In Search of Safety, Pleasure and Power: A Sensory Analysis onto the Themes of Spirituality, Nature and the Body in Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea

Details

Supervisors

Bragard, Véronique

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en communication multilingue

Abstract

Written by Jean Rhys and published in 1966, Wide Sargasso Sea narrates the tumultuous encounter of Antoinette Cosway –a creole woman born in the Caribbean- and Edward Rochester – a Victorian man from England. Since the publication of the novel, its tragic ending has inspired numerous interpretations. Yet a consensus seems to have been reached onto attributing the characters’ differences a major role in the developments of the story. Indeed describing the protagonists according to an othering process typical of postcolonial literature, - Edward for instance as a rational and Christian man belonging to the urban British world and coming from a cold, grey country; and Antoinette as a sensual and pagan woman belonging to the Caribbean wilderness and coming from a country of heat and sunshine-, the binary oppositions of the novel and their extension to the cultures both protagonists represent suggest that Antoinette and Edward are irreconcilably opposed to one another. But in their attempts at drawing the (anti-) hegemonic messages from the text by analysing these dichotomies, literary critics in postcolonial, ecofeminist and feminist studies have come up against oppositions presented in the novel concerning Westerners’ and Caribbean people’s relationships towards nature, corporeality and spirituality as presented in the novel. Indeed, and however several historical, cultural and anthropological facts now confirm the existence of such divergences between Westerners and Caribbean people, it is nevertheless important to note that these dichotomies were originally articulated as the ‘stereotype of the savage’ during the Hellenic period, and that under the influence of their propagandisation during the colonial era, these dichotomies have continued to influence Westerners’ perspectives onto non-European people. And it is still often in such a stereotypical manner that the differences between the protagonists of Jean Rhys’ novel are studied today. For indeed, it is perceptible that critics often omit to consider that the author herself deconstructs the dichotomies she draws upon by presenting both characters as capable of change –as a means of illustration, Edward will develop an actual sensitivity towards nature and Antoinette will discover sensuality without forasmuch always having embraced it. And it is thus with the purpose of explaining both protagonists’ relationship towards one another, while accounting not only for their capacity to transcend the expectations of their cultures, but also for the deeper origins of their divergences, that the following dissertation aims at deconstructing some of these stereotypes by demonstrating that both characters’ perspectives towards nature, corporeality and spirituality are determined by their changeable ways of drawing upon the senses and by the feelings of power, safety and pleasure that the natural world, corporeality and spirituality will as such provide them with or deprive them from.

Citations

• APA

Caudron, M.-C. (2018). In Search of Safety, Pleasure and Power: A Sensory Analysis onto the Themes of Spirituality, Nature and the Body in Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea.