Year-end Sale % OFF 
Abstract
The following article discusses Gabriel García Márquez’s Of Love and Other Demons and Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. Specifically, this article will discuss the parallel ways that two novels critique the nature of postcolonial development in the Caribbean, particularly in regard to race and hybridity. Within the novels, the child protagonists and their African/black creole nursemaids follow surprisingly similar plots, though the settings, contexts, and styles of the two texts differ greatly. In these two novels while the white protagonists both die because of their hybrid navigation of their environment, their nurse/mothers survive, largely because of their maintenance of African practices. In many ways, the nurse mothers’ survival and attempts to heal their charges present potential antidotes for the “disease” produced by slavery. The purpose of this paper is to explore those parallel developments in plot, and to look at the ways the two texts disrupt and reinforce colonial hegemonic norms through their depictions of both the nurses and their charges.
Highlights
A Soul That Was Healthy and at PeaceThe primary action in Of Love and Other Demons takes place in the port town of Cartagena de Indias, in New Granada, Colombia
After the death of Dominga De Adviento, García Márquez describes Sierva María’s decrepit parents’ irrational attempts to improve upon Sierva María’s condition, despite her demonstrated wellness. Throughout this process, Bernarda reenacts the colonial acts of slavery upon Sierva María, as she removes Sierva María from her home and replaces her African languages and songs with
While the authors of Of Love and Other Demons and Wide Sargasso Sea critique colonialist structures through their depiction of the mental and physical illness of colonial society and the potential for wellness found in the African Other of the Caribbean, the contrasting fates of the white protagonists and black nurse mothers imply a that such progress only occurs in the acquisition of whiteness
Summary
The primary action in Of Love and Other Demons takes place in the port town of Cartagena de Indias, in New Granada, Colombia. After the death of Dominga De Adviento, García Márquez describes Sierva María’s decrepit parents’ irrational attempts to improve upon Sierva María’s condition, despite her demonstrated wellness Throughout this process, Bernarda reenacts the colonial acts of slavery upon Sierva María, as she removes Sierva María from her home and replaces her African languages and songs with “Peninsular Spanish” and western musical instruments This failure conflicts with idealized portrayal of Dominga De Adviento and suggests the self-defeating nature of the white creole’s resistance to hybridity While such a fatalistic view of the colonial power’s adherence to racial and cultural fixity complements García Márquez’s narrative trajectory, it does not address his final effort at subversion in the closing lines of the novel. In contrast Sierva María’s story implies that the racial fixity of the colonial power leads only to death and annihilation, not of the Other, but of itself
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
