LITR / CRCL 5734: Colonial & Postcolonial Literature

Student Poetry Presentation, 2003

 “Jean Rhys”

Derek Walcott

Collected Poems 1948-1984, pp. 427-9 

Reader: Charley Bevill
Respondent:  Jessica Hayman
Recorder: Kim Herrera
June 5, 2003

Presentation

Definitions:

Sargasso – is a seaweed in the North Atlantic and gives its name to that particular part of the North Atlantic – the Sargasso Sea

calalu – means greens; it is a type of soup or stew much like gumbo but made with these greens – the word originated in the Caribbean but the greens used originated in West Africa

Charley reads the poem and gives an interpretation of the poem as it is. Jessica gives historical information and interprets the poem with this information in mind.

Question

Can the poem stand alone? Does the poem change when the historical background is introduced?

Stanza 1 line 3 – “like the left hand of some spinster aunt” – alludes to age spots; an aged photograph, old and distorted.  Stanza 2 line 10 – “wrangling to hide her from ancestral churchyards” – I remembered from Jane Eyre the two strangers, Bertha’s brother and a lawyer, crossing the graveyard on Jane’s and Rochester’s wedding day to say that Rochester was already a married man. Stanza 3 line 7 – “over a sepia souvenir of Cornwall” refers to a region of Southwest England.  Stanza 4 line 13 – “the bay below is green as calalu, stewing Sargasso.” – The bay of Dominica is green but everything has faded because photographs are so old.  Stanza 6 lines 1-2 – “there are the logs / wrinkled like the hand of an old woman” – journals or diaries written in several times and are wrinkled with time and humidity.  What started me to question this poem was the last lines of the last stanza, “a child […] her right hand married to Jane Eyre, / foreseeing that her own white wedding dress / will be white paper.”  I keep asking why this particular novel was significant to the child. I assumed the child was Jean Rhys but I didn’t have any idea who Jean Rhys was until I read the last paragraph of the forward written by Carol T. Christ in the Norton Anthology edition of Jane Eyre:

Political analysis of Jane Eyre has more recently broadened to include a consideration of colonialism in the book’s social imagination. As Jean Rhys first brought into prominence in her 1966 novel about Bertha Mason, Wide Sargasso Sea, Bertha is West Indian.

When I originally read the poem I felt it was beautiful in itself. But Walcott’s poetry goes into something deeper and I knew there had to be something else there.  With the small amount of background I had going into the poem, a vague remembrance of Jane Eyre, my reading was different than someone who had none. That interpretation of the poem changed after I read some of the history of Jean Rhys and then again after discussing The Wide Sargasso Sea with Jessica. I asked her to give information where it refers to this particular poem.

Jessica gives information on Jean Rhys’ background: she is a Dominican writer, her father a Welsh doctor, and her mother a Creole white breed, so she is a hybrid.  She wrote The Wide Sargasso Sea and gives voice to Bertha Mason from Jane Eyre – same as Achebe gives the Africans voice in Things Fall Apart. 

Jessica gives a plot summary of Rochester’s travels to the West Indies – he becomes feverous and marries not for love, but because “he didn’t want to be rejected by a Creole girl.”  Bertha’s name is originally Antoinette in the book but changes to Bertha to sound more British.  Rochester takes Antoinette to England and when she cannot assimilate he begins to tell her she is crazy, and eventually she becomes crazy and is put in the attic. 

With this background, the interpretation especially the last stanza is different.  “There are logs / wrinkled like the hand of an old woman / when grace was common as malaria.”  become the hands of Bronte.  During the time of Jane Eyre, malaria common.  Further in the stanza, “doomed to be pressed in a book, to fall / into the brown oblivion of an album / embroiderers of silence … fade on the hammock cushions from the sun.”  we see Bronte’s book traveling to the West Indies.  At the beginning of the poem Walcott writes about the “left hand” and at the end the “right hand.”  This is Rhys’ answer to Bronte, but also a report on the doubleness of self; the left and the right hand of the double-sided self. 

Discussion

Rosalyn… Creole environment in the West Indies exists … they are not Black or White … they have their own society yet a lot of times they chose to be white, but in the poem you get brown … even the pictures turn brown.

The title has all these forces.  It is just a name.  If you just read the poem and somehow ignore the title, it’s nostalgic.  The title is a challenge.  Do you know who he is talking about or not?

Yes, questions like “who is Jean Rhys, what is this about … how is this relevant” …

Charley:  Before I knew who Jean Rhys was, I thought the child holding the book Jane Eyre was Jean Rhys.  Why is this significant?  That’s why I had to go into the background.

The further I go into my studies, the more layers I uncover… you can read it both ways.

Greg: I agree.  The poem can be read both ways.  It is in the middle …using allusions as a device.

Ashley comments on the dangers of historicism

Rosalyn: Cornwall, the cliffs, horrible winds, the cold and wet is juxtaposed [sic] the outside waters, so much more beyond … puts them together for a reason… to see what the reader makes of it.

Dr. White:  You try to image yourself as this ideal reader entering the poem already knowing who Jean Rhys is and as Rosalyn just said about Cornwall … in fact Ashley’s comment is a good warning against the dangers of historicism.  Questions:  Do we have our eyes on the pages?  Am I talking about the text?  Am I refocusing on the text?

Rosalyn: I visualize while reading the poem and I’ve read Jane Eyre, so I got the idea of the poem.

Dr. White: comments on subjecting literary text to historical knowledge … with history you have more text.  Intertextuality – no text is completely on its own.   “Jean Rhys” – a poem called “Jean Rhys” that is impossible without a novel called Wide Sargasso Sea that is impossible without a novel called Jane Eyre.  It’s historical but also textual. 

Dr. White comments on the pairing of colonial and postcolonial works.  Studies increasing on rereading European texts – for example, you cannot look at Jane Eyre as just a European novel; it’s overseas expansion – how did Rochester keep up with Thornfield?  He kept it up by marrying Bertha.  Other European texts – eligible bachelors with a fortune.  Where is the fortune coming from?  In a number of cases, the money is coming in from overseas … Great Expectations is colonial economics …European literature that is already in a world setting.