Contemporary Caribbean Writing

Session 3, Augustown: Session Questions

Autoclaps

 The children were ‘being ushered into a new understanding of the world - one in
which adults were not always right’ (p. 48). What is the significance of Mr. Saint-
Josephs cutting off Kaia's hair?

 What is an ‘Autoclaps’? See p. 157.

History vs Fiction? Oral vs Scribal?

 ‘There is always this divide between the stories that were written and stories that were
spoken’ (p. 91). What is the divide between written and oral histories? How does the
novel negotiate this divide? Think about how Preacher Alexander Bedward, Governor
Leslie Probyn, and the journalist William Grant-Stanley are historical figures
incorporated into the novel. What is the effect of this?

 Read p.93 and pp. 110-111. How does this novel celebrate storytelling and the
importance of stories? What is the importance of oral stories?

Space and Place

 Compare the depiction of Kingston in Miller’s novel to that by Harry Franck,

Roaming through the West Indies, on p.87.

 Compare the depiction of Augusttown to Beverley Hills on p.161. What does this tell
us about the economics of the city?

 ‘What you fighting is Babylon system, all them things in this life that put a heavy
stone on the heads of people like you and me - all them things that cause we not to
rise’ (p. 11). ‘Babylon would try its damnest to find out what that thing was, and they
would try to take it from you’ (p. 33). What is the ‘Babylon system’?

 What are the ‘rhythms and patterns’ of Augustown and how are these incorporated
into the novel? See p.135.

Bedward and Flying

  Examine the symbolism of flying in the novel: ‘For what is more human than this, the
desire to escape the troubled earth and its depressing gravity? What is more human
than the desire to rise above it all, to fly?’ (p. 238). See also pp. 108-109.

Narrative Voice

 ‘Look, this isn't magic realism. This is not another story about superstitious island
people and their primitive beliefs. No. You don't get off that easy…. Consider a more
urgent question; not whether you believe in this story or not, but whether this story is
about the kinds of people you have never taken the time to believe in’ (p. 116). What
is the significance of this passage in the novel?

 What is the purpose of having an unnamed omniscient narrator? And what is the
effect when you realise whom the narrator is? See p.237.