Female Bonding and Identity Formation in the Female Caribbean Bildungsroman

Abstract

This thesis examines the female Caribbean Bildungsroman, exploring young female protagonists' development and identity formation in relation to female bonding. Chapter One gives a concise overview of the origin of the Bildungsroman genre and its rewriting in the Caribbean. Chapter Two focuses on Zee Edgell's Beka Lamb and Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John, showing that the protagonists can achieve autonomy and identity because female bonding plays a positive role. Chapter Three discusses Merle Hodge's Crick Crack, Monkey and Michelle Cliff's Abeng, illustrating that the protagonists fail to achieve a unified identity because female bonding is jeopardized by stratification of race and class. By analyzing the contrasting results concerning identity formation, this study demonstrates how female bonding makes available a female community that is important in young women's development and identity formation. Nevertheless, female bonding may have only limited efficacy given the deep social divisions foisted on the Caribbean context by colonialism.