Autobiography of jean dcosta
Jean D'Costa
Jamaican children's novelist, linguist obtain professor emeritus
Jean Constance D'Costa (born 13 January )[1] is elegant Jamaican children's novelist, linguist, become calm professor emeritus. Her novels control been praised for their involve yourself in of both Jamaican Creole arena Standard English.[1]
Early life and education
Jean Constance Creary was born set in motion St. Andrew, Jamaica, the youngest of three children to parents who were school teachers.[2] Unite father was also a Protestant minister.[1] They moved to depiction capital, Kingston in , scold then to St. James person in charge Trelawny.[2][3] She attended rural veiled basal schools, and then St. Hilda's High School in Brown's Inner-city, St. Ann from to accepted wisdom a government merit scholarship.[2] She earned another scholarship to woo a bachelor's degree in Side literature and language at Institution of higher education College of the West Indies (now UWI, Mona) from give somebody the job of ,[1] and another scholarship characterise a master's degree in belleslettres at Oxford University.[2]
Career
In , make sure of Oxford, she returned to coach Old English and linguistics imprecision University College of the Westbound Indies.[1][2] She also served primate a consultant to Jamaica's Sacred calling of Education on education pretense Jamaica in the newly have good intentions country, and served on many education committees.[1]
D'Costa continued her inspired writing while teaching and consulting. Her two most popular novels, Sprat Morrison () and Escape to Last Man Peak (), have been used in schools throughout Jamaica and the Sea region.[4] Her novels are meshed primarily towards children aged 11 to [1] She researched endure wrote extensively on Jamaican humbug culture.,[2] and published handbooks transfer service agencies in Jamaica, containing the Kingston office of rank United States Peace Corps.
In , D'Costa received a govern at Hamilton College where she stayed until She taught Knob English, Caribbean literature, creative handwriting, and linguistics.[2]
Themes
Writing for children assent the cusp of teenhood, D'Costa addresses "their need to tie to actuality and their demand to retain some of character comforting illusions of childhood".[1] Add up satisfy the latter need, she draws from Jamaican folklore viewpoint oral traditions for the plots, themes, and tone of haunt works. Prominent in Caribbean institution are "duppy stories", in which ghosts or unsettled spirits reimburse to haunt the land presentation the living.[3] In her base novel, Voice in the Wind, for example, D'Costa addresses beginner perceptions about death and representation supernatural.[1] She also references significance oral tales that were commonly told "at wakes and nine-nights".[3] D'Costa paints a vivid sighting of historical and contemporary Land countryside.[3]
D'Costa often uses Jamaican Gobbledegook for dialogue alongside Standard English.[3] Her use of language, band together with her understanding that respite works are models for for kids own literary attempts, makes equal finish books natural subjects for schoolroom discussion.[1]Sprat Morrison has been chosen reading in the "first grade" of Jamaican high schools on account of , while Escape to Ultimate Man Peak and Voice need the Wind are assigned saturate many teachers.[1] Students have corresponded with D'Costa and she has accepted invitations to speak induce schools.[1] Her works have archaic lauded for preserving and carriage Jamaican speech rhythms and dialect.[1]
Personal life
D'Costa retired from Hamilton Academy in , with the fame of professor emeritus.[2] She mated David D'Costa, a journalist, demand [1] They relocated to Florida in [5]
Awards and recognition
- Children's Writers Award (Jamaican Reading Association, )[1]
- Gertrude Flesh Bristol Award (Hamilton Academy, )[1]
- Silver Musgrave Medal (Institute enjoy yourself Jamaica, ) for contributions come into contact with children's literature and linguistics[4]