JEAN RHYS, Wide Sargasso Sea and the Genesis of Secrecy

This episode focuses on Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea and the genesis of secrecy. As is well known, Wide Sargasso Sea was written as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Erye, a classic of feminist literature that was first published in 1847. In Brontë’s novel, Mr. Rochester’s closely guarded secret is Bertha Mason, the mad wife that he keeps hidden in an attic at Thornfield Hall. In contrast, Rhys’s novel gives us the character of Antoinette Cosway, a descendant of creole slave owners in Jamaica who after Emancipation is rescued from a life of poverty through marriage to the Rochester figure in the novel and renamed Bertha by him. However, in animating the life of Antoinette/Bertha, Rhys also stages how social secrets pertaining to post-Emancipation Jamaica circulate, and which illustrate concerns with miscegenation, property, and also anxieties about the threat of the white creole slide into Blackness. The overgrown and unkempt natural environment in the novel is also a marker of the creole planter classes’ loss of control over Nature, a concomitant effect of the collapse of slavery and the apprenticeship system that the British government set up to succeed it after Emancipation. The episode will look at how these concerns get integrated into the representation of post-plantation society through a feminist and postcolonial reading that also tests the representational choices encapsulated in the novel.
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Suggested Reading:
-Daniel Livesey, Children of Uncertain Fortune: Mixed Race Jamaicans in Britain and the Atlantic Family, 1733-1833 (2018).
-Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Development of Creole Society in Jamaica, 1770-1820 (1971).
-Eric Williams, From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean 1492-1969 (1970).
-Elizabeth Abel, “Women and Schizophrenia: The Fiction of Jean Rhys,” Contemporary Literature 20.2 (1979): 155-177.
-Mona Fayad, “Unquiet Ghosts: The Struggle for Representation in Jean Rhys’s White Sargasso Sea,” Modern Fiction Studies 34.3 (1988): 437-452.
-Wilson Harris, “Carnival Psyche: Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea,” Kunapipi 2.2 (1980): 142-150Rose Kamel, “Before I was Set Free”: The Creole Wife in Jane Erye and Wide Sargasso Sea,” Journal of Narrative Technique 25.1 (1995): 1-22.

[@robertcornwell6590]

Outstanding. Having lived in Jamaica as a Peace Corps volunteer and long been a fan of Wide Sargasso Sea, Atu’s historic and literary synthesis here is near perfect.

[@CriticReadingWriting]

Glad you liked it, Robert.

[@pelicancovebeach2873]

This is fantastic. Love your voice and inflections.

[@kumaridesilva3992]

I liked the book when I read it but your additional elucidation puts me in awe of Jean Rhys for writing this book. I wish I could have met her.

[@janvibedi4134]

This was extremely helpful. And soo well explained. This really helped me with the viva of research paper on this novel. Thanks a ton sir :')

[@eobeobeob]

Crystal clear discussion. Thank you!

[@theresaastleithner1652]

Thank you very much for this discussion, very informative and educational! Will definitely check out more of your videos!

[@CriticReadingWriting]

Glad it was helpful!

[@rebekahbrown9306]

super! thanks very much Professor - fascinating explanation

[@nancyshinn2037]

This was a wonderful explanation of a complex book. Thank you Professor. I look forward to your next lecture.

[@emmazblewski7837]

What a wonderful analysis! I just finished this book and it was incredibly valuable while reflecting on the themes :)

[@deboramestieri]

Extremely informative video! I'm using it to revise for my next English literature exam!

[@janaswanson]

Thank you for this discussion!

[@CriticReadingWriting]

I am glad you liked it, Jana.

[@dwkuo]

Strong lesson. Thank you sir.

[@gladysagyeiwaadenkyi-manie3691]

Thanks a lot Prof.

[@CriticReadingWriting]

You are welcome.

[@kellyharrison6965]

Very good discussion, which I will revisit soon. The audio is a bit quiet, so I think I'll rewatch with headphones on.

[@DemocritusEpicurus]

Your presentation ist an eye opener, like Georg Lukács' comments on literature...

[@CriticReadingWriting]

HI Aijoscha, Lukács is one of my all-time favorites. I often marvel at his combination of astute attention to detail and comprehensive conceptual reach. I am flattered that you think of me and him in the same breath. Much appreciated.

[@DemocritusEpicurus]

Thank you!

[@CriticReadingWriting]

You're welcome!

[@mappon12]

Very clear presentation. I have a better understanding of the text than when I read the novel.

[@CriticReadingWriting]

Thanks, Frankie!