@article{ART002170588},
author={Oh Ye Ji},
title={Considering Letters as a Historical Text and Women’s Representation},
journal={Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University},
issn={1598-3021},
year={2016},
volume={73},
number={4},
pages={155-198},
doi={10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.155}
TY - JOUR
AU - Oh Ye Ji
TI - Considering Letters as a Historical Text and Women’s Representation
JO - Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
PY - 2016
VL - 73
IS - 4
PB - Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
SP - 155
EP - 198
SN - 1598-3021
AB - Expanding Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s reading of Jeffery Birtch’s letter in A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present, this article argues that female letter-writing is different from male letter-writing in that it constructs subjectivity of Women that defies the patriarchal colonial regime by using its social decorum.
According to Spivak, a man’s letters allow him to become a “representative image” of colonial subject within a historical context.
Letters are private, but also paradoxically represent the writers’ social ego.
I find that it is not only in the case of letters written by a white male colonial subject but also Daniel’s letter, working as a native informant, plays a pivotal role in supporting Rochester and making himself a colonial subject in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. Daniel’s letter also redefines Antoinette’s personal history. In contrast with Daniel’s letter, Rebecca’s letter in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy subverts the social definition of women by vacuating the stereotypical meaning of woman that is expected to be reflected in a letter. Furthermore, I argue that Florens’s letter has its potential resistance to patriarchy complicit with colonialism for it is written in the Jacob’s house which was built within the colonial structure.
KW - Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak;Jean Rhys;Toni morrison;colonial women subaltern;letter-writing;A Critique of Postcolonial Reason;Wide Sargasso Sea;A Mercy
DO - 10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.155
ER -
Oh Ye Ji. (2016). Considering Letters as a Historical Text and Women’s Representation. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, 73(4), 155-198.
Oh Ye Ji. 2016, "Considering Letters as a Historical Text and Women’s Representation", Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, vol.73, no.4 pp.155-198. Available from: doi:10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.155
Oh Ye Ji "Considering Letters as a Historical Text and Women’s Representation" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 73.4 pp.155-198 (2016) : 155.
Oh Ye Ji. Considering Letters as a Historical Text and Women’s Representation. 2016; 73(4), 155-198. Available from: doi:10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.155
Oh Ye Ji. "Considering Letters as a Historical Text and Women’s Representation" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 73, no.4 (2016) : 155-198.doi: 10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.155
Oh Ye Ji. Considering Letters as a Historical Text and Women’s Representation. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, 73(4), 155-198. doi: 10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.155
Oh Ye Ji. Considering Letters as a Historical Text and Women’s Representation. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University. 2016; 73(4) 155-198. doi: 10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.155
Oh Ye Ji. Considering Letters as a Historical Text and Women’s Representation. 2016; 73(4), 155-198. Available from: doi:10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.155
Oh Ye Ji. "Considering Letters as a Historical Text and Women’s Representation" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 73, no.4 (2016) : 155-198.doi: 10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.155
