Analyzing Hawthorne

What Evelyn Hawthorne wishes to achieve in her article is to deconstruct the work of Danticat through it literary and historical affiliations in order to better understand the general strategies employed by postmodernist black Caribbean writers in general. According to Hawthorne, the three primary differences between contemporary Caribbean writing and the more historical work of Paule Marshall are “linguistic, cultural, and political circumstances.” Though both parties hail from similar experiences, the fractured history of the Caribbean creates so many tangents that postmodernists like Danticat can approach slavery, colonialism, and American assimilation with a fresh perspective. She further explores these differences by explaining the “political unconscious” topics that Danticat explores; Rather than focusing on economic oppression like Marshall, Danticat and her contemporaries ostracize their characters through political exile.  

                        Krik? Krak! provides exemplary examples of this shift in writing thanks to Danticat’s understanding of the paradoxical nature of Haiti. Her accounts are largely driven by her “need to testify and witness.” Most importantly, the characters in Krik? Krak! aren’t racially defined stereotypes but actual people whom the readers care about.  Danticat takes great care to characterize her characters through small, subtle details, like Suzette’s initial disdain for her mother’s customs modulating into some form of acceptance either for her own heritage or for her mother’s traditions.

Hawthorne, Evelyn. "Sites/Sights of Difference: Danticat's 'New York Day Women', Haitian Immigrant Subjectivity and Postmodernist Strategies." MaComère: Journal of the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars 6 (2004): 40-8. Web.