Resistance To Colonial Power: Hybridity And Subalterns' Voice

Jean Rhys, a Caribbean-British writer of unique multi-cultural identity, with incorruptible scrutiny and perceptive narration, presents readers the truth of the "mad woman" in Jean Eyre, a classic literary works in English literature. In her works, she tries to present the living conditions and that of those in-between and subalterns like the author herself in the post-colonial society. They are in endless search of respect and identity. In this way, they successfully subvert and deconstruct all the imposed values and ideology of the Empire.The present study focused on the identity issue and the subalterns'voice and conducted an interpretation of Rhys's novel Wide Sargasso Sea from the post-colonial perspective. In this thesis, Edward Said's concepts of cultural resistance, Bhabha's theory of hybridity and mimicry and Spivak's issue of Subaltern were employed to the interpretation and analysis of identity and subaltens'voices. As a white Creole, Antoinette was obsessed with the sense of in-between and was forced to occupy a stairwell like "the liminal space". This "in-between" position brought about traumatic experiences but simultaneously provided a vantage point for resistance against the Self/Other dichotomy on which the colonial representation was largely based. During the process of identity quest, Antoinette reconstructed her hybrid identity by combining English culture and West Indian culture. Colonists'cultural imperialism was mainly responsible to this "in-between" identity and hybridity, which, in turn served as the powerful resistance to colonial power. In addition, represented by Christophine, subalterns staged anti-colonialism resistance via their black art of Obeah, deliberate silence, body, and the violent revolution as well. Their effective resistance, especially, their voices, challenged Eurocentricism in the postcolonial world. Due to the differences within the "liminal space", the subalterns spoke with multiple voices, which constituted the strong postcolonial cultural resistance. In the postcolonial age, which admitted differences and favored dialogic interaction, these voices stood a chance to be heard and to interact with other voices.