2000, 53). As Homi K. Bhabha further argues, such standpoints are useful precisely because they originate from locations that resist easy categorization: Whatis theoreticallyinnovative,andpoliticallycrucial,is the need to think of beyondnarratives originary initial subjectivities to focuson those and and momentsor processesthat areproduced the articulation culturaldifferin of ences.These 'in-between' spacesprovidethe terrainforelaborating strategies of selfhood-singular or communal-that initiate new signs of identity,and innovativesites of collaboration, contestation,in the act of definingthe and
idea of society itself. (1994, 1-2).

Investigations of standpoints like Lucy's are important because they provide unique and pointed critiques of various hegemonic structures, some

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of which include Westernfeminists as active participantswho are at times too eager to speak for and about their "more oppressed"sisters. Feminist projects that seek to explore the oppression of "ThirdWorld" women have generally been motivated by the best of intentions. Nevertheless, "the practice of privileged persons speaking for or on behalf of less privileged persons," Linda Alcoff notes, "has actually resulted (in many cases) in increasing or reinforcing the oppression of the group spoken for" (1992, 7). This result proceeds from an inability and/or unwillingness to shift the terms of the exploration, an incapacity to actually begin within the conceptual framework of the less privileged, proceeding instead from misconceptions or misapplications of supposedly "universal" realities, similar to Mariah's applications of liberal feminism to Lucy's maternal conflicts. In fact, the assumption that recognizable oppression exists is in itself a refusal to shift the focus, and often results in projects that seek to situate oppression after the fact in relation to social structures that may or may not actually be oppressive.'6 A question thus arises about the methodology through which feminist standpoint theory can be applied most appropriatelyand responsibly. As Alcoff continues, academic feminists "are authorized by virtue of our academic positions to develop theories that express and encompass the ideas, needs, and goals of others. However, we must begin to ask ourselves whether this is a legitimate authority" (1992, 7). One of the complications of standpoint theory in general is the question of whose standpoint is in fact being advanced or explored in any given study. For the feminist literary critic, this problem is particularly tricky. In a considerationof the work of an authorlike Kincaid,who writes autobiographically and openly incorporates her own political analyses, can the standpoint of the characterbe separatedfrom that of the author? The answer for this question must be, "yes and no," because a fictional character, even an autobiographicalone, is both similar to and different from the author. A more salient question, then, is to what extent any given literary analysis reflects the standpoint of the critic, rather than the character or author. Because literary analyses are produced through selection and interpretation of material, the social location of the literary critic necessarily shapes the conclusions such an endeavor will produce. If that critic inhabits a position of privilege in relation to the author, is such a project necessarily a colonization of that author and her work, a project of incursion and self-celebration?As the products of my privileged Western feminist education, are my analyses of Lucy's insights ultimately an attempt to work challenges to my own worldview into a conceptual framework that I can, through the methodology of literary criticism, select and control? Moreover, how can "privilege"be defined?'7Jamaica Kincaid is, for example, an established and respected author, in a class far above my own professional status. How, then, is analytical authority

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Clearly,differencesin race,gender,education,social to be interpreted? in class, andnationaloriginare complicated themselves,in relationship such as professional to to one another,andin reference otherdifferences andreputation. status such difficulties,the feminist literarycriticwho engagesin To address with, rather standpointlogic must considerher analysis a conversation than a comment on, the standpointarticulatedthroughthe text under is importantin this conversation a constant Particularly consideration. whosetempoof recognition the fluidanddynamicnatureof standpoints, with the social andpolitical rarystabilizationfacilitatesan engagement concernsof the moment,but whose continuousnegotiationsimultanecommunication.Alcoff describes ously allows for open and progressive this process in terms of GayatriSpivak'sconcept of "speakingto," a and a processthat encourages dialoguebetweenthe privileged oppressed of perspectives and enacts a conversationthat allows for an exchange Alcoff suggeststhat this processshould and invites a collective effort.18 speaks, the explicitly interrogate locationsfromwhich each participant such an as well as the impetus to speakin the first place. Additionally, for endeavor shouldacceptaccountability what is said,and considerthe in effectsof engaging the speechact (Alcoff1992,24-6). Thesedirectives in in have shapedmy approach this article,particularly my insistence that standpoint theoryandliterarycriticismcan enhanceone another-a positionthat growsdirectlyfrommy variousacademiclocationsas both a scholarand teacherof literatureandwomen'sstudies-but also in my of attemptsto elucidatethe perceptions a womanwhose social locations and different frommy own. I invite response, lookforward areprofoundly to exchangesthroughwhich feminist standpointtheorymay enterinto furtherdialoguewith literaryandpostcolonialfeminist criticism. BrookeLenz is a graduatestudentin the Departmentof Englishat the Universityof North Carolina-ChapelHill. Her dissertation employs a feminist standpointmethodologyin exploringvoyeurismand other visual practicesin the worksof JohnFowles.Herotherinterestsinclude women'sliterature,women'sstudies, and film. contemporary Notes
1. See Allan Vorda,"ICome from a Place That's Very Unreal: An Interview with Jamaica Kincaid," Face to Face: Interviews with Contemporary Novelists, edited by Allan Vorda.Houston: Rice University Press, 1993. 77-106: 83. 2. Nancy Hartsock, "The Feminist Standpoint:Towardsa Specifically Feminist Historical Materialism," Discovering Reality, edited by S. Harding and M. Hintikka. Boston: Reidel, 1983. 283-310. Hartsock was, of course, not the first to employ standpoint epistemologies-Dorothy Smith, for example,

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had already outlined her initial considerations of standpoint theory in the 70s-but she was the first to offer a categoricaldefinition of standpoint theory. For a recent exchange of feminist considerations of standpoint theory, see Provoking Feminisms (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000), edited by Carolyn Allen and JudithA. Howard. 3. Patricia Hill Collins, "Comment on Hekman's 'Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited': Where's the Power?" Provoking Feminisms, edited by Carolyn Allen and Judith A. Howard. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000. 43-9: 43. Though she insists on groups as the focus of standpoint theory, Collins does acknowledge that an individual perspective can be useful: "If an individual believes that his or her personal experiences in coming to voice, especially the inner voices within his or her individual consciousness hidden from hierarchical power relations, not only reflect a common human experience but, more to the point, also serve as an exemplar for how group consciousness and decision making operate, then individual experience becomes the model for comprehending group processes" (47-8). 4. One exception is Danielle Fuller; see, for example, "Helen Porter'sEveryday Survival Stories: A Literary Encounter with Feminist Standpoint Theory," Atlantis 24:1 (Fall/Winter 1999): 122-33. Fuller also cites Lynette Hunter, Outsider Notes: Feminist Essays on Canadian Literary Culture (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1996) and Marjorie Pryse, "Writing Out of the Gap: Regionalism, Resistance, and Relational Reading," A Sense of Place: Re-Evaluating Regionalism in Canadian and American Writing,edited by Christian Riegel and Herb Wyile. Edmonton:The University of Alberta Press, 1998. 5. See Donna Perry, "JamaicaKincaid," Backtalk: Women WritersSpeak Out. New Brunswick, NJ: RutgersUniversity Press, 1993. 127-41: 130. 6. Patricia Hill Collins, "Learning from the Outsider Within: The Sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought," (En)Gendering Knowledge: Feminists in Academe, edited by JoanE. Hartman and Ellen Messer-Davidow. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1991. 40-65. In this article, Collins develops her standpoint theory in terms of Black feminism: "Black feminist thought consists of ideas created by Black women that clarify a perspective of and for Black women" (42). I do not mean to suggest, nor do I believe that Collins would suggest, that only black women can or should investigate the position of black women-indeed, that is precisely what I intend to do in this article. I do acknowledge the difficulties of speaking for and/or about others that this project entails, and hope to adequately reflect on those difficulties as my discussion unfolds. 7. See Eleanor Wachtel, "Eleanor Wachtel with Jamaica Kincaid: Interview," Malahat Review 116 (Fall 1996):55-71: 60. 8. See Vorda, 105.

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9. Sandra Harding offers a useful summary of the various meanings the term "postcolonial" may have, particularly in the interests of standpoint methodologies, on pages 15-16 of Is Science Multicultural? Postcolonialisms, Feminisms, and Epistemologies. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998. My own use of the term is most closely defined, in Harding's terms, as the "critique of those in hybrid conditions at the bordersbetween the colonizers and the colonized" (15-16). 10. Foran important and still quite relevant discussion of this point, see Chandra Mohanty, "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses," Feminist Review 30 (Autumn 1988):61-88. 11. Although she does not specifically align her "realist theory of identity" with standpoint, Moya's considerations closely resemble standpoint theorizing. 12. See Moira Ferguson, "ALot of Memory:An Interview with JamaicaKincaid," The Kenyon Review 16:1 (Winter 1994): 163-88: 168. 13. This point is made quite elegantly in Kincaid's A Small Place. New York: Farrar,Straus and Giroux, 1988. 14. Kincaid is referring to Wordsworth'spoem "Daffodils." 15. See Kay Bonetti, "AnInterview with JamaicaKincaid,"The Missouri Review 15:2 (1992): 124-42: 125. 16. For an excellent discussion of this point, see Mohanty. 17. Bonnie J. Dow incisively explores this question in her article "Politicizing Voice," Western Journal of Communication 61:2 (Spring 1997):243-51. 18. For this discussion, Alcoff references Gayatri Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak?"Marxism and Interpretation of Culture, edited by Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg.Urbana:University of Illinois Press, 1988. 271-313.

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. 1991. "Learningfrom the Outsider Within: The Sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought." In (En)Gendering Knowledge: Feminists in Academe, edited by Joan E. Hartman and Ellen Messer-Davidow, 40-65. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press. Doyle, Jacqueline. 1999. "Developing Negatives: Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy." The Immigrant Experience in North American Literature:Carving Out a Niche, edited by Katherine B. Payant and Toby Rose, 59-71. Westport, CT: Greenwood. Ferguson, Moira. 1994. "ALot of Memory: An Interview with JamaicaKincaid." The Kenyon Review 16(1):163-88. Harding, Sandra.2000. "Comment on Hekman's 'Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited':Whose Standpoint Needs the Regimes of Truth and Reality?" In ProvokingFeminisms, edited by Carolyn Allen and JudithA. Howard, 50-9. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. . 1998. Is Science Multicultural? Postcolonialisms, Feminisms, and Epistemologies. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Hartsock, Nancy. 2000. "Comment on Hekman's 'Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited': Truth or Justice?" In Provoking Feminisms, edited by Carolyn Allen and Judith A. Howard, 35-41. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Hekman, Susan. 2000. "Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited." In ProvokingFeminisms, edited by CarolynAllen and JudithA. Howard, 9-34. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Kincaid, Jamaica. 1990. Lucy. New York:Plume. Mahlis, Kristen. 1998. "Genderand Exile: JamaicaKincaid's Lucy."Modern Fiction Studies 44(1): 164-83. Meehan, Kevin. 1999. "Caribbean Versus United States Racial Categories in Three Caribbean Coming of Age Stories." Narrative 7(3):259-71. Moya, Paula M. L. 1997. "Postmodernism, 'Realism,' and the Politics of Identity: Cherrie Moragaand Chicana Feminism." In Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures, edited by M. Jacqui Alexander and Chandra TalpadeMohanty, 125-50. New York:Routledge. Perry, Donna. 1993. "JamaicaKincaid." Backtalk: Women Writers Speak Out. New Brunswick, NJ: RutgersUniversity Press. Scott, JoanW. 1992. "Experience."In Feminists Theorize the Political, edited by Judith Butler and JoanW. Scott, 22-40. New York:Routledge. Steavenson, Wendell. 1996. "MercurialMaternalism." The San Francisco Review 21(3):36-7. Vorda,Allan. 1993. "I Come from a Place That's Very Unreal: An Interview with JamaicaKincaid."In Face to Face: Interviews with ContemporaryNovelists, edited by Allan Vorda,77-106. Houston: Rice University Press. Wachtel, Eleanor. 1996. "Eleanor Wachtel with Jamaica Kincaid: Interview." Malahat Review 116 (Fall):55-71.