Palimpsests of Ancestral Memories: Black Women’s Collective Identity Development in Short Stories by Edwidge Danticat and Dionne Brand

Abstract

This article focuses on two short stories, Edwidge Danticat’s ‘Epilogue: Women Like Us’, the final story in Krik? Krak! (1996. New York: Vintage Books), and Dionne Brand’s ‘Blossom, Priestess of Oya, Goddess of Winds, Storms and Waterfalls’, from Sans Souci and Other Stories ([1988] 1989. Ithaca NY: Firebrand Books). In these stories, Danticat and Brand narrate the lives of Caribbean women who have journeyed abroad in search of a better future, and the protagonists also continue to develop their respective identities through the challenges of leaving their homes. Danticat follows the life of a young girl, while for Brand it is a middle-aged woman who feels old beyond her years: the authors narrate versions of (historical) events from the perspective of these women, additionally (re)writing Caribbean history in feminist terms. Furthermore, treating the actual bodies of the narrators as living texts for the embodied experiences and oral stories of their ancestors, the protagonists become palimpsests in their current lives/life stories. This, in turn, affects their futures. While at times their matrilineal, ancestral voices may be a burden, they also provide a source of empowerment for the two protagonists, enabling them to pursue their chosen careers despite the barriers they face.