with
your suggestions. This page last revised 7 May 1997
Angier, Carole. Jean Rhys. Lives of Modern Women Ser. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985. A biography of the writer interwoven with criticism of her stories. Explicit links made between her biography and her fiction.
Ashdown, Peter and Francis Humphreys. Caribbean Revision History for CXC. London: Macmillan, 1988. School textbook with clear introduction to Caribbean history. Themes covered include "Adjustments to the Problems of Emancipation, 1838-76".
Azim, Firdous. The Colonial Rise of the Novel. London: Routledge, 1993. Azim makes clear how the novel as a genre silenced and excluded women and writers of colour. Using postcolonial and feminist criticism, Azim examines texts by Brontë, including the colonial motifs in her juvenile literature.
Blackburn, Robin. The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery: 1776-1848. London: Verso, 1988. Excellent discussion of the origins of slavery and the slow process which led to its abolition.
Blassingame, John. The Slave Community. New York: Oxford UP, 1972. Discusses the power relations between slaves and masters, and the possibility of subversion through the construction of a psychological defence against total submission to the master.
Curtin, Philip D. The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex: Essays in Atlantic History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Extremely detailed account of the history of the slave trade. Useful discussion of the post- emancipation period.
DuPlessis, Rachel Blau. Writing Beyond the Ending: Narrative Strategies of Twentieth Century Women Writers. Bloomington: Indiana UP. 1985. Brief reference to Wide Sargasso Sea (45-6). Discusses the problematic nature of narrative closure and sees Wide Sargasso Sea as an example of "writing beyond the ending."
Ferguson, Moira. Colonialism and Gender Relations from Mary Wollstonecraft to Jamaica Kincaid. New York: Columbia U P, 1993. An examination of the connections between gender and colonial relations in texts by British writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and Caribbean writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including Jean Rhys.
Fergusson, James. Far from Paradise: An Introduction to Caribbean Development. London: Latin American Bureau, 1990. Extremely useful discussion of the contemporary Caribbean and its problems, including migration and U.S. cultural hegemony.
Hurbon, Laennec. Voodoo: Truth and Fantasy. London: Thames and Hudson, 1995. Discusses the power of voodoo to lend cultural cohesion to the slaves, and the wealth of its myths and rites.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica. New York: Harper and Row, 1990. An account of a visit made by Hurston, the famous anthropologist, to Haiti and Jamaica in search of information about voodoo rituals, trances and beliefs.
James, Louis. Jean Rhys. London: Longman, 1978. Biography followed by useful in- depth discussion of Wide Sargasso Sea.
MacDonald, Robert H. The Language of Empire: Myths and Metaphors of Popular Imperialism, 1880-1918. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1994. Describes how the Empire was constructed, given shape and meaning, for its contemporaries. Focuses on both the face of empire as it was presented to the public, and the lives of individuals, exploring how the idea of empire gave meaning to the actions of its participants.
Roe, Sue. "The Shadow of Light:The Symbolic Underworld of Jean Rhys," in Roe, Sue ed. Women Reading Women's Writing. Brighton: Harvester, 1987. 229-64. Discusses the chronic submissiveness of the Rhys heroine. Wide Sargasso Sea discussed at end of article.
Staley, Thomas F. Jean Rhys: A Critical Study. London: Macmillan, 1979. Discusses each of her longer works. Suggests that comparison with Jane Eyre, though fruitful, can close off other areas of inquiry.
Sutton, Paul. ed. Europe and the Caribbean. London: Macmillan, 1991. Discusses the continuing influence of Europe on the Caribbean in terms of social and cultural legacies.
This project was completed under the direction of Dr Leon Litvack as a requirement for the MA degree in Modern Literary Studies at the Queen's University of Belfast. The site is evolving and will include contributions from future generations of MA students on other writers and themes.
This page was written by Eimer Page. Please e-mail me with your comments.
The Imperial Archive Project is
supervised by Leon Litvack. E-mail
me with
your suggestions.
