Becoming-Bertha: virtual difference and repetition in postcolonial 'writing back', a Deleuzian reading of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea

Burns, L. (2010) Becoming-Bertha: virtual difference and repetition in postcolonial 'writing back', a Deleuzian reading of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. Deleuze Studies, 4(1), pp. 16-41.

Abstract

Critical responses to Wide Sargasso Sea have seized upon Rhys’s novel as an exemplary model of writing back. Looking beyond the actual repetitions which recall Brontë’s text, I explore Rhys’s novel as an expression of virtual difference and becomings that exemplify Deleuze’s three syntheses of time. Elaborating the processes of becoming that Deleuze’s third synthesis depicts, Antoinette’s fate emerges not as a violence against an original identity. Rather, what the reader witnesses is a series of becomings or masks, some of which are validated, some of which are not, and it is in the rejection of certain masks, forcing Antoinette to become-Bertha, that the greatest violence lies.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Gilles Deleuze, Jean Rhys, writing back, becoming, Wide Sargasso Sea, virtual, Difference and Repetition
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Burns, Dr Lorna
• Authors: Burns, L.
• Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General); P Language and Literature > PR English literature
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Literature
• Journal Name: Deleuze Studies
• ISSN: 1750-2241
• ISSN (Online): 1755-1684
• Published Online: 01 January 2010
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2010 Edinburgh University Press
• First Published: First published in Deleuze Studies 4(1):16-41
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher