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Provided by Pin-chia Feng
Michelle Cliff


photo taken from Emory's Michelle Cliff page


Biographical Sketch
Major Themes
List of Works




Biographical Sketch


  • 1946 born in Jamaica
  • educated in New York City
  • the Warburg Institute at the University of London, UK--PhD. on The Italian Renaissance
  • Allan K. Smith Professor of English Language and Literature at Trinity College
  • now divides her time between Hartford, Connecticut, and Santa Cruz, California
  • Cliff on her writing career: "In my family it was really considered almost taboo to be a writer. It was too revelatory. There were too many secrets to be kept, especially as a girl or female." (61)--At 13, her diary had been read out loud in front of her family. Cliff did not start writing again until she was around 30. "Most of my work has to do with revising: revising the written record, what passes as the official version of history, and inserting those lives that have been left out." (71 "The Art of History") ¡@
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    Major Themes


  • gender, sexual, class, racial identities
  • the issue of language--standard English vs patois--different linguistic codes reflect different identities
  • the importance of history and oral culture--Cliff is revising the official history
  • "colourism" or color prejudice in Jamaica
  • homophobia in Jamaica
  • the issue of passing (ex.) Boy's passing (Abeng 129)
  • Cliff on passing in her poem "Passing"--Passing demands a desire to become invisible. A ghost-life. An ignorance of connections./ Passing demands quiet. And from that quiet--silence."
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    List of Works

    • Claiming an Identity They Taught Me to Despise (1980)--collection of poetry
    • Abeng (1984)--novel
    • The Land of Look Behind (1985)--collection of poetry
    • No Telephone to Heaven (1987)--sequel to Abeng
    • Bodies of Water (1990)--collection of short stories
    • Free Enterprise (1993)--novel







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