"From the Postcolonial feminist perspective Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea and current situation of women in Bangladesh"
It is essential to have a quick look at the definition of feminism and postcolonial feminism, which according to the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is "an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for women and the end of sexism in all forms." Therefore, Postcolonial feminist today fight gender subjugation within their own cultures and society. Postcolonial feminists talks of racial, class, and ethnic oppressions, connecting to the colonial experience that has sidelined women in postcolonial societies. Postcolonial feminism is extremely critical of Western forms of feminism, where the women in postcolonial countries are mostly viewed as subalterns. The feminists bring in objection to depictions of women of non-Western societies as passive and voiceless victims. Postcolonial feminists can be described as feminists who have reacted against the sympathies of Western feminists and their perception of third world women and absence of consideration to gender issues embedded in the conventional postcolonial thought (New World Encyclopedia).
On the other hand, postcolonial feminism refers to the women of those countries which were colonized once by another country. It has been identified by many critics of the world that the sorrows and suffering of the postcolonial women is far more than the women who were colonized. In this paper I will review the novel Jean Rhys' novel Wide Sargasso Sea and try to focus on the sufferings of the postcolonial women. According to Kumar Mishra in his article Postcolonial feminism: Looking into within-beyond-to difference stated Postcolonial feminism is an exploration of and at the intersections of colonialism and neocolonialism with gender, nation, class, race, and tradition and culture with all traditional feminine color (129-30). It has been observed that the women of the post colonized countries have to face more oppression than they had to face before the independence of their country. Dr. Tyagi Ritu in her journal article Understanding Postcolonial Feminism in relation with Postcolonial and Feminist Theories mentioned, she has to resist the control of colonial power not only as a colonized subject, but also as a woman. In this oppression her colonized brother is no longer her accomplice, but her oppressor". (45)
In the last part of the 18th century one of the major businesses of feminist criticism was to change the literary custom. So many women writers have been inspired when Virginia Woolf has written her essay A Room of One's own in 1929. Kate Millet one of the prominent female writers of second wave feminism in her Sexual Politics analyses that the women have been sketches in the history and literature by the male writers. Women have been mentioned in the literary works of the male writes from the masculine point of view. Millet found that the sexual roles of women are repressive, subjugated, and unequal and dominated what she calls sexual politics. Her concept of sexual politics is similar with Edward Said's Orientalism where he shows the Westerners misrepresentation of the East to the West. Elaine Showalter, one of the most American influential critics of the second wave feminism. She is famous for her term "gynocritics". Through this term she emphasized the study of the female writers. Raman Selden, Peter Widdowson and Peter Brooker in their book A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory pointed out that Showalter has harshly criticized the literary texts of the female writers which are imitation of the male writers. She even criticizes Elizabeth Gaskell and George Eliot claiming that they have internalized the dominant male aesthetics standards. (135)
However, the Dominican born British author Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea has an important role in the trend of second wave of feminist criticism. Though the novel has been marked as the prequel to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre but we also find so many postcolonial feminist aspects have been emerged in this novel. Before analyzing the novel from the postcolonial feminist point of view we need to give a brief summary of the novel- Antoinette is a young girl lost his father in early nineteen century Jamaica. When Emancipation Act of 1833 has been passed and black were started to be freed. This ruins her father's financial strength. Mr. Mason marries Antoinette's mother but leave her after some day when she becomes mad. Antoinette starts her life in Aunt Cora's house and starts schooling with the other Creole girls. When Aunt Cora moves to England and we meet an unnamed person whom we presume to be Rochester of Jane Eyre. Mr. Mason's son Richard Mason offers him money to propose her step sister Antoinette. Later on we see Antoinette marries that unnamed person who starts to hate her after few days sensing the insane characteristics of Antoinette. The unnamed man whom we presume to be Rochester in Wide Sargasso Sea personified as a white greedy man who marries Antoinette the heroine of the novel without knowing her only for money. If we analyze Wide Sargasso Sea from the feminist point of view, we will see Antoinette suffering from the male dominance and oppression from the very beginning of the novel. In Wide Sargasso Sea Antoinette's husband attempts to leave her just hearing some sentence from an unknown person claiming Creole's illegitimate child. He does not go for any justification, treats her as a piece of paper and throws her away. This novel also serves orientalist attitudes of Westerners towards the Creole people. Especially the character of Rochester depicts the "Othering" attitude towards Antoinette and the Caribbean Creoles. As a postcolonial woman Antoinette conveys Spivak's question, "can the subaltern speak?" She tries to raise her voice against all the oppressive forces. The ending of her relation with her husband also convey the message that the Europeans refuge to accept the subaltern.
Carine Mardorossian in her essay Double [De] colonization and the Feminist Criticism of "Wide Sargasso Sea" iserts "Such First World and Eurocentric bias was particularly salient in 1970s feminist readings of Wide Sargasso Sea that represented Rhys's West Indian protagonist as facing the same sexist constraints and ideologies as the heroine of Bronte's imperial narrative. Antoinette Cosway and Jane Eyre were seen as two sides of the same coin: both victims of the workings of a homogeneous system of sexual domination." (81) The unnamed husband of Antoinette names her "Bertha" which suggests that he is trying to convert her from Jamaican to British. Carine Mardorossian also mentions, "He renames his wife "Bertha,"6 thus domesticating her in terms of class as well as of sex and race, and confines her to an attic, the othered space against which his English house can define itself. Antoinette resists his masculinist and imperial enterprise, however, by rejecting the ominous name and by disturbing temporal succession and contiguity. (81) In this novel we see the miserable condition of the widow in a postcolonial society. After the death of Antoinette's father her mother Annette is being accused and ostracized by the Jamaican elite society for the relation with a Spanish guy. They didn't consider her socio-economic and physical demand. It gives a clear light on the patriarchal attitudes towards women rights.
Besides, identity crisis is another problem in this novel; Antoinette is a white woman born in Jamaica. Because of her skin color she has been teased by the local people, they didn't accept her as their part. As a result she suffers from an identity crisis. Jean Rhys herself also a Dominica born author, maybe she was also suffering from the identity crisis because of her white color skin.
However, a larger portion of the male citizens of Bangladesh believe that the women are the subject of entertainment. They treat the women as the weaker part of the population. After a long history of absorption the country has got its independence from Pakistan. Mookherjee Nayanika in his article Gendered Embodiments: Mapping the Body-Politic of the Raped Woman and the Nation in Bangladesh mentions "The new nation of Bangladesh was faced with the staggering statistics of three million dead and two hundred thousand women raped in a span of nine months. These crimes were perpetrated both by the Pakistani army and their local Bengali collaborator". (39) This information clears Bangladeshi women had the same contribution as the men had in order to bring the independence. Almost 44 years have been passed since the country achieved its victory; still the patriarchal societies of the country classify the women as the "Other" part, obviously the inferior one.
Besides, the women who have been raped during the liberation war did not get the proper honor from any of the Bangladeshi government. They have been entitled as Birangona (Valiant) but there are many people in Bangladesh who neglect Birangonas contribution for Bangladesh. The children of Birangonas are named "Juddho Shishu" (war child) who sees a sidelong look from the society. Mookherjee Nayanika states, "However, reports of non-acceptance of women by their families who the state had attempted to 'marry off' through the rehabilitation programme highlight the inherent 'othering' of the raped woman and the prevalent ambivalence towards her acceptance" (49).
However, the Westerners disdain the third world feminism. They think that there is no value of feminism where dowry is a social system; most of the women are ignorant, a large number of women are dwelling in between the four walls. Rashid Rozana in her article "Bangladeshi Women's Experiences of Their Men's Migration: Rethinking Power, Agency, and Subordination" mentions that, "In order to understand the limits of the framework of empowerment and emancipation, we need to explore some of the notions of ''power'' that have emerged over the decades" (886). From the last few decades the head of the governments of Bangladesh are female but still the societies are mainly dominated by the male forces here. As a result the concept of power is out of imaginary of the women living here. So, they find themselves subjugated in front of male power. Recently, in Pahela Boishakh the first day of Bengali calendar many women have been sexually harassed by a group of miscreants near the Teachers-Students Centre of University of Dhaka. The miscreants took the advantage of the overwhelmed crowd and the grotty sound of Vuvuzela so that no one can hear the scream of the trapped women. Many people noticed the scene of that sexual violence but only few were raised their hand against it. The protestors have been heavily beaten by the miscreants. This incident brings a storm in the media especially in the social media like Facebook. It has been noticed from the Facebook status of so many people who are trying so talk against the women who have been victimized on that occasion. They argue that, why did those girls go there? According to these Facebook users, those women's clothing style was provoking the boys to touch their body. Though, so many video clips of the incidents have been broadcasted on the local televisions the police administration ignores to agree with the claim that there was any incident of sexual harassment of women on that day. This suggests that the law of the country is not that much of stronger by which the women will have the justice.
Moreover, in Bangladesh there is a large number of married couple who take decision of abortion after checking whether the baby is boy or a girl. If it is a girl then abortion is a must. Of course, the female member does not have the right to poke her nose before making this decision. Women of the country do not have choice about their marriage. They have been forced to conceive after marriage, there is no value of her will in this occasion. Most of the Bangladeshis believe, women love family, child and husband but here the women are not free to choose their option. We can relate the situation with Nawal El Saadawi's novel Woman at Point Zero where we find the central character Firdaus is also assaulted by the male forces of the society. The author sketches Firdaus' childhood when she used to play with her friend Mohammadain. "We played at "bride and bridegroom" (12). Saadawi also gives a vivid description of Firdaus's victimization by the patriarchy. It suggests that every woman conveys feeling of emotion, happiness and sadness. But the male part of the society does not allow her to enjoy her life as she likes to, rather they force her to follow the rules made in favor of them.
However, Islamist fundamentalism is one of the main reasons behind the poor status of women in the country. According to the fundamentalists women are like the consumer goods for the men. They have given fatwah (religious decree) that women should not cross the boundary of their home. They should not work outside of the home. Few days back Allama Shafi the chief leader of one of the Islamists groups in of the country says, "If a small boy is sucking on a piece of tamarind... when you walk beneath a tamarind tree... when you go by a tamarind shop in the market, it makes your mouth water; women are worse than that" (freethoughtblog.com) Not only the fundamentalists a large number of educated young people also believe in Shafi's statement. Shamsul Alam in his journal "Women in the Era of Modernity and Islamic Fundamentalism: The Case of Taslima Nasrin of Bangladesh" stated "Both fundamentalist and modernist traditions of Islam in Bangladesh are using the fatwa as a tool to subjugate and subordinate women" (433). The Islamist fundamentalists are also using fatwah to kill the women. "On June 5, 1994, the Bengali daily Ajkar Kgoj wrote that until mid-1994, five hundred cases of fatwa were reported and fifty women were killed as a result of these fatwas" (433) as Alam inserts. He also informs that, Taslima Nasrin one of the feminist woman writers in Bangladesh had been forced to be exiled in 1994 because of her book Lajja (Shame). In this book she talks about the Bangladeshi Muslim men who have raped Hindu women as the revenge of destruction of Babri Masque in Ajodhya, India. For writing this book the Islamist fundamentalists announces prize for her head. She is still in exile in India and any government of Bangladesh did not do the needful to return her motherland.
Moreover, there are lots of female workers in the garment sector in Bangladesh. The working environment is not suitable for the women. In most of the garment factories there are no day care center. As a result the mothers have to leave their baby at the home every day for a long time. Often, they experience sexual violence within their working place and outside. Dina M. Siddiqi writes in her journal article "Miracle Worker or Womanmachine? Tracking (Trans) national Realities in Bangladeshi Factories" says that, "Almost all women workers are subjected to the experience of sexual harassment (mostly verbal) on the streets, for their status as 'garment girls' inevitably place their respectability into question" (L-16). Sometimes the garment authorities do not provide salary in regular basis. This is the most in humanitarian situation for the women worker. In these circumstances they cannot clear the house rent, unable to bring food for their children. Finding no option they become bound to be prostitute. Sometimes, people assume the female garment workers as the prostitutes, especially when the return to home after finishing late night or over time duty. Siddiqi also mentiones, Combined with the conditions of work, which require late nights, travelling unescorted and often living alone, the slippage between woman as worker and woman as prostitute is Omni-present in the public imagination (L-16).
In conclusion, most of the women are in miserable situation in Bangladesh. They are deprived from the basic rights both inside and outside of their home. From the birth to the death they have been oppressed by the patriarchal society of the country. They have to face violence in almost every aspects of their life. Though, some women are trying to raise their voice against any kind of violence against women but those are not sufficient. People have to be more conscious to reduce the oppression against women. Also the women have to be more educated as well as self-reliant in order to change their current poor situation.
Hello. I'll help with parts of your paper.It is essential to have a quick look at the definition of feminism and postcolonial feminism, which according to the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is "an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for women and the end of sexism in all forms."
You need a citation for your quote. I would only mention "postcolonial colonialism" to avoid subject verb disagreement. I think you should mention Wide Sargasso Sea in the beginning since it's the subject of your paper:It is essential to have a quick look at the definition of
feminism and postcolonial feminism, which according to the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is "an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for women and the end of sexism in all forms
."(citation).orWide Sargasso Sea provides a good example of postcolonial feminism, defined as "an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for women and the end of sexism in all forms" in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (citation).Therefore, Postcolonial feminist today fight gender subjugation within their own cultures and society.
I'd reword to improve style. Here is my suggestion:Therefore, Postcolonial
feminist todayfeminism involves fighting forfight gender
subjugation within their own cultures and societyequality .
Postcolonial feminists talks of racial, class, and ethnic oppressions, connecting to the colonial experience that has sidelined women in postcolonial societies.
Postcolonial feminists
talks ofaddress racial, class, and ethnic
oppressionsoppression, connecting tothat canoccursoccur during periods ofinthe colonial experience that has sidelined women in postcolonial societies.colonization.Postcolonial feminism is extremely critical of Western forms of feminism, where the women in postcolonial countries are mostly viewed as subalterns.
Postcolonial
feminism isfeminists are extremely critical of Western
forms of feminismfeministswhere the women in postcolonial countries are mostly viewed as subalterns.Why are they critical?Your paper is quite long, so I'll stop there. I personally think you need to refocus on Wide Sargasso Sea right from the start and not spend as much time going into the details of feminism. I hope this has helped a little! 