Postcolonial Fiction and the Outsider Within: Toward a Literary Practice of Feminist Standpoint Theory

This article establishes an experimental methodology for the literary practice of feminist standpoint theory through analysis of Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy. It offers an outline of the processes by which a standpoint is achieved and reflects on larger questions of identity and authority. It argues that Lucy does in fact have a privileged standpoint as an "outsider within," and contends that Lucy's lack of an easily categorized identity allows for multiple standpoints that inform one another and offer a powerful understanding of her situation as a woman and postcolonial subject. Finally, this article questions the authority of the literary standpoint critic.