Making Life: Work as a Locus of Feminist Rehearsal

This essay examines representations of labor in Caribbean literature through the lens of feminist rehearsal, a term I have conceived, to argue that work is a central location in understanding Caribbean women’s belonging and power and that it connects them to the sexual and political economies of the region. With feminist rehearsal, I employ the same trope from several vantage points to reach a fuller understanding of the implications of the relational and symbolic power in Meiling Jin’s “Victoria” and Lorna Goodison’s “Bella Makes Life.” These short stories, seen through/as feminist rehearsal, highlight the ways in which work, race, class, and belonging intersect in the Caribbean.