Creole Performance in Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands |
Creole Performance in Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands
Gender & History
Volume 15, Issue 3, November 2003
pages 487–506
DOI: 10.1111/j.0953-5233.2003.00317.x
Rhonda Frederick, Associate Professor of African & African Diaspora Studies Program
Boston College
Mary Seacole’s autobiography has been read as a feminist performance as well as a paradigmatic Victorian travel narrative. While these assessments address important aspects of the memoir, neither affords the author’s Jamaicanness significant space in its analysis. This essay addresses the silences left when Wonderful Adventures is removed from its Jamaican context, then offers a reading of it from this perspective. Grounded in histories that document nineteenth-century Jamaican social categories, the article analyses Seacole’s book using Caribbean literary perspectives that explore raced, ‘coloured’ and geographically-located identities. The result is an interpretation of the memoir that offers insight into Jamaica’s Creole population, its status and colour politics, and identity concerns. All have been expertly shaped by Seacole’s rhetorical manoeuvres.
Read or purchase the article here.
Tags: Gender & History, Mary Seacole, Rhonda Frederick