Our Research

CRITERIA #1: 

Multiple Editions of Literary Works by Jean Rhys

An Overview of the Editions:

Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. New York: Norton, 1992. Print.

This Norton Edition was found in the college library through the Library Catalog. Finding this book was fairly easy as it was the first item that popped up on the search engine. It was neatly organized on the bookshelf. 

Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. Ed. Judith Raiskin  Norton Critical Edition ed. New York: Norton, 1999. Print.

This Critical Norton Edition was said to be in the YRL but it was not in the proper section of the bookshelf. Many librarians tried to locate the book but failed. Luckily, another copy was at the English Reading Room.

Savory, Elaine. Cambridge Studies in African and CAribbean Literature Jean Rhys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Print.

This compilation and study of Rhys' work was found in the YRL with the aid of the inquiry lab personal. The hidden gem did not come up on the search engine but was included in Jean Rhys’s section of books. 

Emery, Mary Lou. Jean Rhys at "World's End": novels of colonial and sexual exile. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990. Print.

This compilation and study of Rhy’s work was found in the YRL with the aid of the inquiry lab personal. The hidden source did not come up on the search engine but was included in Jean Rhys’s section of books. 

Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. SparkNotes Literature Guide Series ed. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2007. Print.

This SparkNotes edition was found in a local Barnes and Nobles shop.  Any editions expect this book was in the YRL. Using the bookstore’s computer, we were able to find the book easily. 

Wide Sargasso Sea. Dir. John Duigan. Perf. Karina Lombard, Nathaniel Parker. 1966. New Line Home Video :, 1993. VHS.

This 1993 video adaptation of the book came up immediately in the search engine. However, tracking it down was not easy. The library catalog listed the item to be at the instructional media library but the VHS was stored in the archives. As a result, we were not able to bring the video home to watch it. 

An Analysis of the Editions:

The multiple editions of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea are significantly different.  The 1992 Norton edition begins with a short introduction by Francis Wyndham and does not have any footnotes or pictures. In this edition, the font is drastically bigger and the writing of Rhys is the main focus of the book. On the other hand, the Critical Norton Edition is packed with footnotes and maps or images to further aid the reader to grasp the full meaning of the text. On the backside of the book multiple criticisms and papers from an array of authors on Rhys are present. Furthermore, the Critical Norton Edition contains letters written by Rhys and a background biography. The Cambridge study on Rhys is more of a compilation, containing only a small fraction of Wide Sargasso Sea.  Interestingly, the book presents a part of Rhys’s writing and immediately tries to establish connections with the historical roots of that time and spatial arrangements in order to analyze the text. Using this approach, Rhys’s works are ordered chronologically and thematically where Wide Sargasso Sea merely makes a small portion of the book. Thinnest and smallest in size, the SparkNotes version of Wide Sargasso Sea had much to offer – summaries, character analysis, and themes. The book had many diagrams and charts to organize information. This edition also featured study tools like essay topics to aid students preparing for a test. The "World's End": Novels of Colonial and Sexual Exile edition is similar to the Cambridge edition but focuses more on explaining the text in correlation to Rhys’s biography. The beginning of the book contains a timeline of Rhys’s life and writings. The compilation of Rhys’s work is ordered chronologically so that the text can be analyzed in the lens of what Rhys was going through in life and how she wrote the book. The VHS version of Wide Sargasso Sea unfortunately could not be viewed. However, it is told to be explicitly sexual and was rated NC-18.  

Although the Norton Anthology of English Literature does not contain Wide Sargasso Sea, each edition of the book carries out a different purpose. The SparkNotes version’s primary audience is for lower level students to study and prepare for an upcoming test or essay. The focus of the SparkNotes edition was not the text itself but the content of the book. The Norton edition of Rhys’s work targets those who want to enjoy and simply read the book. It contains no material relating and explaining the content of the book at a cheap price. On the other hand, the Norton Critical edition is written for scholars at the undergraduate and graduate level. It contains in-depth and all around supplementary knowledge in order to aid the reader to analyze the text. From multiple essays about the work, extensive footnotes and a biography of Rhys, the Norton Critical edition provides a wide-ranging and general understanding of the text. In contrary, the Cambridge edition is highly specific focusing only on one aspect of the book. The book is for scholars at the upper division level, who want to focus solely on the historical references and special connections within the text. The primary audience of the World’s End compilation is for those who are interested in the authors’ life more than the text itself. Going into detail on the process of how she wrote each of her works, the World’s End edition is written for those who are already a fan of Rhys.

CRITERIA #2: 

Primary & Archival Material Related to Jean Rhys

A copy of Jean Rhys: Letters 1931-1966 from the Susan Sontag Collection 

After reaching out to the Special Collections faculty at the Charles E. Young Research Library (YRL), we found that they did not possess any manuscripts of Rhys’ works or any archival material to do with Rhys but did have some copies of her published work. After looking at a comprehensive list that was sent to us of all resources related to Jean Rhys available at UCLA, we found this primary source that involved a compilation of letters written by Rhys to various friends and acquaintances. 

This item is a published version of Rhys’ Letters that have been compiled and put together by Francis Wyndham and Diana Melly. Although this is still a primary source as it consists of Rhys’ original writing and opinions, the fact that certain letters were selected for the work means that not all of Rhys’ writings were represented. That being said, it provided a great deal of insight on how Rhys was thinking and corresponding with others, especially as the letters are dated from a period during which Rhys was inactive as an author and then the time leading up to the publication of Wide Sargasso Sea. While we were not able to read through the entire text due to time constraints and the fact that we couldn’t take it out of the Special Collections reading room, we felt that this material would not only be useful for biographical work on Rhys, but also understanding the autobiographical nature of her works. 

Rhys, Jean, and Francis Wyndham. Letters, 1931-1966. London: Penguin Books, 1985. Print.

A US first edition copy of Jean Rhys’ Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography from the YRL book stacks 

This was also found through the list that was emailed to us by the librarian. We had originally requested it from Special Collections, but found they had the same US first edition in the YRL book stacks in the “PR” sections and opted to check one of those out instead. 

This item is the first U.S. edition of Rhys’ unfinished autobiography. This is the ultimate resource for understanding Rhys’ life and her insights on her own works and views. This primary source was great food for thought, and in reading about her life, we found some parallels between her early childhood and that of Antoinette’s in Wide Sargasso Sea. She talks extensively about her maid Meta, and this made us think of Antoinette’s relationship with her maid Christophine. Further, there are multiple photos of Rhys within the edition which give visual insight into Rhys’ life and appearance. 

Rhys, Jean. Smile please: an unfinished autobiography. New York: Harper & Row, 1979. Print.

A page from The Spectator newspaper from the date April 30th current fiction, including Rhys’ short story “The Left Bank” 

After searching both Online Archive of California and Digital Public Library of America to find no relevant archival work about Rhys, we thought to see if there were any articles about Rhys or her work from newspapers of her time. The Spectator has an online archive of all editions of their newspaper since 1828 and since it existed during Rhys’ time, we looked through their archive with the search term “Jean Rhys” and found a Fiction section review of her short story “The Left Bank.”

The Fiction section of newspapers from the time provided short reviews of various works written by authors of the time. This particular resource not only allows for one to see how Rhys’ work “The Left Bank” was received but also how it compared in reception to said other works. This particular piece, though short, is relatively comprehensive and alludes heavily to Rhys’ stream of consciousness style. This same stylistic device is pervasive in Wide Sargasso Sea and Rhys’ other works. 

*** Note: unfortunately the image cannot be copied from the website but one can see the full page and edition at http://archive.spectator.co.uk/page/30th-april-1927/24

"The Left Bank." The Spectator [London] 30 Apr. 1927, 5157 ed., sec. Fiction: 24. Print.

CRITERIA #3: 

An Entry in an Encyclopedic Reference Work about Jean Rhys

We found a comprehensive overview of Jean Rhys’ life by searching through the Gale Virtual Reference Library. Because we were particularly interested in finding a broad overview of Rhys’ life, we employed the following search terms: “early life,” “family,” “childhood,” “romance,” “death,” etc. Many biographical entries came up, but we decided that most all of them were too simple with insufficient information. After reading through multiple entries, we gained enough basic knowledge to strengthen our search terms. We applied more specific search terms to our research, such as "isolation" and "alcoholism." We then stumbled upon this particular entry and decided to choose it because it shared stories of Rhys’ extreme isolation growing up, emphasizing its impact on her future endeavors and relationships (both public & private). This entry allowed us to investigate the parallels between Rhys’ emotional health and her life experiences, rather than simply reading about the major events which occurred throughout lifetime. Essentially, we neglected our original desire to find a broad, basic biography once we found this specific biography, seeing as it enhanced our understanding of Rhys as an exiled writer, living in a constant state of depression.

"Jean Rhys." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2nd ed. Vol. 19. Detroit: Gale, 2004. 310-312. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 16 May 2014.

CRITERIA #4:

A Scholarly Article about Jean Rhys

In order to continue exploring the ideas about Jean Rhys’ personal life but to also include her work on Wide Sargasso Sea, we had to go through several combinations of searches through the MLA International Bibliography to come up with a satisfactory result. Just by doing the generic search of the keywords “Jean Rhys” and “Wide Sargasso Sea” presented us with over 2000 search results. In order to focus our search query and to find something that was more specifically relevant to a topic that we wanted to explore and pursue more as a group, the keywords that ultimately led us to Emery’s article on Jean Rhys’s social vision were “Jean Rhys,” “Wide Sargasso Sea,” “Power,” and “Social.” These would hopefully lead us to an article that would talk more in-depth about Rhys’s personal opinion on the role and position of women.

Through this research experience, we realized that we had to go through multiple variations of very similar search terms, in which we ended up choosing the result that we noticed happened to constantly appear as a common result. Most of us have never used scholarly engines aside from Google Scholar and JSTOR, and as a result, we now understand why MLA International Bibliography could be a preferred method in searching for journals and articles. We also realized that there is a lot more to understand about Jean Rhys’s work on Wide Sargasso Sea, let alone about her views on the rights and power that women had during the mid to late 20th century.

Emery, Mary Lou. "The Politics of Form: Jean Rhys's Social Vision in Voyage in the Dark and Wide Sargasso Sea." Twentieth Century Literature: A Scholarly and Critical Journal 28.4 (1982): 418-30. ProQuest. Web. 17 May 2014.

CRITERIA #5: 

A Scholarly Book about Jean Rhys

We acquired this resource at YRL after scheduling an appointment with a representative from the Powell Inquiry Labs. This representative walked us through a UCLA library search, using the search term: “Jean Rhys. ” Our greatest struggle came about the actual online searching, as narrowing our results proved to be tedious. After using more search terms such as “literary critique” and “literary analysis,” we found hits with titles that we were more interested in, most of which were in the PR section of YRL. We then journeyed over to the research library and located the shelf with the results. After sorting through various scholarly books (some more than others), we narrowed our selection to about 11 books, and then to about 3 that were more pedantic and persuasive in their writing. 

From this resource (and the other books under our consideration), we learned that are several critical angles that may be taken when approaching an author’s canon or just one work. From the book that we choose in particular, we learned about Rhys’ opposition to stereotypical representations of Creole women and how much of social upbringing was reflected into her work. But on a broader context, we learned to develop a kind of skepticism, when presented with various literary interpretations and opinions. And from the various footnotes, we began to fathom how much work was necessary in gathering and eliminating sources for one of these scholarly books. These types of books can provide one with a variety of eloquent and convincing argumentative interpretations of an author’s work or how identity, arguably, can enter into an author’s work.

This particular research experience of finding a scholarly book raised the question as to whether or not contemporary authors should seal up the intent of their literary works.  The thought of withholding an author’s discretion passed our minds, because the absence of a standard, correct interpretation of our author’s work frustrated us. It prompted us to think about other the plausibility of other literary interpretations about more ambiguous works. 

Gregg, Veronica M. Jean Rhys’s Historical imagination: Reading and Writing the Creole. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, April 17, 1995. Print.

Research Question & Final Reflections
After researching Jean Rhys (and more specifically, her novel entitled Wide Sargasso Sea), we began to realize that many of of Rhys' emotions and life experiences run parallel with her writing. Rhys doesn't appear to separate herself (and all of her emotions) from her literary works, causing much of her writing to read like an autobiographical source.

This realization prompted us to ask the following research questions: How much of Wide Sargasso Sea is autobiographical in terms of Jean Rhys' life? What similarities and differences do the main characters in the novel have with those who influenced Rhys during her lifetime? How "separate" must we keep our knowledge of Rhys' life when reading (and thus trying to understand) her writing?

Now that we've completed the process of researching Jean Rhys, we've determined that Wide Sargasso Sea should be placed on the syllabus in Professor Carruth's section, entitled "Literary Celebrity & Experimentation." This is because (as we've previously mentioned) Rhys' lifestyle, experiences, and emotional status are extremely evident throughout her literary works and especially throughout this novel. Her writing comes across in an autobiographical sense -- not so much in terms of the plot, but in terms of the overall mood and the common motifs of exclusion and isolation. Essentially, her writing highlights her own emotions, "celebritizing" her reactions to her own life experiences.

Like Emily Dickinson, Rhys experienced a lot of loneliness throughout her life, which is displayed in her novel, Wide Sargasso Sea, in the form of Rhys' main character, Antionette (Bertha, from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre). Both Dickinson and Rhys create characters, which may or may not represent themselves, to convey their views on life and their emotional experiences. She speaks honestly and from a post-modern perspective, much like Walt Whitman. Because of these connections, we would like to argue that Jean Rhys would fit well into the syllabus, right between Dickinson and Whitman.