Representation of racial barriers between ‘The West’ and the ‘Other’ as seen in Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea - USD Repository

  

REPRESENTATION OF RACIAL BARRIERS

BETWEEN ‘THE WEST’ AND THE ‘OTHER’ AS SEEN IN

JEAN RHYS’ WIDE SARGASSO SEA

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

  Presented as Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

  By

SISTHA OKTAVIANA PAVITRASARI

  Student Number: 014214055

  

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2009

  

REPRESENTATION OF RACIAL BARRIERS

BETWEEN ‘THE WEST’ AND THE ‘OTHER’ AS SEEN IN

JEAN RHYS’ WIDE SARGASSO SEA

  AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

  By

SISTHA OKTAVIANA PAVITRASARI

  Student Number: 014214055

  

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2009

  !

  

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Firstly, I would like to thank my advisor, G. Fajar Sasmita Aji S.S., M.Hum.for helping me to finish this with all the guidance and advices, and my co- advisor, Adventina Putranti S.S., M.Hum. for the corrections and helpful suggestions. To my thesis defense’s examiner, Elisa Dwi Wardhani S.S., M.Hum., for giving me important suggestion. Also, to my previous advisors, P. Sarwoto, S.S., M.A., and E. Arti Wulandari, S.S., M.A. Thank you very much.

  I would like to thank all of my lecturers in English Letters Department, thank you very much for helping me to know all the lessons and knowledge on literature that I highly fond of. Particularly, thanks to Pak Hir, Mam Dewi and Mam Tata. Additionally, thanks to my lecturer in Sociology Department of Gadjah Mada, Arie Setyaningrum, S.Sos, M.A.

  I would like to thank my beloved family for the loves, supports, prayers and understandings—I really appreciate it. To my dearest best friends, Eka Dina Dianti Suwandi and Theresia Dian Septi Trisnanti, thank you very much for such a great and rare friendship that I will always treasure. For my good friends in English Letters Department of Sanata Dharma and in Gadjah Mada that I cannot mention one by one, thank you all for the nice friendships that we had.

  Lastly, to all my comrade-in-arms, especially the ones in Jogjakarta, thank you for the good comradeship that we have shared so far.

  Sistha Oktaviana Pavitrasari

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE................................................................................................ i APPROVAL PAGE...................................................................................... ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE................................................................................. iii MOTTO PAGE............................................................................................. iv DEDICATION PAGE................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGMENT............................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS.............................................................................. vii ABSTRACT.................................................................................................. ix ABSTRAK.................................................................................................... x

  

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION.............................................................. 1

A. Background of the Study............................................................. 1 B. Problem Formulation................................................................... 6 C. Objective of the Study................................................................. 6 D. Definition of Terms..................................................................... 7

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW............................................... 11

A. Review of Related Studies.......................................................... 11 B. Review of Related Theories........................................................ 18

  1. Theory of Plot and Conflict in relation to Character....... 18

  2. Theory of Tone................................................................ 19

  3. Theory of Representation in relation to representing the ‘Other’....................................................................... 20

  4. Theory of Discourse and Power...................................... 21

  5. Theory of Hegemony....................................................... 22

  6. Theory of Ambivalence and Mimicry............................. 25

  7. Theory of Stratified Structures of Racialisation.............. 26

  C. Theoretical Framework............................................................... 27

  

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY........................................................... 30

A. Object of the Study...................................................................... 30 B. Approach of the Study................................................................ 31 C. Method of the Study.................................................................... 33

CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS......................................................................... 36

A. Analysis of Antoinette’s Encounter to Racial-Class Conflicts.. 36

  1. The Life of Antoinette before Marriage in Jamaica........ 36

  a. Antoinette’s Creole Identity.................................... 36

  b. Antoinette’s Creole Identity in relation to the conflicts of race and class ....................................... 41 c. Antoinette’s Encounter to Racial Conflicts............. 42

  2. Antoinette’s Marriage ..................................................... 46

  B. Analysis of Racial-Class Conflicts Encountered by Antoinette in relation to the Representation of Racial Barriers between ‘the West’ and the ‘Other’......................................................... 50

  1. Identifying ‘the West’ and the ‘Other’................................. 51

  a. Who is ‘the West’ in the story?................................ 51 b. Who is the ‘Other’ in the story?............................

  51

  c. ‘the West’ vis-a-vis the ‘Other’.............................. 52

  C. Analysis of Revelation of Hegemony of ‘the West’ Discourse towards the ‘Other’...................................................................... 57

  CHAPTER V CONCLUSION.................................................................... 66 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................ 69

  

ABSTRACT

  SISTHA OKTAVIANA PAVITRASARI. Representation of Racial Barriers

between ‘the West’ and the ‘Other’ as seen in Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea.

Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2009.

  Wide Sargasso Sea is a novel by Jean Rhys that narrates a story about the

  era of decolonisation in the islands of British colony. It depicts the failure of inter- racial marriage of a white Creole woman and an Englishman. Thus, this undergraduate thesis raises a topic on the representation of racial barriers between ‘the West’ and the ‘Other’ as seen through the racial-class conflicts in the novel.

  The aim of this research is to explore the racial-class conflicts encountered by Antoinette. Yet, the scrutiny of conflicts seek to figure out the matter of racial barriers between ‘the West’ and the ‘Other’. Moreover, the research aims to reveal the representation of hegemonic discourse of ‘the West’ in the text of Wide

  

Sargasso Sea . It is expected that this research can contribute the greatest benefit

for the greatest number of those who are interested in reading this sort of research.

  The research is conducted by applying postcolonial approach for it has the capacity to identify and understand the complex forms and effect of colonial domination in constructing hegemony of discourse in era of decolonisation. The method of study conducted in this research was the library research. Data were gathered from books, articles, essays, glossary, encyclopaedias, dictionaries, and information on the Internet. There were six steps of analysis in this research writing process. First, the close reading by focusing on the topic conveyed through the plot particularly the presented conflicts among the characters and also through the tone. The second was collecting the supporting secondary sources of related studies. The third step was examining the racial-class conflicts among characters in the efforts of representing cultural barriers between ‘the West’ and the ‘Other’. The next step was the mapping of socio-racial differentiation, and power-relations among them in order to figure out the matters of cultural barriers between ‘the West’ and the ‘Other’. The fifth step was the exploration and investigation of the text to find out the existence of hegemonic discourse of ‘the West’ over the ‘Other’. The last was drawing conclusion.

  This research figures out that the problematic Creole identity of Antoinette brings about her encounter to racial-class conflicts. Furthermore, the matter of racial barriers between ‘the West’ and ‘the Other’ is such ideological matters rooted in the racist colonial discourse that implicates hegemony. It can be concluded from the tone that the text by Jean Rhys is not free from racist mindset of Eurocentrism for it represents covert hegemony of ‘the West’ discourse. The ambivalence within text shows the existing ‘latent’ racism and Eurocentrism. This indicates the hegemony of discourse about ‘the West’ is dominating the unconscious ‘positionality’ or political stance of the text. Thus, considering its motifs and the failures, the text of Wide Sargasso Sea betrays itself.

  ABSTRAK

  SISTHA OKTAVIANA PAVITRASARI. Representation of Racial Barriers

between ‘the West’ and the ‘Other’ as seen in Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea.

Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2009.

  Wide Sargasso Sea adalah novel karya Jean Rhys yang menceritakan era

  dekolonisasi di kepulauan koloni Inggris. Novel tersebut menceritakan kegagalan pernikahan antar ras seorang perempuan Creole dengan seorang pria Inggris. Maka dari itu, skripsi ini mengangkat topik tentang representasi permasalahan seputar ras antara ‘the West’ dengan ‘Other’ yang dapat dicermati pada konflik ras–kelas dalam novel.

  Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah mengeksplorasi konflik ras-kelas yang dihadapi Antoinette. Kemudian analisis terhadap konflik-konflik yang ada ini bertujuan untuk menemukan permasalahan menyangkut permasalahan seputar ras antara ‘the West’ dengan the ‘Other’. Selanjutnya, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengungkap representasi wacana ‘the West’ yang hegemonik dalam teks Wide

  

Sargasso Sea. Diharapkan bahwa penelitian ini bisa memberikan sumbangsih bagi

mereka yang berminat.

  Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan mengaplikasikan pendekatan poskolonial karena kapasitasnya dalam mengidentifikasi dan memahami permasalahan- permasalahan berkenaan dengan kompleksitas dan dampak dominasi kolonial dalam membangun hegemoni sebuah wacana di era dekolonisasi. Metode dalam penelitian ini adalah studi pustaka. Data terkumpul dari buku, artikel, essai, glossari, ensiklopedi, kamus dan informasi dari internet. Ada enam tahapan dalam penulisan skripsi ini. Pertama, close reading dengan fokus pada topik yang dilihat melalui plot khususnya konflik-konflik antar tokoh dan tone. Kedua, mengumpulkan data sekunder berupa kajian-kajian yang berkaitan dengan topik. Ketiga, meneliti konflik ras dan kelas antar tokoh yang merepresentasikan permasalahan ras antara ‘the West’ dan ‘Other’. Selanjutnya memetakan diferensiasi/pembedaan sosial berbasis ras dan relasi kuasa yang terjalin untuk menemukan permasalahan ras antara ‘the West’ dan ‘Other’. Terakhir, menarik kesimpulan.

  Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa identitas Creole Antoinette yang problematis ini menyebabkan ia mengalami konflik ras-kelas. Kemudian bahwa permasalahan ras antara ‘the West’ dan ‘Other’ merupakan permasalahan idiologis yang berakar dari adanya rasisme wacana kolonial yang memicu hegemoni. Bisa disimpulkan dari tone teksnya bahwa novel karya Jean Rhys ini tidak bebas dari pola pikir eropasentrisme yang rasis karena merepresentasikan hegemoni tersembunyi dari wacana ‘the West’. Ambivalensi teks menunjukkan adanya rasisme dan eropasentrisme yang laten. Hal ini mengindikasikan bahwa hegemoni dari wacana tentang ‘the West’ mempengaruhi keberpihakan terhadap ‘the West’ yang tidak disadari. Maka, dengan mempertimbangkan kegagalan atas motifnya, Wide Sargasso Sea justru menggagalkan tujuan teksnya sendiri.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Literary works are product of culture produced as the result of the

  contestation of power within the realm of social practices. As noted earlier by Pierre Bourdieu, no cultural product exists by itself, meaning to say that it has such interdependence, which links it to other products of society (Bourdieu, 1994: 53). In the field of discourse, for instance, work of literature might be taken as an instrument to transfer a set of certain belief, concept, or knowledge of a dominant society or civilisation. Furthermore, the discourse is often utilised in order to legitimise kind of ‘truth’ of social constructs, produced, and reproduced through the ‘exercise of power’ negotiated in literary texts.

  Discourse itself is defined as speech or writing on particular subject at a general level. Its lexical meaning of discourse refers to either oral and written materials or forms. Since discourse always concerns about truth, it means that it plays a constitutive role. The roles play by those who seized legitimate power.

  Thus, “a discourse could not be innocent”, or a value-free concept for it is shaped by certain powerful people mostly to legitimise or maintain their established authority (Hall, 1992: 294-295)

  A political discourse of “Military dual-functions” under the Soeharto’s regime, for example, was a discourse that served the status quo’s interests to assure sustainability, politically and economically. In fact, military force was

  2 desperately needed to guard the regime’s capitalistic vested interests. By coercion, all oppositional movements were silenced and banished. The concept of “Military dual-function” was further idealised and promoted through the media and also discourse of history taught in all educational institution of schools. What happened actually is the transfer of ideological construction of meaning. So did the media since it builds a positive view to all government’s political discourses.

  Thus, discourse operates within the power, and never outside the power.

  Meanwhile, society is a dynamic realm that constructs the patterned meanings of norms and values. These patterned meanings are constituted due to the discursive formation of social relations in their practices. The complexity of such a discursive formation hints us to the systematically unfixed, dialectical, ‘nature’ of discourse, which deeply implicated in the matter of representation. This notion has been emphasized by Stuart Hall in an anthology entitled

  

Formations of Identity in which he refers to Michel Foucault’s concept of

  discourse that ought to be understood further as the particular way of representing something and the relations between them. Moreover, discourse is discursive practice of knowledge’s production through language (Hall, 1992: 291). Therefore, language is a vehicle of discourse’s agenda moulded by certain constructed representation.

  Although representation concerns about the truth (Foucault calls it ‘regime of truth’) but it is evident that it has potency to distort and misrepresent meanings (Jolliffe, 2001: 340). As what has always been said by Foucault that the truth itself is not outside power; truth is shaped within knowledge and that knowledge itself

  3 is produced and enforced within power-relation (Hall, 1992:291-295). Based on this framework, any truths from any kinds of discourses can never be innocent in a way that it was constituted from biased representations as the effect of doing such attempts to legitimise what is considered to be ‘true’ or ‘false’ based on the constructed thought and knowledge in powerful but misleading discourse. Thus, the discourse of ‘the West’ and the ‘Other’ acknowledged in the topic discussion of this research is undoubtedly relevant as the relations between them (‘the West’ and the ‘Other’) encounter colonial-imperial discourse embodied in the Eurocentric representation of the West’s discourse towards the Other as its subject.

  Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys is a novel in which it conveys a number

  themes and issues on culture such as racial and gender problems that are intersected with the socio-political structure such as configuration of class and power relations. The arranged marriage between the unnamed Englishman and Antoinette Cosway is not simply a mutual agreement; nonetheless, it shows an understanding about how economically less advantaged English man could subject a wealthier but sexually and racially inferior Creole woman. Their marital life hints us to the asymmetrical power relations between ‘the West’--represented by the unnamed husband of Antoinette—and the ‘Other’, represented by Antoinette Cosway. Later, it can be learnt deeper that indeed there are asymmetrical power relations among the ‘Other’ themselves represented through discursive racial relations between the white Creoles, the black Jamaicans, and the mulattos in the Caribbean social structure around the 1830s. Discursive race

  4 relations designate the unfixed and dialectical power relations due to the dramatic social changes occurred at that time.

  It is historically acknowledged that 1830s in West Indies was a transitional decade particularly in 1833 after the Emancipation Act was passed. This situation brought significant political implication in the change of racial structures that became ‘problematic’ to previously local dominant race of the Creoles as the ex- slave owner. The racial and social strata of the mixed race as ex-slave owner family were shifting into the disrespect position in the majority of the black people. The social exclusion towards them was inevitable as they used to subordinate and enslave the Blacks (Walvin, 1992: 111-113). The text’s historical background of the post-slavery era in the late nineteenth century of Caribbean islands highlights the dramatic impact of ongoing decolonisation.

  The dramatic impact of ongoing decolonisation with its shift to racial position-takings shows the discursive formation of power. The social exclusion is not only suffered by the white Creole but also by the White people. In the novel, we can learn that the nameless English husband is no longer the master. The local people disrespect him for he is an English man, who was the former coloniser of the islands. Actually, his existence in the islands is rejected by the Blacks and so does the Creole as the ‘local’ coloniser. The White becomes less powerful than before, and the Blacks begin to have legitimate power. Although they share the islands together, there had been barriers that constrain them. It is the Whites (the West) with their barrier in mind i.e., the colonial ideology of white superiority and supremacy. It is implicated on the way they treat the non-white people. Creoles

  5 and the Blacks are victimised by the West with racial prejudices. The language barrier also creates a distance that signifies the local resistance to achieve their identity. They interact in such a distinctive culture. Moreover, the pain of colonisation remains on the memory of local people and cannot be easily eased or forgotten.

  Important aim embodied in the problem formulation, deals with the effort to argue that Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea contains hegemonic representation. At the surface level, the novel seems to challenge racism and Eurocentrism, but on the other hand, its subtle values are affirming the superiority of ‘the West’ and textually racist. The character of Antoinette represents both the oppressed and the oppressor; her hybrid identity gives her such an ambivalent position for she herself is not free from racial prejudices.

  In conclusion, it will be worth studying to explore the representation of racial barriers between ‘the West’ and the ‘Other’ in the light of postcolonial studies since it suggests more critical, analytical, and comprehensive investigation in mapping and identifying problems. Moreover, the trans-disciplinary perspective in cultural studies paradigm as the umbrella of postcolonial studies contributes many helps in understanding the complexity of problems and in exploring the contemporary subject matters within the text. Despite of the fact that the novel captures a great deal of intersecting contemporary issues within the fields of postcolonial, post-structural and cultural studies, the writer underscores the necessity of applying the postcolonial approach towards the problems analysed in

  6 this research since the cultural context of the story depicts the era of decolonisation.

  B. Problem Formulation

  The research will be conducted in order for answering substantial problems to be explained in the analysis. The problem formulation consists of major questions below:

  1) What racial-class conflicts are encountered by Antoinette? 2) How do those racial-class conflicts encountered by Antoinette represent the matter of racial barriers between ‘the West’ and the ‘Other’? 3) How does the text reveal the hegemonic discourse of ‘the West’ towards the ‘Other’?

  C. Objective of the Study

  This research aims to explore racial-class conflicts encountered by Antoinette. Yet, the scrutiny of those racial-class conflicts seeks to figure out the matter of racial barriers between ‘the West’ and the ‘Other’. Moreover, the research aims to reveal the representation of hegemonic discourse of ‘the West’ towards the ‘Other’ throughout the text of Wide Sargasso Sea.

  In addition, the writer expects that this research further can share and contribute the greatest benefit for the greatest number of those who are interested in reading this sort of research. It is hoped that this research enables us to stimulate scientific discussions or debates among the students and lecturers of

  7 literature department. Particularly, this research is addressed to those who concern with or are interested in the acquirement of postcolonial studies paradigm as a tool of analysis with application of contemporary relevant theories in examining a work of literature.

D. Definition of Terms

  1. Representation In short, representation is the production of meanings out of the material world through some conceptual frameworks and languages. Hall says further in that representation is the production and circulation of meaning through language as a system of representation. Representation is part of important practice that produces culture within which meanings are produced and processed through the act of representation (Hall, 2003: 1-2, 15). Representation always concerns about the truth and the language. It has a capability to tell the truth, or to tell a lie, or to distort and misinterpret meanings (Canning, 2001: 340).

  Moreover, representation can be classified into surface representation and deep representation. Deep representation emerges from the visible. It can be said that deep representation need an effort to analyze. It is a representation of essences (Gibson, 1996:81-87).

  2. Racial barriers The term ‘racial barriers’ suggests the inability that prevents one to interact well with other person because racial differences put people in such a different position in social reality. According to Longman Dictionary of

  8

  Contemporary English , the word ‘barrier’ literally means “a rule, problem etc that

  prevent people from doing something, or limits what they can do” (Gadsby, 2001: 138). The purpose of using this term is to initiate the reader to the implication of problems that resulted in the emergence of barriers between conflicting races with their cultures. Since the problem and conflicts arouse and presented in the Wide

  

Sargasso Sea is rooted in the clash of civilisations between different races, the

  word ‘racial’ serves to identify the implication of asymmetrical relation between ‘the West’ and ‘the Other’ stated in the word ‘barriers’ that implies the existence of several barriers such as differences of languages, traditions, social classes, religions, values and norms, etc. 3. ‘the West’ and the ‘Other’

  ‘the West’ is the term used by Stuart Hall in his essay entitled “The West and The Rest: Discourse and Power” in which he explores the problems of representation developed earlier by Edward Said in Orientalism and its relevance to Michel Foucault’s concepts of ‘Power’ and ‘Discourse’. The underlying premise in his essay is that ‘the West’ is a historical, not a geographical construct. Therefore, ‘the West’ is an idea, a concept that allows us to characterize and classify into categories. This concept functions as part of a ‘system of representation’ for it works in conjunction with others’ set of images and ideas. The important point is that it provides a kind of standard or model of comparison. In so doing, it could explain difference (Hall, 1992: 277).

  Therefore, the elaboration of the West’s discourse is necessarily implicated in the discussion of ‘Otherness’ as the concept subjected by the

  9 discourse of the West. In addition, Goldberg proposes that “naming the racial Other, for all intents and purposes, is the Other” (Goldberg, 1993:150).

  4. Discourse At a simplest definition, discourse can be defined as speech or writing on a particular subject according to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

  (Gadsby, 2001: 507). Generally, discourse is simply language in use, either written or oral (Jolliffe, 2001: 101). However, the term discourse is found to be an evolving concept. Many theorists complicate the simple conception of discourse including Norman Fairclough denoting that it is socially constitutive and it contributes to the constitution of all dimensions of social structure. Consequently, discourse is “a practice not just of representing the world, but of signifying the world, constituting, and constructing the world in meaning” (Jolliffe, 2001: 102)

  By ‘discourse’, we mean a particular way of representing ‘the West’, ‘the Rest’ as representation of Otherness, and the relations between them, i.e. way of representing that implies particular knowledge about the topic of discussion. A discourse consists of several statements working together to form a discursive formation, and it is about the production of knowledge through language (Hall, 1992: 291).

  5. Hegemony This term refers to the formal exercise of ideology. It is explained further, by Antonio Gramsci that hegemony “is a practice whereby the ruling class achieves the consent of the governed through more or less non-coercive means”. Strictly speaking, hegemony is “more subtle and more insidious for ruling elites in

  10 a way that it often seeks consent in part through mystification and misinformation” (Castle, 2001: 505).

  6. Exercise of power This Foucault’s term emphasizes the notion that power is produced and reproduced through practices within which, systems of domination and the circuits of exploitations interact, intersect, and support each other (Wanli, 1998) <http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/ Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/>.

  Power is employed and exercised through a net-like organisation that not only individuals circulate between its threads; they are always in the position of simultaneously undergoing and exercising this power (Slembrouck, 1998) <http://bank.rug.ac.be/da/da.htm>.

  7. Discursive formation ‘Discursive formation’ is an important aspect in the term ‘discourse’. The word ‘discursive’ itself is referring to the adjective derived from the word

  ‘discourse’ (Barry, 2002: 176). In short, the term discursive formation means to explain that a formation of certain discourse is produced through the discursive practice of producing meanings. Yet, the formation is something discursive, and not fixed for it is in motion process (Hall, 1992: 291-292). The nature of discourse is never static, it is always dynamic, or dialectical that enables the possibility of changes in its formation.

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies The reviews in this section are taken from several anthologies, which

  comprise essays and criticisms that mentioned or analysed the Wide Sargasso Sea in different focuses and approaches, which and encompasses a number of complex issues revealed in the novel. The anthologies used as references in this review are:

  

The Post-colonial Studies Reader edited by Aschroft, Griffith, and Tiffin;

Postcolonial Discourses: An Anthology edited by Gregory Castle; Colonial

Discourse/Postcolonial Theory edited by Barker, Hulme, and Iversen; and

Formations of Identity edited by Hall and Gieben.

  Peter Hulme’s “The locked heart: the Creole family romance of Wide

  

Sargasso Sea ” states that it will be problematic to simply identify Wide Sargasso

Sea as an exemplar of postcolonial literature. In this case, Hulme is in an

  agreement with Anne McClintock’s view, designating the consistently undefined historical relation supposedly suggested between ‘colonial’ and ‘postcolonial’ (Hulme, 1994: 72). He proposes critical points in questioning the novel:

  Wide Sargasso Sea is a case point: a novel published in 1966, at a time when the general decolonisation of the British Empire was well under way but before Dominica, the island of Jean Rhys’s birth, had gained independence; a novel written by, in West Indian terms, a member of the white colonial elite, yet somebody who always defined herself in opposition to the norms of metropolitan ‘Englishness’; a novel which deal with issues of race and slavery, yet is fundamentally sympathetic to the planter class ruined by Emancipation (Hulme, 1994: 72).

  12 Hulme’s careful attempt in reading Wide Sargasso Sea is definitely relevant for the ignorance and indifference toward the matters stated above might end to an unreliable analysis with weak standpoints. It is indeed very important to question the ‘postcoloniality’ of the text with the fact that it is a novel that presents a white Creole woman from the settler’s family as major character instead of the black people who suffer much because of the colonisation. As for Boehmer, postcolonial literature is supposed to be a writing that resists colonial perspectives in a way that the writer undercut thematically and formally the discourses, which supported colonization such as the myth of power, the race classifications, and the imagery of subordination (Boehmer, 2005: 3).

  Another criticism written by Edward Kamau Brathwaite, a Jamaican historian and poet, also challenges the postcolonial quality of Wide Sargasso Sea considering its ‘stand’ for the Caribbean/West Indies’ postcoloniality through his essay “Contradictory Omens”. The fact that Antoinette is not part of the majority of black people becomes the central issue of his attention. The problematisation he emphasizes is that Antoinette, being similarly white, Creole, expatriate, and ‘West Indian born’, suggesting the idea that she is best described as ‘accidentally’ rather than ‘really’ West Indian (Hulme, 1994: 74). Although Brathwaite’s point of view is essentialist, his essay is able to capture the text’s incapability to represent the West Indies’ postcolonial resistance.

  However, conclusively, Hulme’s essay is a sort of comprehensive autobiographical and historical readings of Wide Sargasso Sea. On the other hand, the attempt of reading Wide Sargasso Sea conducted in this research surely

  13 acknowledged the ‘hybrid’ characters of Antoinette as the white Creole and as the descendant of a white Englishman. Therefore, this research questions the novel’s reputation as being postcolonial by problematising its ambivalence as the counter- productive quality of Wide Sargasso Sea to unmask the British literary canon’s racist Eurocentrism. The exploration of the text’ ambivalence manifest in the voice of Antoinette’s character is central starting point that leads the elaboration to the racial-class conflicts among characters in the novel. Furthermore, it becomes the basis for the presupposed thought about the existence of hegemonic Eurocentrism and racism promoted by the ‘West’ civilisations and culture (British coloniser and settler) over the ‘Other’ cultures and civilisations throughout the narrative representation of the novel that serves the tone of the novel as suggested by the author.

  Another essay by Helen Tiffin’s entitled “Post-colonial Literatures and Counter Discourse” comes up with the idea of post-colonial discursive strategies that is defined as a strategy, involving the mapping towards the dominant discourse, the reading and exposing of its underlying assumptions, and followed by the ‘dis/mantling’ of the underlying assumptions under the perspective of cross-cultural standpoint. It is a voice from the ‘local’, telling the experience of encountering imperial domination. She explains further that Wide Sargasso Sea has those qualities, in a way that it is contesting British sovereignty – over persons, place, culture and language – and reinventing a ‘hybridised’ world to demonstrate subjective nature of cultural construction of meaning (Tiffin, 1995: 98).

  14 Although it is equally true to argue that Wide Sargasso Sea contains a counter-discourse quality for it challenges the British canon by suggesting a hybridised world to the reader, it is nevertheless necessary to examine further what is said to be ‘subjective nature’ in relation to cultural construction of meaning. The hybrid and subjective nature within Wide Sargasso Sea enacts and signifies that the novel has particular interest to certain class, race, and culture. As it is highlighted earlier, Wide Sargasso Sea represents a voice of white Creole planter class woman who is in the racially disadvantaged position because of the Emancipation Act (slavery abolition policy), and then sexually disadvantaged in claiming her own economic right because of the domination of patriarchal values imposed on Victorian age.

  Meanwhile, a post-structuralist feminist writer such as Gayatry C. Spivak underscores the role of literature in the production of imperial cultural representation particularly in nineteenth century era in her writing called “Three Women’s Text and a Critique of Imperialism” (Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin, 1995: 269). In fact, this research indeed examines the cultural representation as a truly central means to convey a covert imperialism. The ‘in-between’ culture possessed by the major character Antoinette is critically noticed as Spivak states that Antoinette is “caught between the English imperialist and the black native” (Spivak, 1995: 272). Antoinette’s ‘in-between’ cultures is surely a strong evidence to carry argument argued in this research about the text’s ambivalence, that is, between criticising the West/British colonialism and inevitably internalising Eurocentrism race-conscious in seeing others who are racially darker than she as a

  15 white Creole. The text’s ambivalence, thus, is seen as a manifestation of ‘the West’s hegemonic representation implied in Wide Sargasso Sea.

  Another significant writing is written by Moira Ferguson in “Sending the Younger Son across the Wide Sargasso Sea: The New Colonizer Arrives” taken from her Colonialism and Gender Relations from Mary Wollstonecraft to Jamaica

  

Kincaid: East Caribbean Connections. Overall, Ferguson’s essay contributes a

  great deal in providing a remarkable critical close-reading comprehension of Wide

  

Sargasso Sea ; by suggesting ‘historical complicity’ that draws out important

  historical information in regard to complex relations among the Caribbean - whose ancestry was African, and the European ancestry of white Creoles’- and the white Englishman whom formerly was considered as the ‘coloniser’. As noted by Castle, Ferguson does a reading with an exploration of intertextual critique engaged by Jean Rhys in Wide Sargasso Sea towards Charlotte Bronte’s Jane

  Eyre (Ferguson, 2001: 309).

  Ferguson also captures the existence of the ‘Other’ powers by analysing Cristophine and Amelie as the powerful subalterns (Ferguson, 2001: 319-321).

  Nevertheless, the text cannot allow them to be the ‘real’ victorious winner (Ferguson, 2001: 325). Antoinette’s voice though seemed to be ‘heard’ until the end of the story, remains to suggest inferiority and powerlessness. In contrast, Rochester is fortunate for he is eventually the owner of his family’s inheritance so that he can manage a return to his homeland (England) and despotically imprisons Antoinette in the attic. Nameless husband’s villainous character is suggestively understood as the result of oppressive Victorian patriarchal norms. This is

  16 seemingly, an indication of the attitude to sympathise with his ‘dutiful’ mission to the family.

  However, the long description of nameless English husband’s contextual background to the breed of his ‘evil’ character is definitely might not be interpreted as any sort of ‘justification’ or ‘excuses’ for his falseness becomes tolerable, though, perhaps, conditionally ‘understandable’. Yet, what is conditionally ‘understandable’ no longer relevant, considering that it has oppressed and victimised women and the non-whites respectively. The text embodies counter-discourse strategy but unfortunately articulating the bourgeois vested interest and patriarchal normative values that implies Rochester as the ‘luckiest’ character at the end of the story.

  A very useful contribution is given by Stuart Hall, a prominent British cultural studies theorist and professor of sociology, through his analytical writing in “The West and The Rest: Discourse and Power” of which he theorises the politics of dichotomy to the constructed idea of the term ‘the West’ as well as ‘the Rest’. Affirming the constructed ideas in the discourse of ‘the West’ and ‘the Rest’ is certainly a simplification; on the contrary, using these terms to complicate its implication within the issue of discourse and power is strategically applicable.

  Hall asserts, “simplification is precisely what this discourse itself does” (Hall, 1992: 280). In short, the act of dividing the world into a simple dichotomy is destructive, but to avoid using those terms for scientific application is unnecessary.

  17 Similarly, other studies have utilised another term to describe the conflicting war of discourses such as Edward Said’s ‘the West’ and ‘the Orient’.

  In the study of international politics, for example, ideological war between American government and Islamic countries like Afghanistan is described as representing the contestation of power between ‘the West’ and ‘the East’. Hall’s preference to use ‘the Rest’ as his writing’s term was due to the social setting of analysis took place in New World (West Indies/Caribbean) at the age of European exploration, which affected in the construction of discourses (Hall, 1992: 276- 317). However, ‘the Rest’ is unacknowledged in postcolonial studies. Therefore, the writer prefers the term ‘Other’, which has been acknowledged and widely used in postcolonial studies. Spivak designates ‘Other’ in relation to its position of colonial subject or precarious Subjectivity (Spivak, 1995: 24). Moreover, the writer tends to utilise ‘Other’ to designate plurality and to encompass the complexity within its conception as it is frequently used in postcolonial studies.

  It can be found in many literatures that previous studies or criticisms mostly concern with the intertextuality between Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane

  

Eyre . Unlikely, this research only focuses on Wide Sargasso Sea as being

  autonomous from Jane Eyre. The above reviews reveal the works of historical and autobiographical readings toward Wide Sargasso Sea. Inasmuch, the research attempts to develop previous studies about Wide Sargasso Sea that have problematised the issue of hierarchical race relations and gender inequality.

  Specifically, the racial conflicts are seen as problem implicated from the impact of imperial expansion and major role of cultural reproduction of meaning.

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