진 리스(Jean Rhys)의 『광활한 사가소 바다』(Wide Sargasso Sea)에 나타나는 장소의 상실과 회복

Abstract

This study stipulates how Rochester destroys Antoinette’s place identity in terms of its meaning and how she performs a ritual to bring it back in Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. The basic cause of Antoinette’s suffering is due to the loss of place identity. Her precious place in its meaning is severely damaged by Rochester who is a colonialist and at the same time, male patriarch. To destroy the meaning of a place is an epistemological violence as serious as its physical devastation. The novel depicts the contest of place identities between Rochester and Antoinette in line with the maintenance of their own self-identities. In that process, they use different types of narratives. While Antoinette takes contextual discourses to express her place-related experiences, Rochester chooses totalizing languages. Actually, in the novel there are different kinds of conflicts in relation to meanings of the two places, which are England and the West Indies. While the West Indies are in flame with the Sun, England is a country of snow. Rochester feels a threat in the West Indies and tries to hold his English place identity there. He refuses to assimilate with the West Indies and destroys their culture, history, and meanings. Rochester also denies the identity of his wife, Antoinette. She is firstly, a stranger, then Bertha, a maniac, and then a marionette, a doll. Rochester drags Antoinette out of her own place and leads her into England. He goes one step further and makes her crazy. However, Antoinette resists by setting Rochester’s mansion on fire. That is a ritual in England, a country of snow to recreate Coulibri/Granbois of West Indies her paradise.