earticle

영어

The purpose of this study is to analyze Annie John as a female Bildungsroman. Female Bildungsromans structurally and ideologically prefer the autonomous individual who feels at odds with society. Female Bildungsromans don’t follow the development of a coherent universal subject and they don’t valorize social integration that requires the partial denial or repression of the subject’s identity like traditional male Bildungsromans. The subject of female Bildungsromans also chooses to remain marginalized at the end of their text. Female Bildungsromans also refuse closure by preferring an ambiguous textual ending that affirms the provisional nature of identity. Considering these characteristics of female Buildungsromans this paper focuses on Annie’s troubled relationship with her mother and the severance with her; her intense childhood friendships with Gwen and the Red Girl; her experiences as a black Antiguan who is taught in school to see life through an English point of view; her mysterious illness which symbolizes her death which plays a role as a metaphor of the irremediable loss of childhood innocence; obeah cure by Ma Chess and her rebirth through the image of the water; the gaining of independence by leaving Antigua for England.