| Abstract | As a genre, postcolonial works reconsider and criticize colonial norms in traditional literature. As can be seen in many canonical works of literature, countries which had colonies imposed their norms as the standard, and promoted Western culture as the epitome of civilization onto other cultures. While this kind of attitude was analysed by many, Foucault was one of famous scholars for whom construction of Western norms was an endless source of inspiration. In his work The Order of Things (1966), for instance, he explores how the Western culture set its value system as the standard, but there were also others who recognized the tendency of the colonialist cultures to impose their system and beliefs on the colonized. Said in Orientalism and Bhabha in Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse demonstrated how colonizers coined their ideas of ‘the Other’ which they then projected onto colonized ‘subjects’. Such ideas were constructed by those in position of power, therefore – by men. This was particularly evident in periods like the Victorian era when, as Porter (1986) elaborated, prudish rules affected all members of British society, but specifically targeted women. During that period, there appeared the concept of a woman that is either chaste or damned. For colonialists, it was unthinkable that a woman would express her sexuality in any form, but, on the other hand, women of different cultures were presumed to be overtly sexual. Even though, such a notion was constructed by the colonizers, it affected deeply how they viewed the ‘subaltern’. According to Barash (1990), colonialist cultures frequently portrayed women of ‘exotic’ cultures as sexual, wild and unpredictable. As a representative of the British Empire, “Mr Rochester” in Rhys’s postcolonial response to Brontë’s 1857 canonical work Jane Eyre, is a typical colonizer. After marrying a young, traumatized Creole woman because of her dowry, he became possessive and jealous towards his wife Antoinette, until, as the result of his tyrannic behaviour, she became the embodiment of his racist and misogynistic projections. |
| Abstract (croatian) | Kao žanr, postkolonijalna dijela promišljaju i kritički analiziraju norme nastale u nekadašnjim kolonijalnim silama. Te norme nerijetko su prisutne u dijelima autora koji su u tim "državama" pisali za vrijeme kada su kolonije bile "normalne" u zapadnom svijetu. "Zapadnjaci" pa samim time i kolonizatori svoje su norme i vrijednosne sustave vidjeli kao standard i dokaz civiliziranosti i napretka pa su ih kao takve nametali kulturama čije su teritorije nasilnički zauzimali. U svojem djelu "The Order of Things" (1966.) Foucault se posebno "pozabavio" načinom na koji zapadne kulture kroje svoje vrijednosti, no i drugi su istraživali isto pitanje pa su ga povezivali sa načinom na koji su se kolonizatori odnosili spram potisnutih kultura. Said i Bhabha tako su primjerima "orijentalizma" i "mimikrije" opisivali tendenciju kolonizatora da prikazuju svoje "subjekte" onako kako su ih oni sami po vlastitim pretpostavkama doživljavali. Takve ideje pak bile su odraz ideja vladajućih, a uglavnom su vladali - muškarci. Posebno evidentna muška vlast bila je u Viktorijansko doba u Velikoj Britaniji, o čemu je pisao Porter (1986.). Dakle, dok su društvena pravila predstavljala ograničenje za sve članove društva, ipak su najviše limitirala žene. U istom razdoblju, na žensku osobu gledalo se kao na ili anđela ili "vješticu", a bilo kakav izraz seksualnosti, ukazivao bi na potonje. Nadalje, unatoč tome što su ovakve pojmove osmislili kolonizatori, oni su se snažno odrazili na sliku žene u koloniziranim predjelima. Kako piše Barash (1990.), žene "egzotičnih" područja, prikazivane su kao previše erotične, odnosno putene, divlje i nepredvidive. Upravo takav stav u Rhysinom romanu prema svojoj supruzi ima "Mr. Rochester". Kao pravi predstavnik Britanskog Carstva u svoje vrijeme, svoju ženu Antoinette, kompleksnog porijekla, ponižava, sve dok ona ne izgubi razum i ne postane slika i prilika njegovih rasističkih i mizoginih projekcija. |
