Wide Sargasso Sea as a Post-Colonial Novel

1. Wide Sargasso Sea as a Post-Colonial Novel A presentation by: Tan Ho Yee Evelyn Yap AchmadFirdaus

2. The Basics What is Post-Colonialism? What then is Colonialism? Other terms to define: • Nationalism, • Orientalism, • Hybridity and • Exoticism.

3. Post-Colonialism As a literary theory, it deals with literature produced in countries that once were colonies of other countries, especially of the European colonial powers Britain, France, and Spain. Addresses matters of identity, gender, race, racism and ethnicity. Post-colonialism seeks out areas of hybridity and transculturalization. This aspect is particularly relevant during processes of globalization.

4. Colonialism Colonialism is the building and maintaining of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. Social structure, government and economics within the territory of the colony are changed by the colonists. Some colonists also felt they were helping the indigenous population by bringing them Christianity and civilization.

5. Orientalism The Orient is a term which simply means the "east". Oriental has been used by the West as a term to describe cultures, countries, peoples and goods from the Orient. In Literature, Orientalism refers to works based in the East, particularly Asia and also North Africa.

6. Hybridity & Exoticism The term originates from biology and was subsequently employed in linguistics and in racial theory in the nineteenth century. Colonial hybridity, as a cultural form, produced ambivalence in the colonial masters and as such altered the authority of power. Exoticism, by definition, is "the charm of the unfamiliar." Exoticism in art and literature as the representation of one culture for consumption by another.

7. Is WSS a post-colonial novel? YES. The story is set just after the emancipation of the slaves, in that uneasy time when racial relations in the Caribbean were at their most strained. Antoinette is descended from the plantation owners, and her father has had many children by negro women. She can be accepted neither by the negro community nor by the representatives of the colonial centre. As a white creole she is nothing. The taint of racial impurity, coupled with the suspicion that she is mentally imbalanced bring about her inevitable downfall.

8. Is Rhys writing from the colonial centre or from the margins? Rhys divides the speaking voice between Rochester and Antoinette, so there is an equal balance. She writes both from the colonial centre (Rochester) and the margins (Antoinette, a Creole), thus avoiding the suppression of alternative voices which can be found in Jane Eyre.

9. Who is othered in the text? Antoinette is clearly the victim here. Rhys gives Antoinette a voice, and restores her humanity. Her madness is shown throughout the novel to be a reaction to oppression. She lives an isolated, painful, emotionally-deprived life, which causes her to adopt an exact mirroring of her mother's expression, (a frown - 'deep as if it had been cut with a knife') which is symbolic of despair.

10. What is the relationship between Rochester and Antoinette? One can see the Rochester's marriage to Antoinette is somewhat similar to a business transaction: "I have not bought her, she has bought me, or so she thinks… The thirty thousand pounds have been paid to me without question or condition“. From the aspect of Antoinette's behavior we can see how unwilling she is to marry Rochester. "She won't go through with it… She won't marry you… I've been arguing with the little fool for an hour"

11. Discussion Page 29, line 21 to line 29 • What impact does colonialism have on the culture/religion? *Confusion? *Reinforcement? Page 45, line 6 to Page 46, line 10 • Focus on Page 46 line 8. • How is this comparable on a larger scale? Page 103, line 15 to Page 104, line 15 -What effect does colonialism have on a territory’s customs/traditions?