Human and nonhuman bodies in a localized form of the Anthropocene: Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place

Abstract

Through its placement of the story of Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place, the present study attempts to localize the Anthropocene. This work aims to reveal other rarely examined sides of the Anthropocene that are obscured by a single holistic Anthropocene. A Small Place shows that a single Anthropocene was formed at the expense of human and non-human bodies in many regions. Kincaid’s double gaze strategy is the key to localizing the Anthropocene, and this strategy foregrounds human and non-human bodies that are unfairly damaged and destroyed by the unequal distribution of environmental violence. The body of the aboriginal people of Antigua and the natural body of the island, consumed by the exploitation of European colonists, are gradually dying. This is concretely addressed, using Marx’s theory of alienation, which tool is embodied in Kincaid’s double gaze strategy. This strategy proposes an expanded shape to the current Anthropocene, as Antigua’s aboriginal and colonial acts of nature show newly repeated sites of the neo-liberal era. A Small Place reveals the potential damage of unequal environmental violence through the deleterious effects of slow violence, which is another important tool for elucidating different facets of the Anthropocene.