1. Caribbean Women’s Writing: Major Themes Pinchia Feng female Bildungsroman: stories of growth and development--national allegory: personal as political racial and class issues and the process of socialization “Mother Country” Vs mother land the process of education and mother-daughter relationship--usually alienation the grandmother as the positive figure

2. Major Themes 2 female sexualities stereotyping male-female relationship--the abuse and objectification of women in the Caribbean society importance of human resources, especially sisterhood the close connection of women and nature (the land)

3. Jean Rhys--Biographical Sketch 8/24/1890 Birth of Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams at Roseau, Dominica. 1907-8 Attends the Perse School, Cambridge. 1909-10 Tours as a chorus girl. Abandoned by her lover. 1919 Marries Jean Lenglet and moves to Paris. 29 Dec., birth of a son who dies three weeks later.

4. Jean Rhys--Biographical Sketch 1923-24 Meets Ford Madox Ford. Husband in jail, affair with Ford. (ménage a trois--Ford, Stella Bowen, Jean)) 1933 Divorce. 1934 Marries Leslie Tilden-Smith. 1945 TS dead. Begins work on Wide Sargasso Sea. 1947 Marriage to Max Hamer. 1957-66 Works on Wide Sargasso Sea after public interest following a radio broadcast of her work tracks her down. 1966 WSS published. Wins the W. H. Smith Award for Writers and the Heinemann Award of the Royal Society of Literature. 1978 Receives the Commander of the Order.

5. Questions for Part I of WSS What kind of mother-daughter relationship is described in Part I? What kind of racial relationship is described here? How will you describe the relationship between Antoinette and Tia? In WSS Rhys deliberately alludes to the biblical myth of the garden. How does she describe this garden? What is the significance of the garden imagery in Part I? What is the significance of the fire scene and the burning of the parrot?