Parodic Intertextuality in Jean Rhys’ The Wide Sargasso Sea

Abstract

This thesis entitled “Parodic Intertextuality in Jean Rhys’ The Wide Sargasso Sea analyzes Rhys’ text with unique characteristics as a feminist intertext to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre that questions the assumptions of patriarchy from a woman’s point of view. Rhys’ novel is an intertext of Bronte’s novel. The narrative in Rhys’ novel is centered on Antoinette Cosway, the Bertha Mason of Bronte’s novel and this portrayal challenges patriarchal assumptions that constructed Bertha as a marginalized and insane Creole woman in Bronte’s novel. Drawing upon Kristeva’s theory of “Intertextuality,” this study explores how Rhys shapes her text by the influence of earlier writer Bronte’s text, by inheriting different levels of intertextual strategies like in characterization, setting, symbolism and theme. Hence, this study explores how Rhys’ novel shares some intertextual similarities with Bronte’s novel by employing parodical strategies to a particular process of reading.