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Wide Sargasso Sea

Wide Sargasso Sea. An Introduction. Jean Rhys--Biographical Sketch. 8/24/1890 the daughter of a Welsh doctor and a white Creole mother 1907-8 Attends the Perse School, Cambridge. 1909-10 Tours as a chorus girl. Abandoned by her lover.

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Wide Sargasso Sea

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  1. Wide Sargasso Sea An Introduction

  2. Jean Rhys--Biographical Sketch • 8/24/1890 the daughter of a Welsh doctor and a white Creole mother • 1907-8 Attends the Perse School, Cambridge. • 1909-10 Tours as a chorus girl. Abandoned by her lover. • 1919 Marries Jean Lenglet and moves to Paris. 29 Dec., birth of a son who dies three weeks later. –altogether 3 marriages, 2 children.

  3. Jean Rhys--Biographical Sketch • 1923-24 Meets Ford Madox Ford. Husband in jail, affair with Ford. (ménage a trois--Ford, Stella Bowen, Jean)) • 1933 Divorce. • 1934 Marries Leslie Tilden-Smith. • 1945 TS dead. Begins work on Wide Sargasso Sea. • 1947 Marriage to Max Hamer. • 1957-66 Works on Wide Sargasso Sea after public interest following a radio broadcast of her work tracks her down. • 1966WSS published. Wins the W. H. Smith Award for Writers and the Heinemann Award of the Royal Society of Literature. • 1978 Receives the Commander of the Order.

  4. Rhys: her characters’ and her self-identity • Her characters: , all drifting, unhappy, unstable, but with clear self-knowledge and understanding of others. • “I have no pride—no name, no face, no country. I don’t belong anywhere.” (Good Morning, Midnight.) • Rhys: Only returned to Dominica once in 56 years; • Rhys: . "I don't belong anywhere but I get very worked up about the West Indies.  I still care.  . .  ."

  5. Rhys: her self-identity • "Do you consider yourself a West Indian?"  She shrugged.  "It was such a long time ago when I left." "So you don't think of yourself as a West Indian writer?" Again she shrugged, but said nothing.  "What aboutEnglish?  Do you consider yourself an English writer?" "No!  I'm not, I'm not!  I'm not even English." "What about aFrenchwriter?"  I asked.  Again she shrugged and said nothing.  "You have no desire to go back to Dominca?" "Sometimes," she said. 

  6. The title • Sargasso Sea: The heart of the Bermuda Triangle is covered by the strangest and most notorious sea on the planet— the Sargasso Sea; so named because there is a kind of seaweed which lazily floats over its entire expanse called sargassum. (source) • signaling the wide division between Antoinette and Rochester and the race and gender entangled relationships in the Caribbean area.

  7. Sargasso Sea

  8. Rhys on Jane Eyre • "The creole in Charlotte Bronte's novel is a lay figure -- repulsive which does not matter, and not once alive which does.  .  . . For me . .  . she must be right on stage.  She must be at least plausible with a past, the reason why Mr. Rochester treats her so abominably and feels justified, and the reason why he thinks she is mad and why of course she goes mad, even the reason why she tries to set everything on fire, and eventually succeeds.  . . " (Gregg 82; emphases added)

  9. Rhys's Revision of Jane Eyre:Shift of dates:  • Jane Eyre -- towards the end of the novel reads a book published in 1808  Bertha confined in the attic in the first decade of the 19th century. • WSS's time frame shifted to 1830's onwards:  Emancipation Act 1833 Antoinette -- a child in the 1840's  (Mark MaWatt qut in Gregg 83)

  10. Backgrounds on Race: • I. white masters, New & Old: Christophine’s comment 15 • Mr. Luttrells p. 9; • New masters after the Emancipation of slaves [Mr. Cosway and Mason -- p. 17; p. 19] • II. White against creole: e.g. p. 17; Aunt Cora's husband 18 • III. Black against creole: poor "white cockcroaches" 13

  11. Characters

  12. Genealogy Cosway—Annette AlexanderDaniel Pierre Sandi ----Antoinette—husband----Amèlie (Bertha) (Rochester) Christophine Tia

  13. Questions for Part I of WSS • What kind of mother-daughter relationship is described in Part I? Mother’s rejection (11, 13, 15, 28-29, 36—death) • What kind of racial relationship is described here? multiple alienations of the creole —from the white people (9)/ -- Mason does not understand the racial relationship (19, 21); -- from the blacks—former slave-owners “white cockroaches” (13)/”white nigger” (14)

  14. Questions 2 How will you describe the relationship between Antoinette and Tia? friendship (13-14), divided by racial differences (27) • In WSS Rhys deliberately alludes to the biblical myth of the garden. How does she describe this garden? What is the significance of the garden imagery in Part I? • What is the significance of the fire scene and the burning of the parrot (25)? • How does the convent affect Antoinette’s life? • How will you interpret the two dreams (15, 35-36)?

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