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- Title
The Child Protagonist as Agent and Subject in Harriet's Daughter and Crick Crack, Monkey.
- Authors
Chang, Victoria V.
- Abstract
This paper explores two novellas by Black Caribbean women writers: Crick Crack, Monkey by Trinidadian author Merle Hodge, and Harriet's Daughter by Tobagonian-born M. NourbeSe Philip. In Hodge's work, the protagonist, Tee, must negotiate between two worlds. The first is that of her early home with the rough working-class aunt (Tantie), seemingly chaotic but also full of warmth, humour, and familial love. This is juxtaposed against her new home with her haughty Aunt Beatrice, who advocates colonial values and demands conformity from her niece for Tee to gain acceptance and belonging. In contrast to Hodge's protagonist, Tee, Philip's Margaret keenly desires closer ties to her Caribbean identity. She creates a world of refuge against an environment that seeks to erase blackness and crafts a self in relation to her chosen identity, exercising agency with respect to her notions of selfhood and citizenship.
- Subjects
RACIAL identity of Black people; CHILDREN in literature; HARRIET'S Daughter (Book); CRICK Crack, Monkey (Book); HODGE, Merle, 1944-; PHILIP, Marlene Nourbese, 1947-; RACE identity in literature; BLACK women authors; CARIBBEAN authors; 20TH century (Literary period)
- Publication
International Research in Children's Literature, 2023, Vol 16, Issue 3, p294
- ISSN
1755-6198
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.3366/ircl.2023.0525