Caribbean Landscape and the Construction of Creole Consciousness in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea

Alejandro Nadal-Ruiz

doi:10.18290/rh206811-12

Alejandro Nadal-Ruiz University of Zaragoza, Spain https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5620-8300

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rh206811-12

Keywords: Jean Rhys, Caribbean landscape, Creole identity, memory studies, Wide Sargasso Sea

Abstract

This article aims to analyse the relationship between the depiction of place and the construction of Creole identity in Jean Rhys’s 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea. My main contention is that the novel’s Dominican protagonist undergoes an evolution in her Creole consciousness, and that this evolution is manifested in her varying degrees of (dis)connection with Dominica’s nature. Accordingly, this character-narrator reflects the link between place and identity by recalling certain events belonging to her past and, most importantly, her interaction with Caribbean landscape at different stages of her life in her native place. By examining the relationship between identity formation and Caribbean landscape, this article attempts to widen the scope of literature on memory retrieval in Jean Rhys’s fiction while casting new light on the paramount role of the Caribbean landscape in Wide Sargasso Sea.

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