The Politics of Rewriting Jane Eyre: "Race," Gender, and (Anti-)imperialism in Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea

• Main Authors: Chiou-rung Deng, 鄧秋蓉
• Other Authors: Liang-ya Liou
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 1999
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/34440769443272250454

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 外國語文學系研究所 === 87 === The aim of the thesis is to focus on the critique of imperialism that Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea offers and also to point out its inadequacy as an anti-imperialist novel. Wide Sargasso Sea is Jean Rhys's attempt to rewrite Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, to furnish the madwoman, Bertha, with a voice to speak out her side of story, which probes into imperialism and colonization in Jamaica. On the other hand, the inadequacy of the novel is manifested when the blacks are depicted. The thesis contains five chapters. The first chapter briefly indicates the intersection of "race," gender, and imperialism in which Wide Sargasso Sea engages. The second chapter focuses on the significance of rewriting as a strategy for feminist and post-colonial writers. Jean Rhys's rewriting attests to the limitation of white feminism and the complicity with imperialism in Jane Eyre, in which Bertha is relegated to the position of the racial as well sexual Other. Chapter Three explores the ambivalence explicit in the Creole identity and implicit in Jean Rhys's depiction about black characters. Antoinette, the Creole woman, experiences a positioning of "in-between" and a lack of cultural belonging. Though Antoinette finally chooses to embrace her West Indian identity, such identification is questionable on the ground that the attitudes toward blacks and the emancipation of slaves are ambiguous. Chapter Four discusses how imperialism, represented by Rochester, is put into question and how Rochester strives to negate the contaminating others in order to maintain the superiority of Englishness. Chapter Five, recapitulates the major argument of the thesis and examines the limitation of the thesis. Having the colonized other speak out the other side of Rochester's story in Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea does forcefully criticize imperialism. However, there is still room for reflection on the implicit racism in Jean Rhys's portrayal of blacks. Given that the speaking subject in Wide Sargasso Sea is still a white, an ex-slave owner, it is significant to revision another side of the story, that is, black people's side.