The Challenges Of Colonialism In A Small Place By Kincaid

Travelling is inevitably a change from routine, a break or perhaps even freeing for some. With the right amount of romantic evocation, attractions and plenty of nature’s sceneries, anything beautiful can undermine the reality when it is written on paper. “A Small Place” by Kincaid seeks to challenge this very notion by revealing a darker side of tourism, a dimension that looks beyond Antigua as a tourist locale. Behind a romanticized narrative of Antigua reveals the challenges of post-colonialism and the ways in which servility to power creates a disfiguring illusion for tourists. While a travel guide may provide enough basic information about a place, more often than not, it undermines reality and leaves out the very direness of the situation. “A Small Place” is recognized as an anti-travel narrative by provoking readers to acknowledge colonialism and its effects but more importantly, by addressing the Otherness of Antiguans inhabitants and reversing the picturesque gaze that is very much promoted in travel narratives.

Colonialism …show more content…
It speaks on the post-colonialism construction of Antigua that is identified and legitimized by those with servility to power but more fundamentally, it aims to deconstruct the tourist narrative and deconstruct tourists and colonizers perception of the nation. Kincaid’s essay draws attention to an even bigger complexity: travel narratives more often than not, can reflect harmful cultural stereotyping and further emphasize the tourist gaze that is constructed by Western and European. Even in the wake of globalization, appropriation is very much grounded in travel narratives and works to spark interests from Western and European