HL4038 Advanced Studies in Postcolonial

Literature
Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys, 1966)

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Lecture schedule
 A) Opening

 B) Historical Setting
 C) Use of the Uncanny
 D) English social setting: Primogeniture
 E) Christophine
 F) Tragedy of Separation

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A) Opening

1) What social practices do you associate with the term

“English” culture?

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B) Historical Setting
Page 29: Novel
set ard. “1839”

- Jamaican/
Martinique (3)

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1. Slavery, Abolition & Emancipation
-- By 1750 – Liverpool was Nation’s & Europe’s preeminent
slave port.

-- By 1750s, also, 9 of 10 people in Caribbean were slaves

engaged in tasks necessary for mass production of sugar:
clearing, digging, planting & weeding land, cutting, crushing
& boiling cane, then distilling the molasses into rum &
shipping the coarse brown muscovado to refineries in
Europe.

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1807 - British Parliament passed law making it illegal for
British ships to engage in slave trade after 1 Jan 1808.
By 1820s – Cheaper sugars available on world market, esp.
East Indies, (S. & SE Asia) competing with sugar from West
Indies (Caribbean). Economic rationale for ending slavery
joins older moral/religious rationale. [coolies= east indies]

 1831-2 Jamaican revolt

 Massive uprising involving 60 K slaves; caused death of 14

whites & killing of 540 slaves. Led by inspirational preacher

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Sam Sharpe, the revolt raced out of control through western
Jamaica, with estates torched and Baptist slaves at the
forefront.

There was something new about this revolt. Sharpe, though

still a slave, personified the power of black Christianity and
the disruptive message inherent in biblical imagery. [“eternal
fire” p. 23] [“no distinction” p.4]

(Oxf. Comp. to Black Brit. History)

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Emancipation Act of 1833 (pp.3 , 58)
Slaves under 6 freed immediately. The rest become
‘apprentices’ for up to 6 years, working most of their time
(for free) for ex‐owners. [cf. Aunt Cora escapes misery]
Parliament allocates £20 million to be distributed on per
capita basis to slave owners. [cf. opening: p.3 Mr Luttrell]

“Apprenticeship” scheme, monitored by new breed of

magistrates dispatched to islands, done to meet planters'
demand for labour. But evidence of its failings abundant.

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-Under pressure from abolitionists, “apprenticeship” brought
to early end in 1 Aug 1838. And full manumission granted.

2) Violence and economic decline

From “British Colonies in the Caribbean”] [Oxford Comp. to
Black British History]

Problem of slave society

In predominantly black societies, where a rigid social
hierarchy of minority European rule was upheld with great

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cruelty, it was inevitable that rebellions occurred. Most
famous are those of the Jamaican Maroons, runaways who
established communities in remote ‘cockpits’ of the island &
conducted 2 guerrilla wars against the English.

The first, lasting from 1720s to 1740, saw first the Leeward
group under Cudjoe & then the Windward group, led by the
‘obeah woman’ Nanny, negotiate peace treaties, including

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 the right to self‐government; […] Slave rebellions of varying
sizes occurred on all islands throughout era of slavery, the
greatest number also on Jamaica. […].

 “Marooned?” (p.4, 9)

1801- Maroon raid on estate

in Jamaica during 2nd maroon
War (1795-6)
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3) Post-emancipation

 […] Black emancipation came as sugar prices plummeted,

with world production increasing by 700% from 1840s to
1890s, & in 1846 the British government equalized the
duties on West Indian & foreign sugar, effectively
abandoning its newly emancipated colonies to slow
economic decline, apart from Barbados (where planters
converted the entire island to sugar production, forcing
Blacks to work for imported food).

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 P.10 – Real change? “No more slavery? She had to laugh!”
Christophine = source of textual wisdom..

 P16 – “import labourers – coolies…from the East Indies” –

[Cf. V.S. Naipaul: Indian writer of British descent, born in
Trinidad].

[NB: The East Indies or the Indies are the lands of South (Indian
subcontinent) & Southeast Asia. In a more restricted sense, the
Indies can be used to refer to the islands of Southeast Asia (esp.

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Philippine and Indonesian Archipelago). The name "Indies" is used
to connote parts of Asia that came under the Indian cultural
sphere/influence.]

-I don’t understand,” Mr M always said” (14): Annette: “Good

in them?”

- Rochester/Antoinette – Doesn’t go into Caro’s house (37)

In contrast? Cosways/Neighbours, Antoinette/Tia?

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Economic relationship & dependence is denied:
England/London = “dream” for R (47) vs “reality”- 57

What happens when what is real (e.g., “economic

dependence”) is denied? –

Return of the repressed?

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R’s denial: P.44 – Interior of church – “All benevolent. All
slave-owners.”

So, NB: Implications of marriage as plot device?

 To assert that wealth comes from slavery, from colonies,

and post-Emancipation, from economic dominance?

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Lecture schedule
 A) Opening

 B) Historical Setting
 C) Use of the Uncanny
 D) English social setting: Primogeniture
 E) Christophine
 F) Tragedy of Separation

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C) The Uncanny
 1. Definition - See notes for session 1 (in NTU Learn)

 2) Instances in text?:

Recurrent motifs:
 Dreams: 34. Mirrors: 23; zombie (27, 61, 66) , madness

(58).

 Rumors/gossip/half-lies (D. Cosway’s letter, p.57)

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-- Compulsion to repeat:
 Parrot: (21), Overall design of bk: Antoinette “repeats”

Annette and Pierre’s fate?

 Style of text?:
 Style heightens reader’s disorientation: E.g.P7: “Tia”

suddenly introduced without preamble.

 Gossip = (Voices in the head): pp.11-12

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Lecture schedule
 A) Opening

 B) Historical Setting
 C) Use of the Uncanny
 D) English social setting: Primogeniture
 E) Christophine
 F) Tragedy of Separation

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D) Primogeniture
Def: the state of being the firstborn child.
 --the right of succession belonging to the firstborn child,

especially the feudal rule by which the whole real estate of

an intestate passed to the eldest son.

 R’s letter to father: “shabby manoeuvres of a younger son”

(39): “thirty-thousand pounds”
 Partibility – tended to undermine large estates and thereby

undermined political control of the dominant class, i.e.,

landed aristocracy.

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 Primogeniture not just means of preserving large estates
form division, but also a system of inheritance which
contributed to the existence of a politically and socially
coherent ruling class. (i.e., clash of moral versus economic
considerations)

Implications: R has to sell himself, so to speak, for money?

(loss of agency? resentment?)

Cf. “So, it was all over” (part 2)

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R’s experience: Thematic overlaps with slavery as an
institution?

Contempory implications:
A)
[https://african.business/2022/08/trade-investment/reparat
ions-for-slavery-the-day-of-reckoning-must-come/]-

B) Europe = Garden vs ROTW. = Jungle?

--- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MncHLS51uM

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 Cf. Intertext for Wide Sargasso Sea (in NTU Learn):

How might our understanding of Rochester’s motives and

actions add to our understanding of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane
Eyre’s status as a widely hailed “feminist classic”.

See presentation text – “axiomatics of imperialism” (Spivak,

cited in S. Maurel, p.107)

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Cf: (“white Creoles” 58)

“Creole” in Concise Oxf. Comp. to Am. Lit:

-- Name applied to American-born descendants of French &
Spanish settlers of L. America. The term did not originally
mean persons of mixed white & Negro blood, although this is
one of its various connotations in popular usage.

“Creole” in World Encyclopedia:

-- Person born in West Indies, Latin America, or USA, but

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of foreign or mixed descent. Generally, a Creole’s ancestors
were either African slaves or French, Spanish or English
settlers. In the USA, it also refers to someone of mixed
European & African ancestry.

NB: Creole language is a pidgin, adopted as the native

language of a community (English, French, Portuguese) &
influenced by native languages of the community's ancestors.

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Lecture schedule
 A) Opening

 B) Historical Setting
 C) Use of the Uncanny
 D) English social setting: Primogeniture
 E) Christophine
 F) Tragedy of Separation

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E) Christophine
1. Fount of narrative wisdom: E.g., Pg 10: “No more
slavery”?”

2. Name? Symbolism?

3. Progressive/Utopian thematic inflections?

 Pg 6 Annette says she “wanted to stay” with her?

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4. Obeah? [term used in the West Indies to refer to folk
magic, sorcery, & religious practices developed among West
African slaves, specifically of Igbo origin].

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Lecture schedule
 A) Opening

 B) Historical Setting
 C) Use of the Uncanny
 D) English social setting: Primogeniture
 E) Christophine
 F) Tragedy of Separation

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F) Tragedy of Separation

-- Rochester/Antoinette [Daniel Cosway’s letter]

-- Repetition of Antoinette/Tia?

 Metaphorical implications for contemporary readership??? :

 “I’ll trust you if you’ll trust me. Is that a bargain?”: Rochester

doesn’t trust Antoinette.

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For next week
Pls read synopsis of Jane Eyre and excerpts provided in NTU
Learn.

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Tutorial questions [HL4038]
Q1-3 (In groups)

1. What caused the burning down of Coulibri?

A) Plan to import coolies? (16)
B) Resentments caused by slavery?
C) In relation to B, seeing the Cosways return to high social
status ($) from a stage of impoverishment? (after Annette
marries Mason).
D) Continued political repression in post-emancipation era?
 What thematic implications do you draw from the incident?

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2. What impressions of R. do you get from first half of the
text? (up to p.63) Provide specific page references.

3. List the references to gossip and rumour in first half of

the novel. What do such depictions contribute to the text?
(consider both “mood” and “theme”).

4. In pairs (if time permits), list an additional query you

have about the text (to p.63) & propose an answer.

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