Exploring Cultural Identities in Jean Rhys’ Writings

Using a theoretical approach and a critical summary, combining the perspectives in the postcolonial theory, psychoanalysis and narratology with the tools of hermeneutics and deconstruction, this book argues that Jean Rhys’ work can be subsumed under a poetics of cultural identity and hybridity. It a...

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Main Author: Cristina-Georgiana Voicu
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: De Gruyter 2021
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Online Access:16477
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author Cristina-Georgiana Voicu
author_browse Cristina-Georgiana Voicu
author_facet Cristina-Georgiana Voicu
author_sort Cristina-Georgiana Voicu
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Using a theoretical approach and a critical summary, combining the perspectives in the postcolonial theory, psychoanalysis and narratology with the tools of hermeneutics and deconstruction, this book argues that Jean Rhys’ work can be subsumed under a poetics of cultural identity and hybridity. It also demonstrates the validity of the concept of hybridization as the expression of identity formation; the cultural boundaries variability; the opposition self-otherness, authenticity-fiction, trans-textuality; and the relevance of an integrated approach to multiple cultural identities as an encountering and negotiation space between writer, reader and work. The complexity of ontological and epistemological representation involves an interdisciplinary approach that blends a literary interpretive approach to social, anthropological, cultural and historical perspectives. The book concludes that in the author’s fictional universe, cultural identity is represented as a general human experience that transcends the specific conditionalities of geographical contexts, history and culture. The construction of identity by Jean Rhys is represented by the dichotomy of marginal identity and the identification with a human ideal designed either by the hegemonic discourse or metropolitan culture or by the dominant ideology. The identification with a pattern of cultural authenticity, of racial, ethnic, or national purism is presented as a purely destructive cultural projection, leading to the creation of a static universe in opposition to the diversity of human feelings and aspirations. Jean Rhys’s fictional discourse lies between “the anxiety of authorship” and “the anxiety of influence” and shows the postcolonial era of uprooting and migration in which the national ownership diluted the image of a “home” ambiguous located at the boundary between a myth of origins and a myth of becoming. The relationship between the individual and socio-cultural space is thus shaped in a dual hybrid position.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-472292023-12-20T18:09:22Z Exploring Cultural Identities in Jean Rhys’ Writings Cristina-Georgiana Voicu P PR1-9680 Cultural Studies Colonial and Postcolonial Literature Caribbean Diaspora bic Book Industry Communication::P Mathematics & science Using a theoretical approach and a critical summary, combining the perspectives in the postcolonial theory, psychoanalysis and narratology with the tools of hermeneutics and deconstruction, this book argues that Jean Rhys’ work can be subsumed under a poetics of cultural identity and hybridity. It also demonstrates the validity of the concept of hybridization as the expression of identity formation; the cultural boundaries variability; the opposition self-otherness, authenticity-fiction, trans-textuality; and the relevance of an integrated approach to multiple cultural identities as an encountering and negotiation space between writer, reader and work. The complexity of ontological and epistemological representation involves an interdisciplinary approach that blends a literary interpretive approach to social, anthropological, cultural and historical perspectives. The book concludes that in the author’s fictional universe, cultural identity is represented as a general human experience that transcends the specific conditionalities of geographical contexts, history and culture. The construction of identity by Jean Rhys is represented by the dichotomy of marginal identity and the identification with a human ideal designed either by the hegemonic discourse or metropolitan culture or by the dominant ideology. The identification with a pattern of cultural authenticity, of racial, ethnic, or national purism is presented as a purely destructive cultural projection, leading to the creation of a static universe in opposition to the diversity of human feelings and aspirations. Jean Rhys’s fictional discourse lies between “the anxiety of authorship” and “the anxiety of influence” and shows the postcolonial era of uprooting and migration in which the national ownership diluted the image of a “home” ambiguous located at the boundary between a myth of origins and a myth of becoming. The relationship between the individual and socio-cultural space is thus shaped in a dual hybrid position. 2021-02-11T13:17:48Z 2021-02-11T13:17:48Z 2014-11-17 09:57:54 2014 book 16477 9783110368123 9788376560687 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/47229 eng image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://doi.org/10.2478/9788376560687 De Gruyter 10.2478/9788376560687 10.2478/9788376560687 af2fbfcc-ee87-43d8-a035-afb9d7eef6a5 9783110368123 9788376560687 140 open access
spellingShingle P
PR1-9680
Cultural Studies
Colonial and Postcolonial Literature
Caribbean Diaspora
bic Book Industry Communication::P Mathematics & science
Cristina-Georgiana Voicu
Exploring Cultural Identities in Jean Rhys’ Writings
title Exploring Cultural Identities in Jean Rhys’ Writings
title_full Exploring Cultural Identities in Jean Rhys’ Writings
title_fullStr Exploring Cultural Identities in Jean Rhys’ Writings
title_full_unstemmed Exploring Cultural Identities in Jean Rhys’ Writings
title_short Exploring Cultural Identities in Jean Rhys’ Writings
title_sort exploring cultural identities in jean rhys writings
topic P
PR1-9680
Cultural Studies
Colonial and Postcolonial Literature
Caribbean Diaspora
bic Book Industry Communication::P Mathematics & science
topic_facet P
PR1-9680
Cultural Studies
Colonial and Postcolonial Literature
Caribbean Diaspora
bic Book Industry Communication::P Mathematics & science
url 16477
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