Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Major/Program

English

First Advisor's Name

Martha Schoolman

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee chair

Second Advisor's Name

Jason Pearl

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Third Advisor's Name

Heather Russell

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Keywords

post structuralism, post colonialism, literature, Caribbean, Francophone literature, Anglophone literature, gender, race, class, narrative temporality

Date of Defense

3-27-2018

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS

RE-IMAGINING THE VICTORIAN CLASSICS: POSTCOLONIAL FEMINIST REWRITINGS OF EMILY BRONTË

by

Yannel M. Celestrin

Florida International University, 2018

Miami, Florida

Professor Martha Schoolman, Major Professor

Through a post-structural lens, I will focus on the Caribbean, specifically Cuba, Guadeloupe, Marie-Galante, and Roseau, and how the history of colonialism impacted these islands. As the primary text of my thesis begins during the Cuban War of Independence of the 1890s, I will use this timeframe as the starting point of my analysis. In my thesis, I will compare Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heightsand Maryse Condé’s Windward Heights. Specifically, I will examine Condé’s processes of reimagining and rewriting Brontë’s narrative by deconstructing the notions of history, race, gender, and class. I will also explore ways in which Condé disrupts the hegemonic and linear notions of narrative temporality in an attempt to unsilence the voices of colonized subjects. I argue that Condé’s work is a significant contribution to the practice of rewriting as well as to the canon of Caribbean literary history. I argue that the very process of rewriting is a powerful mode of resistance against colonizing powers and hegemonic discourse.

Identifier

FIDC006529

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