Imagined Place in _Wide Sargasso Sea_

(Image from http://estlin.wordpress.com/)

Last week in class and on this blog we discussed how Jane Eyre's ideas (and Charlotte Bronte's as well) on the West Indies and Jamaica were speculative, informed by the available travel accounts, visitors from the colonies, and news reports rather than firsthand knowledge.  Neither Jane nor her creator ever had the chance to visit the islands to decide for herself what the places were like.  This allowed Bronte to make Jamaica (at the time a subject of the British Empire) into a kind of "blank canvas" onto which she projected her fictional Mason family, and as some critics argue, her prejudices as a relatively privileged member of the British Empire.  Is something similar happening in Wide Sargasso Sea?  Consider the following exchange between Antoinette and Edward:

 Next time she spoke she said, 'The earth is red here, do you notice?'

'It's red in parts of England too.'

'Oh England, England,' she called back mockingly, and the sound went on and on like a warning I did not choose to hear. (Rhys 64-65).

Antoinette and Edward (as they do throughout the novel) are miscommunicating here on several levels.  As they ride out to begin their honeymoon Antoinette tries to share her knowledge and observations of the island she loves more than any other place.  Edward is also trying to share his memories of another island thousands of miles away that he loves and considers home.  Why does she mock him here?  What "warning" does Edward ignore?

What do you make of the other passages where England is discussed?  How does the idea/ideal of England hold meaning for different characters?  How do these passages in which the characters attempt to define/describe/discuss England matter to the novel?  How does England function as an imagined place for Antoinette?  For Christophine?  For Edward?

"You're not English, you are a horrid colonial"

(Image from whenwegetthere.com)

In the autobiographical short story "The Day They Burned the Books" (1968) Jean Rhys' protagonist recalls hearing this phrase in school from English children.  It is indicative of the tenuous position "colonials" or "creoles" face when they are not considered truly English and also considered unwanted outsiders in the land of their birth.  

Creole, as we have defined the term in class, means 1) a language that originated from contact between two or more languages; 2) a person of European ancestry born in the West Indies or Latin America; 3) a person of French ancestry in the Southern US (usually in Louisiana).  We talked today about how New Orleans is a location in the US where this mixture of European, Caribbean, Native American, and African cultures is still visible and viable.  Creole, whether it be the language, the people, or even a style of cooking, always means a mixing of cultures and traditions from several places.  This combination creates a new, unique culture--one inseparable from the often violent and oppressive history that caused these cultures to connect in the first place.

As we begin reading Wide Sargasso Sea, let's take a moment to consider how the West Indies (specifically Jamaica) is represented in Jane Eyre.  How do the characters in Jane Eyre describe the West Indies and the people who live there?  How do people from there act?  How are they like, or unlike, the English?  As a class we have already noted the reoccurring concern in Jane Eyre with finances and inheritances.  What other moments in Jane Eyre demonstrate a concern with economics?  With defining other cultures and countries?   With slavery?  Be sure to use textual evidence to back up your position.  Do you agree with Rhys assessment that "Charlotte Bronte had something against the West Indies"?

Metafictional moments in Jane Eyre

(Jane Eyre 2006 by the BBC.  Image from http://danitorres.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/jane_rochester_2.jpg)

I chose this image (from the 2006 BBC film version of Jane Eyre) for the blog today because Rochester and Jane are both looking right at the camera, and not at each other.  This direct gaze challenges a viewer and can serve to remind us that we are watching a movie.  Earlier in the semester we discussed metafictional moments, times when the text is calling attention to itself as a text.  These moments of textual self-consciousness break through and remind readers that they are engaging a fictional work.

Jane Eyre contains many such moments, the most famous one being in Chapter 38 when Jane writes, "Reader, I married him" (Bronte 498).  What other metafictional moments seem important to you in Jane Eyre?  Why?  What response as a reader do you have to these moments?  What do you think are the reasons Charlotte Bronte included them?  

Ideal Landscapes

Thomas Cole Romantic Landscape with Ruined Tower (1836)
(Image from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cole_Thomas_Romantic_Landscape_with_Ruined_Tower_1832-36.jpg)

In class today we discussed ideal landscapes, and what the landscape paintings of the Romantic and Neoclassical periods tell us about the differing views on beauty and nature people held.  What is your ideal landscape?  What about this place and the emotions it inspires make it so special?  Based on what you know about Neoclassical ideal beauty and the Romantic sublime, what aspect of this landscape "fill your mind with agreeable kind of horror" (to borrow Joseph Addison's phrasing) or has "the capacity to instill feelings of intense emotion" (to paraphrase Edmund Burke)?  Pictures please! (If it is not a picture you took yourself, please be sure to responsibly attribute the image.)

What is Romanticism?

Our recent class definition of "Gothic" was quite productive, and I would like to enact something similar here.   In class today I said that Jane Eyre is often viewed as both a Gothic and Romantic text.  But what does "Romantic" mean as a literary term?  What elements/emotions/themes does a work take up to be defined as "Romantic"?  What was going on historically and culturally at the time?  Feel free to draw on outside knowledge and online resources to construct your definition (if you go this route, please include the url for everyone's benefit).  As always, respond to prior posts when you contribute to our working definition.

Caspar David Friedrich "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog" (1818).  
Image from http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/his/CoreArt/art/rom_fri_wand.html

What does Jane Eyre tell us about Jane Eyre?

Jane Eyre is the first book we have read this semester with first person narration.  Jane is telling us her own story.  How does Jane describe herself?  What are the main influences on young life?  What experiences do you think we most formative to her character?  Frame your response in terms of the effectiveness of Bronte's narrative choices:  As a reader, what do you think of Jane thus far?  What moment(s) in the text have shaped this response?  As always, be sure to respond to relevant prior posts and use textual evidence to make your case.

(Image from http://www.fanpop.com/spots/jane-eyre-club/images/6239677/title/jane-eyre-illustrations)