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IN a large and cool drawing-room of London a few people were scattered about listening to a soprano voice that was singing to the accompaniment of a piano. The sound of the voice came from an inner room towards which most of these people were looking earnestly. Only one or two seemed indifferent to the fascination of the singer.

Wendy Gan uses privacy as a means to explore what modernity meant to British women of the early twentieth century.

Focusing on texts by Jamaica Kincaid, Maryse Conde, and Paule Marshall, Alexander (English and humanities, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York) explores the trichotomous relationship between the biological or surrogate mother; the motherlands of Africa and the Caribbean; and the mother country represented by England, France, and North America. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR