'The Madwoman's Tale' at IUB
Sunday, 8 July 2007
Nahid Kaiser Toma
THE 'Lecture Series on English Studies' arranged by Indepen-dent University of Bangladesh focuses on scholarly discussions on English literature and language. Dr. Nuzhat Amin, associate professor of English at the University of Dhaka gave a lecture titled 'The Madwoman's Tale' at IUB on 27 June. Dr Amin's lecture was the fourth in the series. It focused on the treatment of the mad woman in Charlotte Bronte's canonical text Jane Eyre (1847) and Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) by Jean Rhys.
Dr. Amin discussed how both the novels protest against the marginalisation of women and claim a valid voice for women. Both the novels have a madwoman, but Bronte does not give her madwoman a voice whereas Rhy's madwoman has a strong voice. Dr. Amin highlighted how madness and women are locked inevitably in literature. Hysteria in Freudian psychoanalysis has always been considered a woman's disease. Hysterical women used to be burnt as witches, locked up and persecuted as possessed people. In relation to this Dr. Amin mentioned the famous madness of Shakespeare's Ophelia whose insanity led her to an unforgettable, unjustified death. Dr. Amin noted that Ophelia's suicide was the only autonomous act in her life.
Through the 19 th century women were frequently locked up as mad the way Bertha Mason was in the attic of Rochester's house. In fact this hysteria is caused by sexual repression. Rhy 'rewrote' Jane Eyre to tell the untold story of the madwoman in the attic - also the inspiration and title of a famous book by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar: The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. Dr. Amin observed that in Jane Eyre, Jane is also part of the patriarchy and feels nothing for the living or dead madwoman. Charlotte Bronte makes Jane happy at the expense of the sudden death of the madwoman. On the other hand, Wide Sargasso Sea reflects on what Foucault finds in madness: the dangerous insight the madman may have. In Rhys madness is the outlet of suppressed vigour and female essence. Madness gives the woman a special voice she lacks in sanity, a special privilege to have room in society.
Dr. Amin criticised the male gaze which is present in Jane Eyre, where the madwoman is represented as a disturbance to the pater familias. She praised the feminist gaze in Wide Sargasso Sea where the silenced Bertha talks from the being of Antoinette. Wide Sargasso Sea, besides being a novel that traces a woman's traumatic experience through passion, frustration and desperation leading to insanity and self-annihilation, is a novel about alienation. This alienation is the result of Antoinette's colonial subjugation and anxiety of others. Dr. Amin emphasized that fixed binaries induce madness. At one stage of her insanity a woman can be freed of her sexual engagement. Unacknowledged and unrecognized woman's selfhood finds a way out in madness.
Dr. Amin's enlightening lecture revealed how Jane Eyre deprives the madwoman of both room and voice, while Wide Sargasso Sea gives her both. The lecture was followed by a lively question-answer session followed by tea (which Dr. Niaz Zaman humorously called cha-ta) and open discussion.
Special thanks go to IUB for arranging this series which is working as a window to look out into the vast ocean of English studies. The audience consists of teachers and students from different public and private universities for whom the lectures are encouraging and knowledgeable. It is also open to anyone interested in English studies.
The next lecture, to be given by Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam, will be given on July 25, the last Wednesday of this month. It is open to all.
The writer teaches English at Daffodil University, Dhaka
THE 'Lecture Series on English Studies' arranged by Indepen-dent University of Bangladesh focuses on scholarly discussions on English literature and language. Dr. Nuzhat Amin, associate professor of English at the University of Dhaka gave a lecture titled 'The Madwoman's Tale' at IUB on 27 June. Dr Amin's lecture was the fourth in the series. It focused on the treatment of the mad woman in Charlotte Bronte's canonical text Jane Eyre (1847) and Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) by Jean Rhys.
Dr. Amin discussed how both the novels protest against the marginalisation of women and claim a valid voice for women. Both the novels have a madwoman, but Bronte does not give her madwoman a voice whereas Rhy's madwoman has a strong voice. Dr. Amin highlighted how madness and women are locked inevitably in literature. Hysteria in Freudian psychoanalysis has always been considered a woman's disease. Hysterical women used to be burnt as witches, locked up and persecuted as possessed people. In relation to this Dr. Amin mentioned the famous madness of Shakespeare's Ophelia whose insanity led her to an unforgettable, unjustified death. Dr. Amin noted that Ophelia's suicide was the only autonomous act in her life.
Through the 19 th century women were frequently locked up as mad the way Bertha Mason was in the attic of Rochester's house. In fact this hysteria is caused by sexual repression. Rhy 'rewrote' Jane Eyre to tell the untold story of the madwoman in the attic - also the inspiration and title of a famous book by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar: The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. Dr. Amin observed that in Jane Eyre, Jane is also part of the patriarchy and feels nothing for the living or dead madwoman. Charlotte Bronte makes Jane happy at the expense of the sudden death of the madwoman. On the other hand, Wide Sargasso Sea reflects on what Foucault finds in madness: the dangerous insight the madman may have. In Rhys madness is the outlet of suppressed vigour and female essence. Madness gives the woman a special voice she lacks in sanity, a special privilege to have room in society.
Dr. Amin criticised the male gaze which is present in Jane Eyre, where the madwoman is represented as a disturbance to the pater familias. She praised the feminist gaze in Wide Sargasso Sea where the silenced Bertha talks from the being of Antoinette. Wide Sargasso Sea, besides being a novel that traces a woman's traumatic experience through passion, frustration and desperation leading to insanity and self-annihilation, is a novel about alienation. This alienation is the result of Antoinette's colonial subjugation and anxiety of others. Dr. Amin emphasized that fixed binaries induce madness. At one stage of her insanity a woman can be freed of her sexual engagement. Unacknowledged and unrecognized woman's selfhood finds a way out in madness.
Dr. Amin's enlightening lecture revealed how Jane Eyre deprives the madwoman of both room and voice, while Wide Sargasso Sea gives her both. The lecture was followed by a lively question-answer session followed by tea (which Dr. Niaz Zaman humorously called cha-ta) and open discussion.
Special thanks go to IUB for arranging this series which is working as a window to look out into the vast ocean of English studies. The audience consists of teachers and students from different public and private universities for whom the lectures are encouraging and knowledgeable. It is also open to anyone interested in English studies.
The next lecture, to be given by Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam, will be given on July 25, the last Wednesday of this month. It is open to all.
The writer teaches English at Daffodil University, Dhaka