Clarine Stephenson Explained

Clarine Stephenson was a Jamaican novelist and poet,^[1] one of the first women writers in Jamaica.^[2]

Stephenson's novel Undine tells the story of a Jamaican governess, described in the novel as a "creole child of wealth, reared in the midst of luxury and idleness".^[3] Forced to return to Jamaica to work as a governess, she escapes the dust of the city and falls in love with an Englishman. The Jamaican countryside is idealised as an "Eden", the "sweet dreamland of these happy hills".^[4] After having her heart broken, she dies, having a vision of her former lover as Jesus Christ.^[3] Kim Robinson-Walcott has remarked the fact that the novel features no black characters.^[5]

Works

• 'The White Man's Prophecy', Jamaica Times, 21 August 1909.
• Undine: An Experience. New York: Broadway Publishing House, 1911.
• 'A West Indian miscellany: chip lagwood'. West Indian review, Vol. 2, no. 1 (Sept. 1935), p.59

Notes and References

1. Book: Claire Buck. The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature. Stephenson, Clarine. 1045.
2. Book: Brenda F. Berrian. Aart G. Broek. Bibliography of Women Writers from the Caribbean: 1831-1986. 1989. Three Continents Press. 978-0-89410-600-2. x.
3. Karen E. Sumner . Whiteness and Women's Writing in the Caribbean . The University of Western Ontario . 1998 . 101 .
4. Book: Evelyn O'Callaghan. Women Writing the West Indies, 1804-1939: 'A Hot Place, Belonging To Us'. 2004. Routledge. 1-134-44096-0. 84–5, 98, 103.
5. Book: Kim Robinson-Walcott. Out of Order!: Anthony Winkler and White West Indian Writing. 2006. University of the West Indies Press. 978-976-640-172-6. 176.