A Postcolonial Feminist Criticique: "Double Colonization" in Wide Sargasso Sea and The Color Purple

Tez Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi, Fen Fakültesi, Batı Dilleri ve Edebiyatları, Türkiye

Tez Danışmanı: Dilek Kantar

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2021

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Özet:

Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) by Jean Rhys and The Color Purple (1982) by Alice Walker are two of the remarkable contemporary novels that illustrate the vicissitudes of life for two women who see marriage as the means to achieve a better life. However, the husbands they choose for marriage fail to meet their expectations in the end. The principal focus of this thesis is to compare the main characters Antoinette/Bertha in Wide Sargasso Sea and Celie in The Color Purple as victims of “double colonization,” which is a postcolonial feminist phrase first coined by Kirsten Holst Peterson and Anna Rutherfold, who point out that women have been oppressed both by colonialism and patriarchy throughout the ages. Although the two novels were published quite close in time, Wide Sargasso Sea represents the 19th century, whereas The Color Purple depicts the 20th century contexts for similar forms of colonization for the women involved. A comparative study of these novels reveals some of the historical, political, social, and cultural changes and developments that contribute to the ways of oppression to which women are subjected in recent history. Both of the protagonists we analyze are marginalized and doubly colonized, namely they are oppressed as colonial subjects and as women simultaneously. Their somewhat compulsive and risky choices in husbands culminate in tragic married lives which will be taken into account in this thesis as they leave indelible marks in their lives at different crossroads in time.

Keywords: Double Colonization, Oppression, Gender, Colonial Subject, Postcolonial Feminist Theory