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  • © 2020

Wide Sargasso Sea at 50

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Demonstrates the ongoing impact of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea on literature, culture, politics, and the arts
  • Connects Wide Sargasso Sea to contemporary life through interviews, brief memoir, photography, and critical writing
  • Celebrates the enduring accomplishment and contribution to literature that Wide Sargasso Sea is, fifty years after its publication

Part of the book series: New Caribbean Studies (NCARS)

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Table of contents (16 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
  2. Introduction to Wide Sargasso Sea at 50

    • Elaine Savory, Erica L. Johnson
    Pages 1-9
  3. Inspirations and Influences

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 11-11
    2. Interview with Caryl Phillips

      • Elaine Savory
      Pages 13-22
    3. Interview with Chrisila Maida

      • Elaine Savory
      Pages 23-28
    4. Interview with James Thackara

      • Elaine Savory
      Pages 83-87
  4. Sex and Gender

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 141-141
    2. #Metoo in Wide Sargasso Sea

      • Carine Mardorossian
      Pages 143-159
  5. In Dialogue with Wide Sargasso Sea

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 199-199
    2. Encryption as Transmission: The Secret Gardens of Wide Sargasso Sea

      • Patricia Moran, Erica L. Johnson
      Pages 215-231

About this book

This book revisits Jean Rhys’s ground-breaking 1966 novel to explore its cultural and artistic influence in the areas of not only literature and literary criticism, but fashion design, visual art, and the theatre as well. Building on symposia that were held in London and New York in 2016 in honour of the novel’s half-century, this collection demonstrates just how timely Rhys’s insights into colonial history, sexual relations, and aesthetics continue to be.  The chapters include an extensive interview with novelist Caryl Phillips, who in 2018 published a novel about Rhys’s life, an account of how Wide Sargasso Sea can be read through the lens of the #MeToo Movement, a clothing line inspired by the novel, and new critical directions. As both a celebration and scholarly evaluation, the collection shows how enduring Rhys’s novel is in its continuing literary influence and social commentary. 

Reviews

“The enduring power and influence of Wide Sargasso Sea is admirably served by this collection of essays … . The volume is the first to be devoted entirely to Rhys’s most famous text and will become essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the enduring appeal of the novel. … Overall, this is an impressive collection, thoughtfully assembled. It admirably testifies to the richness of Rhys’s vision in Wide Sargasso Sea, her “right-handed” marriage to Jane Eyre.” (Andrew Thacker, New West Indian Guide, Vol. 96 (3-4), September, 2022)

Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of Literary Studies and Environmental Studies, The New School, New York, USA

    Elaine Savory

  • Department of English, Pace University, New York, USA

    Erica L. Johnson

About the editors

Elaine Savory is Associate Professor of Literary Studies at The New School in New York, USA. She is the author of Jean Rhys (1999) and The Cambridge Introduction to Jean Rhys (2009), and co-editor of Out of the Kumbla: Caribbean Women and Literature (1990). A poet and literary critic, she has published extensively on Caribbean and African literature and is deeply involved in the fields of ecocriticism and environmental studies. She is also currently working on a memoir.

Erica L. Johnson is Professor and Chair of English at Pace University in New York, USA. She is the author of Cultural Memory, Memorials, and Reparative Writing (2018), Caribbean Ghostwriting (2009), and Home, Maison, Casa (2003). She is also the co-editor of Memory as Colonial Capital (2017), Jean Rhys: Twenty-First-Century Approaches (2015), and The Female Face of Shame (2013).

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access