The Challenge to Patriarchy and Colonialism in Wide Sargasso Sea
Abstract
In Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys illustrates Antoinette’s experience and sufferings throughout her life. This article intends to focus on the the challenge to patriarchy and colonialism in Wide Sargasso Sea by making a detailed analysis of the male character Rochester. This article can generally be divided into two parts. Firstly, it explores author’s attempt to challenge the authority of the patriarchal society by depriving the male protagonist’s right of name and exposing the ugly nature of this patriarchal mercenary. Secondly, it analyses the author’s effort to subvert the authority of colonialism by deconstructing the male protagonist Rochester’s identity as a white European colonist. This article argues that Wide Sargasso Sea demonstrates Rhys’s revolutionary subversion of the authority of patriarchy and colonialism.References
[1] Evans, D. An Introductory Dictionary Of Lacanian Psychoanalysis. London and New York:Routledge, 1996.
[2] Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. New York: Popular Library, 1966.
[3] Spivak, Gayatri C. “Can the Subaltern Speak?†Postcolonialism: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies. London and New York: Routledge, 2000. 1427-77.
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