Discourse on Creole Identity: from Ambivalence to Madness Post-Colonial Reading on Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea

Asep Subhan, Didimus E. Turuk

Abstract


The portrayal of creole identity is presented in several literary works, one of them is in the portrayal of Antoinette Cosway in Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea. Antoinette Cosway firstly is the minor character in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. The research traces the link between Antoinette Cosway’s creole identity with her madness. According to Bhabha’s ambivalence theory, creole identity possibly creates a new identity as the result of interrelation between colonizer and colonized. Based on the research, Antoinette Cosway failed to create a new identity and became a madwoman instead. The cause is the complex situation faced by her and the lack of supporting aspects for constructing a new identity.


Keywords


ambivalence, Antoinette Cosway, creole identity, Homi Bhabha

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References


Bhabha, Homi K. 2002. The Location of Culture. London and New York: Routledge.

Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. 2007. Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts. London: Routledge.

Harehdasht, Hossein Aliakbari, Muham- mad Ataee, and Leila Hajjari. 2018. Heirs of Ambivalence: The Study of the Identity Crisis of the Second- Generation Indian Americans in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Mal- adies, International Journal of Ap- plied Linguistics & English Litera- ture, 7 (2), 113-120.

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Ramazani, Jon Stallworthy and Jahan, Eds. 2006. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Twentieth Century and After. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Rhys, Jean. 1999. Wide Sargasso Sea. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/ijels.v5i1.2310

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