Postcolonial Gothic texts? Essay

Before starting this essay, it is primary(prenominal) to acknowledge the item that the term postcompound gothic is quite difficult to define accurately. For the most de nonation informant of this essay, I forgeting be taking for granted the fact that these texts be essenti completelyy postcompound in crop, in so far as they ar texts that stomach emerged in their chip in form distort up of the experience of colonization and asserted themselves by foregrounding the tension with olympian advocate. 1 It is with this authenticty in mind that I will be formulaing much(prenominal) specifically at the Gothic elements of the atoms, which severalize the texts from opposite typically postcolonial whole shebang.Nevertheless, certain distinguishing postcolonial features will arise with bug out the essay and this will be especially explicit when I look at the contextual aspects of the pieces. Turcotte identifies the fact that it is certainly possible to argue that the generic wine qualities of the Gothic mode lend themselves to articulating the colonial experience in as practically as each emerges out of a condition of deracination and perplexity, of the familiar reversed into unfamiliar space.2 As much(prenominal), the persuasion of version presents itself mop uply though the twain texts. In massive sargassum ocean for instance, we olfactory sensation a strong smack of Rochesters alienation in Jamaica Is it true, she said, that England is standardized a dream? Because cardinal of my friends who hook up with an faceman wrote and told me so. She said this space same capital of the United Kingdom is like a cold tenacious dream both(prenominal)times. I want to foment up. Well, I answered annoyed, that is precisely how your beautiful island servems to me, quite futile and like a dream. however how chiffonier rivers and mountains and the sea be unreal? And how skunk millions of people, their kinfolks and their streets be unreal? (67) He finds it impossible to nonion comfortable in Jamaica and it is Antoinettes equivalent inability to guess England that forms a barrier between the couple. The gulf between their different punctuates and upbringings is specially patent by dint of with(predicate) this conversation and it becomes increasingly clear that Rochester fools Antoinette as alien and inaccessible to himI felt genuinely little nerve for her, she was a exotic to me, a stranger who did non think or feel as I did. (78) accordingly, we get out the postcolonial archetype of the other featuring in the refreshed. When we learn that Rochester views Antoinette in such a manner as that which is unfamiliar and extraneous to a superior subjectivity3 a certain unease is fabricated, which amplifies the mediaeval tone of the sweet. The proof endorser senses his innervation with her ethnicity, as he talks derogatively about herI did non piquance going back to England in the map ping of rejected suitor jilted by this Creole girl. (65) This prejudice seems to develop into a ample-seated worship of contamination from the Creole woman with long, dark, sad alien nub who looked very much like Amelie. (105) bring forward supporting his discomfort with her ethnic melodic phrase is the fact that he insists upon calling her Bertha, contempt her objections Bertha is not my name. You be trying to fabricate me into someone else, calling me by other name. (121)His renaming of Antoinette suggests that he wants to make her sound more English and, since she shares her name with her initiate, he likewise appears to want to discriminate her from her family and her creole heritage. Antoinette is a gaberdine creole and throughout the novel, the endorser senses that Rochester feels betrayed by his experience he has kaput(p) to Jamaica in grade to marry a wealthy heiress, whose pare is white like his receive. As such, at initial of all sight, things do appear to resemble normality for him and it is completely when he gets to know her better that the differences in their make up show through.To turn up this sensation more precisely, we need to look at an liking stemming from displacement, that Freud identified as the condition of the un chiffonierny, where the home is unhomely where the heimlich becomes unheimlich and yet form sufficiently familiar to disorient and disem authority. 4 This is certainly the situation in which Rochester finds himself and this is epitomised when Rochester begins to see Antoinette as a hiss She move her look. Blank distinguishly eyes. Mad eyes I scarcely signalised her go. No warmth, no sweetness.The doll had a dolls voice, a breathless retributory now curiously different voice. (140) Freud claimed that a affirmatory condition for the un basisny is when in that respect is uncertainty as to whether an object is alive or not and this is certainly the way of bearing in which Rochester vi ews Antoinette. Therefore, although on the surface everything appears to be normal, all the things close to Rochester fuddle a particular(a) unfamiliarity for him. The purpose of Antoinette in any case suffers such alienation when she arrives in England and is confined to her way of life Now they rescue taken everything away.What am I doing in this place and who am I? (147) The commentator senses that without her country and the things around her that are familiar to her, she has lost her give identity. The conceptions of displacement and the un whoremasterny are very disturbing in essence. They infuse the novel with a sense of unease and a sense of disturbance in the contributions that the readers can relate to. alike, in Ovando many of these features of displacement and the uncanny are seeming(a) and the disturbance and dread that this imposes on the reader is what gives this bill its Gothic overtones.The character of Ovando symbolises the imperial office staff in the bill and the fibber catch up withs the home bragging(a) Australian peoples, crushed by the colonisers. The impact of Ovando on the fabricators land is underlying and the imposition of his European culture appears to fetch to this effect He carries with him the following things bibles, cathedrals, museums libraries (3) Although these things represent the treasures of culture in their European environment, the toshteller appears to be recognising the fact that these things do not belong in their parvenu cosmos environment.Through enforcing these things on the cutting land, Ovando is conformist to what is exposit in The Empire Writes bottom as the political and cultural monocentrism of the colonial enterprise of the European world. 5 Furthermore, Ovando enforces his unearthly beliefs on the indigenouss and this becomes clear when he tries to confirm his actions by referring to fate and the storyteller states I could have brought a stop to what was an trespass to me, a discovery to him later all, I too knew of divinities and eternities and unalterable events. (4)Ovando fails to see that the natives have their own belief systems in place and his ignorance is exemplified by the fact that the narrator appears to unclutter Ovandos downfall, acknowledging his ignorance. Although he does not justify the colonisers actions in any way, there is a degree of understanding on the part of the narrator -who represents the natives that does appear to be present in Ovando To the strangers eye (Ovandos) everything in my world appears as if it were do anew each night as I sleep, by gods in their ethereal chambers (7)The narrator is acknowledging the fact that Ovando and the olympian formers on the whole failed to realise that the New World ironically named by the imperialists was not in fact new. These countries had their own pasts and their own traditions that the narrow-minded colonisers, who had their eyes half-shut (6), failed to recognise o r appreciate. Although of course this narrative is write from the biased perspective of the natives (Kincaids background supports this fact) the historical accounts of colonisation do basically support the whimsy of the blinkered imperialists.As a consequence of this and the lack of integration into native lifestyle by the colonisers, they fail to see that their European traditions are dis located in this new environment and, through imposing them, they create a rift between themselves and the natives. more patently present in Ovando is the theory of the uncanny. Standing alongside this sense of displacement, the strawman of the uncanny promotes a very frighten off and disturbing feel in the piece. Turcotte directs the notion of the uncanny in postcolonial lit in particular to the notion of physical sexual perversionwhere nature, it seemed to many, was out of kilter. 6 Throughout this compact story, everything is out of kilter in effect. For instance, when Ovando is smell at the map, Kincaid distorts reality and time utilize the fore flick of his left hand, he traced on his map a line. Months later his finger came to a stop. It was a period of time not too far from where he had started. (6) This overrefinement of time is disorientating to the reader and the narrator describes other events, which are every bit impossible.When for instance the narrator describes the protest put to Ovando about his unfair treatment of the natives, he undergoes a mold of metamorphosis But Ovando could not perk me, for by this time his head had taken the shape of a groundworm, which has no ears. (10) Although the narrator is understandably illustrating his refusal to disclose the pleas of the natives, it becomes clear that cryptograph is impossible in the story. Kincaid writes The molybdenum in which the words could be said was the moment in which the words would be true. (8) and the reader recognises that whatever is said in the story simply has to be accept ed as the truth.The author gives words an enormous meat of command and authority and, as such, the power of words in this story exceeds the govern of the reader to interpret the events for themselves. Therefore, it could be deemed that Kincaid is confiscating the power of interpretation from the reader in order to highlight the way in which power was taken away from the natives and the unease and discomfort that this creates adds to the knightly effect of the story. Morrow and McGraph acknowledge that after the 1830 and 40s the gothic became increasingly fascinated with the headland of the gothic disposition.7 This is particularly obvious in Ovando, with Kincaids in-depth exploration of the rational workings of the coloniser. The supposed superiority of the European colonisers, over the natives is apparent through the character of Ovando, who insists upon possessing the natives. Similarly, we have acuteness into the workings of the settled people. We see their bitter retros pection at their welcoming strength towards the colonisers Ovando, I said, Ovando, and I smiled at him and threw my arms open to stuff this stinky relic of a person. some(prenominal) people have said that this was my first big mistake, and I always say, How could it be a mistake to show benevolence to another adult male beingness, on first meeting? (3) Although this is not symbolic of the gothic personality in the same way that Ovandos thoughts are, the juxtaposition of this welcoming, warm attitude highlights the deviousness of Ovandos thinking, as he deliberately takes advantage of people who were lively to share their land with him. In Wide Sargasso Sea, there is no equally explicit demonic gothic personality as there is in Ovando. However, there are dark qualities lurking in two Antoinette and Rochester.With Antoinette, of course, her personality creates an amount of unease in the reader, particularly since we aware of the fate of the character she is rooted in from Char lotte Brontes Jane Eyre. Additionally, with Rochesters unease about the fact that her mother was mad (129), the reader is forever and a day stalk by the notion that she will turn out like her mother. Obviously, these anxieties turn out to be justified as we see her realisation of her supposed responsibility I was outside holding my candle. Now at last I know wherefore I was brought here and what I have to do. (155-6).Antoinette burns down the house, believing in her misery that this is her destiny. This, in itself, is quite a morbid notion that amplifies her state of hopelessness and gloom. McGraph and Morrow acknowledge that the new gothicist would take as a starting place the fix with interior entropy spectral and glowering on(p) breakdown 8 Therefore the recognition of Antoinettes despair means that, although this insight into her psyche does not mirror the abuse and gruesomeness of the gothic personality in Ovando, the extent of her despair instils a deep sense of di smay in the reader and supports the gothic nature of the text.The respective writers in any case employ various literary proficiencys in the pieces, which indicate that the texts are postcolonial gothic in nature. For instance, the entire notion of gothic literature is suggestive of horror, madness, demon, death, disease, terror, evil and weird sexual urge9 and many of these qualities are preponderating in Ovando. The imagery used in Ovando conforms to these horrific characteristics customary in gothic literature and the physical appearance of Ovando corresponds to this in particularNot a ragtime of flesh was left on his finger cymbals he was a complete skeleton except for his brain, which remained, and was growing smaller by the millennium. He stank (3) This gruesome image of Ovando can only provoke horror and beat back in the reader and the nightmarish qualities of such gothic literature present themselves clearly here. Similarly, the physical appearance of Ovando continues to worsen into the form of the dumbfound He had also grown horns on either side of his head, and from these he hung various instruments of torture his dialect he make forked. (9)This demonic image is maybe one of the darkest images that can be cadaverous upon and, as such, Kincaid is portraying the character of Ovando in the most evil way possible. The idea that he personally made his tongue forked also draws to mind images of masochism that, a evolve, are dark in nature. This use of computer graphic and disturbing imagery draws all the qualities of horror, madness, monstrosity together to form a deeply disturbing text conforming to the conventions of gothic writing. The structure of Ovando also allows the piece to add up into the genre of gothic literature successfully.The piece is phantasmagoric in that it has no frozen(p) structure and it moves through the action with no real sense of succession at all. Events do not lead into one another, nevertheless the reader gets the sense of dreamlike disorderliness with the physical world constantly changing. It is this constant flux in the story that creates a disturbing sense of disorder in the piece, which, no doubt, reflects the disorder created by the invasion of the colonisers. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys uses some very graphic images that are disturbing in nature and as such conform to the gothic style.During the fire, we gather up Antoinettes retelling of events, as she realises that their pet parrot is stuck in the burning house I opened my eyes, everybody was looking up and pointing at Coco on the glacis railings with his feathers alight. He made an effort to fly down but his clipped wings failed him and he uncivilised down screeching. He was all on fire. (36) This horrific image of the bird being burned alive equates to the burning images of the devil in Ovando and highlights the notion of worthless in the text.The colonial experience clearly caused suffering and anguish and this conveyance of perturb is an in force(p) means of expressing this. Rhys also refers frequently to the notion of obeah, which relates to black magic and spirit theft. Antoinette accuses Rochester of obeah, through trying to change her name, but she is also guilty of its practice when she puts a love potion in his wine. This exploration of the unknown and the ghosts that Christophine knows about, although that is not what she calls them (113) creates an eerie and supernatural dimension in the piece.The use of such ideas by Rhys is amenable with the daunting elements that define the gothic genre. In Ovando in particular, the gothic literary proficiency of inversion is also employed throughout. McGraph and nitty-gritty identify the use of inversion as a gothic effect, where terror and irrationality subverted consensus and rationality, where choler was transformed into disgust, love turned to hatred and undecomposed engendered evil. 10 The narrator appears to acknowledge throughout that good c an engender evil. When Ovando arrived on the island, of course, the narrator was intent to accept himFor I loved him then, not the way I would love my mother, or my child, but with that more general and intuitive kind of love that I feel when I see any human being. (3) The good in Ovando, however, is overtaken by greed and self-love, epitomised in the masturbation episode where Ovando piano passes his hands down his own back, through the crevices of his private parts (11-12). Therefore, the reader senses that the imperial powers were all subjected to this inversion driven by greed in effect, and this literary technique is an effectual way of mirroring this inversion of good to bad in human beings.Similarly in Wide Sargasso Sea, some of these features of inversion can also seen to be employed by Rhys. Rochesters impairment feelings towards Antionette indicate this and such an overturn in emotions that epitomises the gothic tone and alteration from passion to disgust can be s een when Rochester sleeps with Amelie. No sooner has he slept with her, did he begin to feel discontented with her appearance her skin was darker, her lips thicker than I had thought I had no wish to touch her and she knew it, for she got up at once and began to dress. (115-6)His darkest fears appear to surface through her, with his acknowledgement of how native she looks and the hint that he worries further that she could be related to Antoinette. Having antecedently stated Perhaps they are related, I thought. Its possible, its even presumable in this damned place. (105) -the way in which he sees her this morning strongly rouses the implanted fear of incestuous relations in him. These issues in themselves are dark and gothic in that sense, although the fact that these issues are only hinted at makes them far more dour in some respects.Looking at the works from a contextual perspective, it is provoke to see that Gelder concludes that Postcolonial nations can re-animate the t raumas of their colonial pasts to come Gothic narratives. 11 This can be seen explicitly in Ovando through the character of Frey Nicolas de Ovando. Although he appears to be a sour character, he was undoubtedly named after a sixteenth century governor in the Dominican Republic. Friar Nicolas de Ovando was governor from 1502 to 1509 and during this time, he was renowned for his cruel treatment of the native Taino commonwealth.It is reported that, in order to gain more power over the tribes, he arranged a feast for the tribe chiefs and then burnt down the house where it was held. Furthermore, any people who survived the fire were tortured and killed. There is no question that Kincaids character was created in direct reference to him and the cruelty of the character of Ovando in her novel supports this fact One morning, Ovando arose from his bed. Assisted by people he had forcibly placed in various stages of social and spiritual degradation (9)This demonstrates explicitly the blame that Kincaid attributes to Ovando for the pain and suffering caused. She dispels any notions of fate or necessity and lays the burden on the shoulder of the one character who, in appendage to clearly being the general described above, broadly represents the imperial nations. It is clear that Kincaid is tipple upon real life horrors for her story and Turcotte identifies this technique From its inception the Gothic has dealt with fears and themes which are autochthonous in the colonial experience isolation, entrapment, fear of pursuit and fear of the unknown.12 Therefore we see that the gothic genre is particularly apt for expressing the distresses caused by the assist of colonisation. This process of the re-animation of traumas from peoples colonial pasts is reiterate in a sense through Rhyss Wide Sargasso Sea. She is retelling a Gothic story that already exists in Jane Eyre, giving depth and, indeed, a life to Rochesters mad wife in the attic. Spivak recognises that Rhys take s Brontes Jane Eyre and rewrites a canonical English text within the European novelistic tradition in the interest of the white Creole rather than the native.13 This would suggest that, just as the madwoman in the attic has no voice in Jane Eyre, neither does the colonise persons in colonial and postcolonial literature. Therefore, Rhys is giving them the voice they have been deprived of. Many things point to the fact that this was her deliberate intention and we can assume that her personal reward from doing such a thing is clear when we hear other accounts of prejudice in her works I had discovered that if I called myself English they would snub me haughtily Youre not English youre a horrificcolonial. 14 Jean Rhys was a white Creole like this character and, as such, the closeness of the character to the novelist makes it difficult to detach the two. Therefore, it is clear that the gothic genre for Rhys is an effective means of conveying the personal trauma she has experienced as a issuing of prejudice, stemming from colonisation. In conclusion, it is clear to see that these texts can be defined as postcolonial gothic. As postcolonial texts, they also possess many of the distinguishing features of gothic texts.The aptness of the gothic genre as a means of reiterating colonial pasts is evident throughout, as the horror and disruption that it conveys so well is symbolic of the anxiety and heartbreak that the process of colonisation created for those people ensnared in its progression.Bibliography Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, Helen Tiffin. The Empire Writes Back surmise and Practice in Postcolonial Literatures. London Routledge. 1989. ed. Athill, Diana. The daylight They Burned the accommodates in The Collected unawares Stories of Jean Rhys. New York W. W. Norton. 1968. Boehmer, Elleke. Colonial and Postcolonial Literature.Oxford Oxford University Press. 1995. Ed. Childs, Peter. Post-Colonial scheme and English Literature A Reader. Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press. 1999. Gelder, Ken. Postcolonial Gothic in The Handbook to Gothic Literature. ed. Mulvey-Roberts, Marie. Basingstoke Macmillan. 1998. Kincaid, Jamaica. Ovando in The Picador Book of the New Gothic. A collecting of contemporary Gothic Fiction. ed. Mcgraph, Patrick Morrow, Bradford. London Picador. 1992. ed. McGraph, Patrick, Bradford Morrow. The Picador Book of the New Gothic. A Collection of Contemporary Gothic Fiction.