النص
Volume 8, Numéro 1, Pages 1165-1184
2022-06-15

The Indigenization Of The Colonial Language In Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea: A Rewriting Of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre

Authors : Mechgoug Lamia . Kerboua Salim .

Abstract

Nineteenth century literary arena was mainly dominated by writers who tamed the English language and employed it to serve the interests of the British colonial ideology. However, the postcolonial period witnessed the rise of writers from the ex-colonies who sought to decolonize their culture and history from the hegemony of the colonial discourse. Accordingly, they endeavoured to accomplish their objective by appropriating the colonial language and employing it to meet the requirements of their postcolonial contexts. The present article examines the way Jean Rhys’ postcolonial novel Wide Sargasso Sea manipulates the norms of standard English as evoked in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, to come up with a new language, namely Caribbean "English." The article probes how Rhys’ abrogation and appropriation of the colonial language has contributed to the rewriting of Bronte's narrative through an indigenization of the language and the decolonization of the Caribbean native culture and history.

Keywords

Abrogation ; appropriation ; Caribbean English ; indigenization ; postcolonial discourse ; postcolonial novel