The Discourses of Jean Rhys: Resistance, Ambivalence and Creole Indeterminacy
The Discourses of Jean Rhys: Resistance, Ambivalence and Creole Indeterminacy
The complex depths of the creole figure in Caribbean literature and culture continue to demand further exploration, inflected as they are by the long and pervasive presence of colonialism in the region and its attendant corollaries of hierarchical social separation and ethnocultural difference inflected by perceptions of race. In the work of Jean Rhys, the complex patterns and performances of cultural identity that inform her multi-layered and multi-voiced narratives betray a deep-seated ambivalence towards England, the Caribbean, and their varied issues of identity. In her explorations of the various iterations and possibilities of the creole position in Voyage in the Dark and Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys compels us to confront the transactional relationship between colonizer and colonized and the uncharted variations of racial, cultural, and national identity.
Keywords: Jean Rhys, creole, Caribbean, ambivalence, postcolonial
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