Subversion in the Fiction of Jean Rhys, Angela Carter and Michele Roberts: A Thematic and Stylistic Study

Subversive literature attempts to undermine those belief systems which are discriminatory and unfair. It interrogates the Establishment with the aim of defending the rights of the minority and marginalized sections of the society. It can also be used to go against common moral theories to make people review the traditional modes of thinking. The book analyses the works of three contemporary women writers: Jean Rhys, a mid-20th century novelist from the Caribbean island of Dominica, who was educated in Great Britain; Angela Carter, an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works; and Michele Roberts, also a British writer, novelist and poet who thematically attacks pretensions about morality. What is common in these writers is that they have busted the established premises about gender on which Western philosophy, myths and religion are based. The book contains a detailed study of Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, and her subversion of Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre from postcolonial perspectives, wherein the former interrogates the racial prejudices of the latter. The novel is also analysed using the critical perspectives provided by Edward Said, Karl Miller, Judith Butler and Julia Kristeva. An extensive chapter has been devoted to how Angela Carter, in her fiction, has subverted the master narratives of Western culture, including the myths about enlightenment, female liberation and unreal projections of woman as Mother Goddess. There is also a discussion of theorists like Mikhail Bakhtin, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, and Jean Baudrillard, among others. The book also takes up how Michele Roberts in her novels exposes religious hypocrisy and bourgeois morality, examines women’s relationship with men as well as other women, and reworks some Biblical myths. A comparative study of the subversive works of these three writers has been made that reveals various thematic and stylistic tools used by them to challenge the master narratives of the Western literary canon. The works of these three writers, which together span almost a century, not only reflect on the status of women in society but also provide possible means of liberating them from false ideological mansions. The book will be useful for students, researchers and teachers working in the field of English literature, especially the literature of subversion. Read more