The Absurd Hero

 A new paper which mentions Wide Sargasso Sea:

Sisyphean or Medusan: The Absurd Hero in Jean Rhys's Good Morning, Midnight and Wide Sargasso Sea

Susan Poursanati , Maryam Neyestani

Journal of Modern Literature, Volume 47, Number 4, Summer 2024 pp. 144-161

Jean Rhys's Good Morning, Midnight and Wide Sargasso Sea each create a liminal space wherein the traditional absurd in Camusian sense is both discernable and modified. While the male-female interactions in the novels correspond to the interactive nature of the moment of absurd recognition, the female characters of both novels manifest the same sense of lucidity and constant consciousness that constitutes the essence of absurd heroism. Thus, by casting female heroes as opposed to male ones, Rhys's aforementioned novels introduce the notion of gender and heterogeneity into the absurd. As such, Sisyphus's labor-ridden and mainly corporeal struggle, no longer the sole representative of the absurd, is counterpointed with that of female characters such as Sasha, Antoinette, Christophine, and Amelie whose absurd experiences are more Medusan than Sisyphean.