Date of Award
2012
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Humanities
First Advisor
Wallace, Miriam
Keywords
Modernism, Gender Studies, Trauma
Area of Concentration
Literature
Abstract
This thesis investigates feminist resistance to a traditionally masculinist modernism in Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea and Djuna Barnes's Nightwood in terms of the expression of trauma within literature. In chapter one, I discuss Wide Sargasso Sea's protagonist's experience of trauma at the hands of heterosexuality and British structures of colonialism and primogeniture. In chapter two, I examine Nightwood's depictions of "queer" femininity as they are supplemented by themes of unconscious trauma. Rather than attempt to resolve these traumas, the novels resist patriarchal structures of modernism by rejecting unities of plot or form.
Recommended Citation
Fixler, Alex, "Voicing Trauma Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea and Djuna Barnes's Nightwood in Esistance of a Masculinist Modernism" (2012). Theses & ETDs. 4587.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/4587