A study of a Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) as a “writing back” of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847)
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Date
2016
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Publisher
University Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou
Abstract
During the post-colonial period, many authors from previously colonized countries emerged
to “write back” to the European canonical texts. This research paper examined postcolonial
“rewriting” of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) by Jean Rhys in Wide Sargasso Sea
(1966). It explored the concepts of “subversion”, “rewriting” and “displacement” used by
Rhys in order to counter Brontë’s colonial discourse introduced in her work. To reach the
purpose, I have applied Ashcroft et al.’s theory of The Empire Writes Back: Theory and
Practice in Post-colonial Literatures. In the discussion, I have studied the historical context
of both novels in order to understand the writers’ ideology. I have attempted to undertake a
comparative study between the two works in which I have displayed how “writing back”
manifests in the postcolonial text. After having examined the two novels, I have come to the
conclusion that Rhys has rewritten Brontë’s work by subverting its main elements which are
characters and themes.
Description
62p.;30cm.(+cd)
Keywords
Citation
Langue, Culture des pays Anglophones et media