A Study Of The Correlation Between First-person Narration And The Heroine’s Identity Construction In Wide Sargasso Sea

The British writer Jean Rhys (1890-1979) was born in Dominica. After the publication of her novel Wide Sargasso Sea in 1966, she got much attention from readers and critics. Because of this novel, she won the Royal Society of Literature Prize. Wide Sargasso Sea lets "the mad in the attic" in Jane Eyre come out and regain her right.The most interesting point of this novel is that Jean Rhys employs three first-person narrations. The three first-person narrations connected organically, not only avoiding the completely one-sidedness of the first-person narration, but also displaying its natural assuring influence upon the readers. Based on the modern narrative theory, this thesis intends to interpret Jean Rhys’Wide Sargasso Sea from the perspective of the first-person narration, aiming to probe how the heroine’s racial identity, gender identity and cultural identity are constructed.By analyzing the text, this thesis maintains that Rhys’s purpose of reshaping the mad woman in Jane Eyre is to show us how the white Creole people in the West Indies have suffered in an in-between situation, that while Antoinette constructs her identity, she seizes the culture speech right, which is the symbol of Antoinette’s identity. Seizing the culture speech right is critical to a nation’s distinctive culture development. And in the present multicultural world we must respect various cultural differences and promote cross-cultural communication and understanding so as to make this world a more harmonious place to live in.