The Dangers of Gossip in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea — Watch Episode 18 of Prof. Ato Quayson’s Vlog

The eighteenth episode of Professor Ato Quayson’s vlog Critic.Reading.Writing is up!

In this episode, the professor discusses Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, commonly known as the postcolonial response to Jane Eyre.

Quayson traces Antoinette’s path to becoming Bertha, the “mad woman in the attic,” through a series of rumors about the legitimacy of her lineage and Rochester’s eagerness to believe them. Rochester’s inclination to give credit to gossip about his wife reveals his pre-existing attitudes towards her Otherness as a Creole woman and fuels his subsequent cruelty towards her. The professor explains,

The point is that gossip and rumors are far from useless, but are the conduits through which the moral maps of social relationships in given communities are established.

Click below to watch!

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