"It Is Always Too Late for Truth:" Surveillance and Masculinity In "Wide Sargasso Sea"

Authors

Kaz S. Schofield, University of Texas at ArlingtonFollow

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Abstract

Significant analysis has been done on Jean Rhys’ 1961 novel Wide Sargasso Sea examining gender in relation to the women in the novel, but very little analysis has been conducted on the men. Using the work of Simone Browne, who has theorized how racial categories are maintained through surveillance, I examine how three men in the novel: a white colonist and two mixed race colonial subjects are restricted or otherwise kept docile through their differing masculinity. I argue that it is not only the women in the novel who are oppressed or otherwise disenfranchised by their race and gender, but the male characters are imprisoned by colonial regimes of visibility. This analysis complicates and extends existing research about gender in Wide Sargasso Sea, exploring how the male characters can act both as bearers of imperialist ideals and victims of the kinds of violence they enforce and enact.

Disciplines

English Language and Literature | Ethnic Studies | Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Publication Date

Fall 2025

Faculty Mentor of Honors Project

Penelope Ingram

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Schofield, Kaz S., ""It Is Always Too Late for Truth:" Surveillance and Masculinity In "Wide Sargasso Sea"" (2025). 2025 Fall Honors Capstones Projects. 29.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/honors_fall2025/29