Romantic Struggles: The Bildungsroman and Mother-Daughter Bonding in Jamaica

Shortly after its publication in 1983, Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John received high praise from critics who welcomed the verve and strength of this new, black female voice. Even though reviewers differed in regard to the novel's political, cultural, and ideological themes, a clear majority of them agreed on the central importance of Kincaid's conflictual presentation of the mother-daughter relationship. And for good reason. Kincaid's involved descriptions of familial alliances generate provocative psychological interpretations. For example, in the novel's earliest full page review, Susan Kenny announces how Annie John provides "valuable insight about the complex relationship between mothers and daughters" (6). Roni Natov simply states that "Annie John is a fully developed psychological study" (1). Much of this fascination comes from the intensity, range, and paradoxical quality of Kincaid's mother-daughter bond. In particular, the psychoanalytical essays attempt to understand how Annie John, the lead character, could at the same moment both love and hate her mother with equal intensity.1 And yet, such a singular approach fails to address other pertinent issues. Even though motherchild concerns do seem to call for developmental readings, the novel's concern with self-identity also brings it into a second arena: the Bildungsroman. Of course, this "coming of age" literary convention differs significantly among nationalities and periods, but some broad characteristics do seem to cross cultural lines. A sensitive child-hero begins his life in a provincial area where he quickly perceives constraints on his "natural" development. He grows frustrated with his family, school, and friends. Finally, at a fairly early age, he leaves the repression of home for the "real" education that occurs in a sophisticated, worldly, and often urban setting.2 Annie John more or less follows this "romantic" scheme. I invoke the metaphor of romanticism here because the