A Cultural Materialist Reading of Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Abstract

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, published in 1966, gives a voice to the silenced woman Antoinette, who was a victim of both patriarchal and colonial society. The novel, written to serve as a prequel to Jane Eyre, aims to destroy the Eurocentric perceptions constructed by the British writer Charlotte Brontë in her novel titled Jane Eyre against Antoinette, known as Bertha Mason. Brontë, in her novel written more than a century earlier, had given little place to Antoinette and depicted her only as a mad woman. Antoinette, in search of a female identity, struggles to find her identity after the emancipation of Jamaica. Aiming at freeing a woman of mixed race, who is stuck within two ethnicities and cultures, Rhys becomes an intermediary in giving a voice to the madwoman who was imprisoned in the attic by her British husband Mr Rochester in England. In her attempt to get rid of the oppressions she has experienced by the two cultures and to reach the freedom she desires, Antoinette finally commits suicide by jumping off. In this study, cultural materialism has been used in order to reflect the social, economic, and political conditions along the power relations of the period.

Keywords

• Jean Rhys
• Wide Sargasso Sea
• Cultural materialism
• Foucault
• Ideology

Jean Rhys’in Wide Sargasso Sea Adlı Çalışmasının Kültürel Materyalizm Açısından İncelenmesi

Abstract

Jean Rhys'in 1966'da yayınlanan Wide Sargasso Sea adlı romanı hem ataerkil hem de sömürge toplumunun kurbanı olan susturulmuş kadın Antoinette’in sesi olmaktadır. Böylece Bertha Mason olarak bilinen Antoinette’i sadece deli bir kadın olarak tasvir ederek ona çok az yer veren Jane Eyre adlı romanın öncesini anlatması amacıyla yazılan bu roman, İngiliz yazar Charlotte Brontë 'nin yüzyıldan fazla bir zaman önce yazmış olduğu Jane Eyre adlı romanındaki Avrupa merkezli algıları yerle bir eder. Kadın kimliği arayışındaki Antoinette, Jamaika'nın kurtuluşundan sonra kimliğini bulmak için mücadele eder. İki etnik köken ve kültür arasında sıkışıp kalmış melez bir kadını özgürlüğüne kavuşturmayı amaçlayan Rhys, İngiltere'de İngiliz kocası Bay Rochester tarafından tavan arasına kapatılan deli kadının sesinin duyulmasına böylece aracı olur. Antoinette, iki kültürün ortaya çıkardığı baskılardan kurtulmak ve arzuladığı özgürlüğe ulaşmak için atlayarak intihar eder. Bu çalışmada dönemin sosyal, ekonomik ve politik koşulları ile güç ilişkilerini yansıtmak amacıyla teori olarak kültürel materyalizm kullanılmıştır.

Keywords

• Jean Rhys
• Wide Sargasso Sea
• Kültürel Materyalizm
• Foucault
• İdeoloji

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