“Rewriting the Brontës. A Narrative Analysis and Comparison between Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys and The Lost Child by Caryl Phillips”

Abstract

Rewriting a text is a thorny issue regarding the meanings of adaptation and translation. This process paves the way to several interpretations of a text and the Classics are promising terrains for further investigations and experiments in a postcolonial setting. Jean Rhys and Caryl Phillips revive Jean Eyre and Wuthering Heights providing different narrative strategies, structures and issues through expansions, prequels and flashbacks. The application of peculiar narrative tools allows authors to explore certain themes and key concepts intertwining the narrative threads of both the original sources and the rewritings. Wide Sargasso Sea and The Lost Child are notable examples of adapting a Classic in order to shape a new text responding to the authors’ specific requirements. Rhys and Phillips constructed their texts by giving voice to silent characters to overturn well-known paradigms exploring themes of identity, belonging, family and otherness. On one hand, Rhys introduces the prequel of Bertha Mason’s story before her arrival at Thornfield Hall in order to dislocate her character from the stereotyped “other” of the British colonies. On the other hand, Phillips slantwise introduces Heathcliff and Emily Brontë’s stories to deepen certain familiar relationships embodied in Monica Johnson’s family’s drama. A comparison between these two rewritings allows to compare two ways of deconstructing and constructing a narrative frame by echoing cultural icons suggesting different interpretations from a postcolonial perspective.