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Wide Sargasso Sea
''Wide Sargasso Sea'' is a 1966 novel by Dominican-British author Jean Rhys. The novel serves as a postcolonial and feminist prequel to Charlotte Brontë's novel ''Jane Eyre'' (1847), describing the background to Mr. Rochester's marriage from the point-of-view of his wife Antoinette Cosway, a Creole heiress. Antoinette Cosway is Rhys's version of Brontë's devilish " madwoman in the attic". Antoinette's story is told from the time of her youth in Jamaica, to her unhappy marriage to an English gentleman, Mr. Rochester, who renames her Bertha, declares her mad, takes her to England, and isolates her from the rest of the world in his mansion. Antoinette is caught in a patriarchal society in which she fully belongs neither to Europe nor to Jamaica. ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' explores the power of relationships between men and women and discusses the themes of race, Caribbean history, and assimilation. Rhys lived in obscurity after her previous work, '' Good Morning, Midnight'', was pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Rhys
Jean Rhys, ( ; born Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams; 24 August 1890 – 14 May 1979) was a British novelist who was born and grew up in the Caribbean island of Dominica. From the age of 16, she mainly resided in England, where she was sent for her education. She is best known for her novel ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' (1966), written as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë's ''Jane Eyre''. In 1978, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her writing. Early life Rhys's father, William Rees Williams, was a Welsh medical doctor and her mother, Minna Williams, née Lockhart, a third-generation Dominican Creole of Scots ancestry. ("Creole" was broadly used in those times to refer to any person born on the island, whether they were of European or African descent, or both.) She had a brother. Her mother's family had an estate, a former plantation, on the island. Rhys was educated in Dominica until the age of 16, when she was sent to England to live with an aunt, as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Good Morning, Midnight (Rhys Novel)
''Good Morning, Midnight'' is a 1939 modernist novel by the author Jean Rhys. Often considered a continuation of Rhys' three other early novels, ''Quartet'' (1928), ''After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie'' (1931) and ''Voyage in the Dark'' (1934), it is experimental in design and deals with a woman's feelings of vulnerability, depression, loneliness and desperation during the years between the two World Wars. The book initially sold poorly—critics thought it well written, but too depressing—and after its publication Rhys spent a decade living in obscurity. It was not until it was adapted by Selma Vaz Dias into a radio play, first broadcast by the BBC in 1957, that Rhys was once again put into the spotlight. Background The novel's title is derived from a poem by the American poet Emily Dickinson: Good morning, Midnight! I'm coming home, Day got tired of me – How could I of him? Sunshine was a sweet place, I liked to stay – But Morn didn't want me – now – So go ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Selma Vaz Dias
Selma Vaz Dias, also known as Selma Cohen-Vaz Dias (23 November 1911 — 30 August 1977), was a British actress, writer, and painter. Dias was born in Amsterdam to Jacob Vaz Dias and Hana Hamburger. She had a brother, Salomon. She moved to the United Kingdom, where she spent most of her career. Her cinematic credits include performances in the films of major British directors, including Alfred Hitchcock's ''The Lady Vanishes'' (1938) and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's ''One of Our Aircraft Is Missing'' (1942). She also appeared in Ernest Morris' ''The Tell-Tale Heart'' (1960). Author Jean Rhys credited Dias with reawakening her literary inclinations. Rhys had disappeared from public view and fallen into obscurity shortly after her novel '' Good Morning, Midnight'' was published, in 1939. When Dias adapted the novel for theatrical presentation in 1949, Rhys said that Dias had "lifted the numb hopeless feeling that stopped me writing for so long". In 1957, Dias's radio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diana Athill
Diana Athill (21 December 1917 – 23 January 2019) was a British literary editor, novelist and memoirist who worked with some of the greatest writers of the 20th century at the London-based publishing company Andre Deutsch Ltd. Early life Diana Athill was born in Kensington, London, during a World War I Zeppelin bombing raid. Pattullo, Polly (24 January 2019)"Diana Athill obituary"in ''The Guardian''. Retrieved 24 January 2019. She was brought up in the English county of Norfolk, in Ditchingham Hall, a country house. Her parents were Major Lawrence Athill (1888–1957) and Alice Carr Athill (1895–1990). She had a brother, Andrew, and a sister, Patience. Her maternal grandfather was biographer William Carr (1862–1925). Her maternal grandmother's father was James Franck Bright (1832–1920), a Master of University College, Oxford. Athill graduated from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, in 1939 and worked for the BBC throughout the Second World War. Career After the war, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantic Slave Trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Passage, and existed from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The vast majority of those who were transported in the transatlantic slave trade were people from Central and West Africa that had been sold by other West Africans to Western European slave traders,Thornton, p. 112. while others had been captured directly by the slave traders in coastal raids; Europeans gathered and imprisoned the enslaved at forts on the African coast and then brought them to the Americas. Except for the Portuguese, European slave traders generally did not participate in the raids because life expectancy for Europeans in sub-Saharan Africa was less than one year during the period of the slave trade (which was prior to the widespread availability of quini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White Nigger
White nigger is an ethnic slur with somewhat different meanings in different parts of the English-speaking world. North America Dating from the nineteenth century, "white nigger" was a derogatory and often considered offensive term for a black person who deferred to white people or a white person who did menial work. It was later used as a slur against white activists involved in the civil rights movement such as James Groppi of Milwaukee. The term "white niggers" was uttered twice by Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia in an interview on national television in 2001. Italian immigrants During all the 19th century until the early part of the 20th, Italian immigrants in the United States were often referred to as "white niggers". French Canadians In another use of the term, Pierre Vallières's work ''White Niggers of America'' refers to French Canadians. Irish immigrants The term was applied to Irish immigrants and their descendants. Irish were also nickn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Planter Class
The planter class, known alternatively in the United States as the Southern aristocracy, was a racial and socioeconomic caste of pan-American society that dominated 17th and 18th century agricultural markets. The Atlantic slave trade permitted planters access to inexpensive African slave labor for the planting and harvesting of crops such as tobacco, cotton, indigo, coffee, tea, cocoa, sugarcane, sisal, oil seeds, oil palms, hemp, rubber trees, and fruits. Planters were considered part of the American gentry. In the Southern United States, planters maintained a distinct culture, which was characterized by its similarity to the manners and customs of the British nobility and gentry. The culture had an emphasis on chivalry, gentility, and hospitality. The culture of the Southern United States, with its landed plantocracy, was distinctly different from areas north of the Mason–Dixon line and west of the Appalachian Mountains. The northern and western areas were characterized by s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stream Of Consciousness Writing
In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. The term was coined by Daniel Oliver in 1840 in ''First Lines of Physiology: Designed for the Use of Students of Medicine,'' when he wrote, Better known, perhaps, is the 1855 usage by Alexander Bain in the first edition of ''The Senses and the Intellect'', when he wrote, "The concurrence of Sensations in one common stream of consciousness–on the same cerebral highway–enables those of different senses to be associated as readily as the sensations of the same sense". But it is commonly credited to William James who used it in 1890 in his ''The Principles of Psychology''. In 1918, the novelist May Sinclair (1863–1946) first applied the term stream of consciousness, in a literary context, when discussing Dorothy Richardson's novels. '' Pointed Roofs'' (1915), the first work in Richardson's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Obeah
Obeah, or Obayi, is an ancestrally inherited tradition of Akan witches of Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Togo and their descendants in the African diaspora of the Caribbean. Inheritors of the tradition are referred to as "obayifo" (Akan/Ghana-region spiritual practitioners) and its priests as "bayi komfo" and "bonsam komfo", which translates to "obeah priest/priestess". According to historians, Obeah (sometimes also spelled ''Obi'', ''Obeya'', or ''Obia'') is a system of spiritual healing and justice-making practices brought over by enslaved West Africans to the West Indies. Obeah is said to be difficult to define, as it is believed by some to not be a single, unified set of practices, since the word "Obeah" was historically not often used to describe one's own practices. Obeah is the justice-seeking arm of the Akan religion, and, in its original, traditional form (as opposed to its Caribbean form), is similar to other African diaspora religions such as Palo, Haitian Vodou, Santer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Planter Class
The planter class, known alternatively in the United States as the Southern aristocracy, was a racial and socioeconomic caste of pan-American society that dominated 17th and 18th century agricultural markets. The Atlantic slave trade permitted planters access to inexpensive African slave labor for the planting and harvesting of crops such as tobacco, cotton, indigo, coffee, tea, cocoa, sugarcane, sisal, oil seeds, oil palms, hemp, rubber trees, and fruits. Planters were considered part of the American gentry. In the Southern United States, planters maintained a distinct culture, which was characterized by its similarity to the manners and customs of the British nobility and gentry. The culture had an emphasis on chivalry, gentility, and hospitality. The culture of the Southern United States, with its landed plantocracy, was distinctly different from areas north of the Mason–Dixon line and west of the Appalachian Mountains. The northern and western areas were characterized by s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, of the world population at the time, and by 1920, it covered , of the Earth's total land area. As a result, its constitutional, legal, linguistic, and cultural legacy is widespread. At the peak of its power, it was described as "the empire on which the sun never sets", as the Sun was always shining on at least one of its territories. During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slavery Abolition Act 1833
The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. IV c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provided for the gradual abolition of slavery in most parts of the British Empire. It was passed by Earl Grey's reforming administration and expanded the jurisdiction of the Slave Trade Act 1807 and made the purchase or ownership of slaves illegal within the British Empire, with the exception of "the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company", Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and Saint Helena. The Act was repealed in 1998 as a part of wider rationalisation of English statute law; however, later anti-slavery legislation remains in force. Background It is important to note the long history of efforts to end or limit the practice of slavery. In 1080, William the Conqueror banned the slave trade between Bristol and Ireland upon the urging of Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester. In 1102, the ecclesiastical Council of London condemned the slave trade within England, decreeing â ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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