Prisms of Perception - Speech, Silence, and Racial Identity in “Wide Sargasso Sea”

Abstract

In this essay I aim to answer two questions. Firstly, whether Wide Sargasso Sea’s portrayal of black Creoles allows them to exhibit strength within the narrative. And secondly, its portrayal can be considered an authentic expression of the Caribbean by postcolonial standards. I argue that Christophine, as well as other black Creoles in the narrative, exhibit strength in their use of speech and silence. The foundation of this argument is found in exploration of the text through analysis by Keith A. Russell and Carine M. Mardorossian’s articles on the novel, demonstrating the power in speech, and silence, respectively. The paradoxical commonality of their concepts builds a solid argument for the novels empowerment, which when fused with other concepts such as Bakhtin’s “Heteroglossia,” Russell’s “Refractive spaces,” and economic racialization, have brought me to the conclusion that the historic value attainable from such works should be determined, not by the author’s race or class, but by whether they are capable of perceiving the people they chronicle as selves, and not others.

In this essay I aim to answer two questions. Firstly, whether Wide Sargasso Sea’s portrayal of black Creoles allows them to exhibit strength within the narrative. And secondly, its portrayal can be considered an authentic expression of the Caribbean by postcolonial standards. I argue that Christophine, as well as other black Creoles in the narrative, exhibit strength in their use of speech and silence. The foundation of this argument is found in exploration of the text through analysis by Keith A. Russell and Carine M. Mardorossian’s articles on the novel, demonstrating the power in speech, and silence, respectively. The paradoxical commonality of their concepts builds a solid argument for the novels empowerment, which when fused with other concepts such as Bakhtin’s “Heteroglossia,” Russell’s “Refractive spaces,” and economic racialization, have brought me to the conclusion that the historic value attainable from such works should be determined, not by the author’s race or class, but by whether they are capable of perceiving the people they chronicle as selves, and not others.