Postcolonial literature often emphasizes the problems and consequences of the decolonization of a country, emerging at the same time that many colonies were fighting their way to independence. Postcolonial writers, especially those who are from Africa, South Asia, and Caribbean, "wrote back" to the empire to challenge the imperial assumptions that had justified colonialism in the first place. Wide Sargasso Sea of Jean Rhys is the prequel of Jane Eyre, which tells the story of Rochester's mad wife Bertha Mason. Wide Sargasso Sea is such a novel written by the formerly colonized people who attempt to “articulate their identity and reclaim their past in the face of that past's inevitable otherness” (Ciolkowski 344). It tends to correct the imagined image that the colonizer imposed on them and in the meanwhile resists and even subverts the colonizing authority. This paper studies how Jean Rhys's postcolonial text, Wide Sargasso Sea, reveals the issues of racial conflict and gender oppression under the discourse of Eurocentrism, and challenges the colonizing authority by the subversive power of black language.
Eurocentrism is "the attitude, the use of European culture as the standard to
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Here Rhys also shows how language is used as the resistance to post-colonial discourse: Christophine is wholly in control of their dialogue. Jean Rhys rewrites the history of the colonized in Jamaica and gives the voice to the colonized. More importantly, she rectifies the stereotypes that the westerns, especially the Orientalists imposed on the colonized. So to speak, like other Postcolonial literatures, Wide Sargasso Sea is a result of the interaction between the prototyped imperial culture and the indigenous cultural practices, and it successfully challenge colonial values and
Compare The Successes And Failures Of Patriarchy In Colonialism, In “The Tempest”, “Translations” And “Things Fall Apart”.
Knowing and understanding social, political, and cultural history is extremely important when reading many novels, especially Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Linda Brent and any short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Both of these authors had many extinuating circumstances surrounding their writings that should be noted before reading their works. Without knowing what was happening both in the outside world and in the respected author's life, one cannot truly grasp what the author is trying to say or what the author truly means by what he or she is saying. In this paper, I will show how important it is for the reader to understand the social, political, and cultural happenings in the writer's lives and in the world surrounding them during the times that their works were written.
...d issues of post-colonialism in Crossing the Mangrove. It is clear that Conde favors multiplicity when it comes to ideas of language, narrative, culture, and identity. The notion that anything can be understood through one, objective lens is destroyed through her practice of intertextuality, her crafting of one character's story through multiple perspectives, and her use of the motif of trees and roots. In the end, everything – the literary canon, Creole identity, narrative – is jumbled, chaotic, and rhizomic; in general, any attempts at decryption require the employment of multiple (aforementioned) methodologies.
...eauty, she is making a claim that supersedes this fictional novel. Through both Rochester’s description of the island’s beauty and the person of Christophine, Rhys is proclaiming that the Caribbean does not need Europe’s assistance, nor does she want it. Rhys is saying that the Caribbean’s beauty is natural and organic, and can’t be created by Colonial government. Throughout this semester, we have witnessed many writers struggle with the notion of true Caribbean identity, as if the past has somehow manipulated its identity and conformed it to the shape of European and American ideal. Rhys, along with Christophine, challenges this by saying that the Caribbean is too beautiful: it can never be tamed or touched or understood.
Antoinette’s initial exposure to exile with her mother and brother forces her to grow up assuming all men are dishonest. Throughout Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette clearly has some trust issues. While she initially feels Rochester drawing her in like a moth to the flame, she has second thoughts about marrying him and almost cancels their wedding. Without giving much of a reason, she simply says, “I’m afraid of what may happen” if she were to marry him (Rhys 46). Readers, not left with much context, can easily infer that she is untrusting by Rochester’s next line. He says, “I’ll trust you if you’ll trust me. Is that a bargain?” (Rhys 47). With the promise of peace, Rochester is able to convince Antoinette to marry him; however, he only keeps his
Hay, Eloise Knapp. The Political Novels of Joseph Conrad: a Critical Study. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1972. 120. Print.
Set in St. Lucia, Walcott’s Omeros reveals an island possessing a rich past. St. Lucia, a former colony, has a history of ‘pagan’ religion and tradition, a different language, and an economic background based namely on fishing. Locals must try to reconcile their heritage prior to colonization, the influences of colonization, and how to create a new culture from the ashes of the others (Hogan 17).
In the novel, the author proposes that the African American female slave’s need to overcome three obstacles was what unavoidably separated her from the rest of society; she was black, female, and a slave, in a white male dominating society. The novel “locates black women at the intersection of racial and sexual ideologies and politics (12).” White begins by illustrating the Europeans’ two major stereotypes o...
loss of his slaves. Annette is left with no one of her colour or class
In conclusion, the novel of Wide Sargasso Sea paints a unique vision of the inherent racism within 19th century British culture. While the criticism that the portrayal character who are people of color is often one-sided and flat; they are painted through the eyes of the White and Creole characters that hold power and influence. This method of writing sets it apart vastly from that of Jane Eyre and Mansfield Park.
Insanity does not happen on its own, and relationships do not usually fall apart without some sort of catalyst. In Wide Sargasso Sea this catalyst is alcohol, specifically rum. Antoinette and Rochester have had rather troublesome pasts so consoling oneself with alcohol is not out of the ordinary, but little did they know it would lead to an even more unpleasant future. Throughout the story there are traces of alcohol, and if followed they help to explain the slow descent of the relationship between Rochester and Antoinette, and the steep decline of Antoinette’s sanity.
In Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys confronts the possibility of another side to Jane Eyre. The story of Bertha, the first Mrs Rochester, Wide Sargasso Sea is not only a brilliant deconstruction of Brontë's legacy, but is also a damning history of colonialism in the Caribbean.
For the rioters, Coco the parrot, and Antoinette, fire offers an instrument of escape from and rebellion against the oppressive actions of their respective captors. Wide Sargasso Sea takes place shortly after the emancipation of Jamaican slaves. Annette's husbands, first Alexander Cosway and then Mr. Mason, have both profited immorally off of the exploitation of black Jamaicans. Unsurprisingly, the former slaves feel great hatred towards the Cosways--- hatred that boils over when the ex-slaves set fire to Annette's house (35). The significance of th...
In this paper feminist aspect of post colonization will be studied in “Season of Migration to the North” novel by Tayeb Salih. Postcolonial feminism can be defined as seeks to compute for the way that racism and the long-lasting economic, cultural, and political influences of colonialism affect non-white, non-Western women in the postcolonial world, according to Oxford dictionary. As it mentioned earlier about the application of Feminism theory in literature, the provided definition of postcolonial feminism also is not applicable in literature analysis. Therefore, Oxford defines another applic...
Postcolonial authors use their literature and poetry to solidify, through criticism and celebration, an emerging national identity, which they have taken on the responsibility of representing. Surely, the reevaluation of national identity is an eventual and essential result of a country gaining independence from a colonial power, or a country emerging from a fledgling settler colony. However, to claim to be representative of that entire identity is a huge undertaking for an author trying to convey a postcolonial message. Each nation, province, island, state, neighborhood and individual is its own unique amalgamation of history, culture, language and tradition. Only by understanding and embracing the idea of cultural hybridity when attempting to explore the concept of national identity can any one individual, or nation, truly hope to understand or communicate the lasting effects of the colonial process.