{"id":{"repo_id":"potsdam-thes","oai_identifier":"oai:kobv.de-opus4-uni-potsdam:70139"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/potsdam-thes/oai:kobv.de-opus4-uni-potsdam:70139","repository":{"repo_id":"potsdam-thes","name":"Universität Potsdam - Thes","base_url":"https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/oai"},"display":{"title":"Decolonising the body in Jean Rhys’s Voyage in the Dark and Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy","abstract":"This master’s thesis examines the literature of the Caribbean diaspora and investigates how it subverts colonial paradigms. Therein, the use of the material body as a subaltern knowledge system is read as an act of decolonial resistance. The analysis focuses on two English-language novels by 20th-century female authors originally from the Caribbean: the 1934 novel Voyage in the Dark by the British author Jean Rhys, born in Dominica; and Lucy by the Antiguan-American writer Jamaica Kincaid, published in 1990. Both novels tell the stories of young women from the Caribbean who leave their islands to work in Western metropolises (London and New York, respectively). Both young women reject colonial categories such as race and gender, which are used to understand and control their bodies. Instead, they use the experience of their own bodies as a knowledge system through which they can understand the world around them. In the analysis, the theory of “affective embodied encounters” by Sara Ahmed is brought together with the decolonial theory of Édouard Glissant. Building on Glissant’s concept of the “right to opacity”, it is argued that the opaque material body can be a tool of decolonial resistance. In both novels, the Caribbean female characters strive for a right to material opacity by rejecting colonial classifications of their own bodies and the bodies of others. Building on this theoretical basis, the following chapters provide analyses of how specific body parts are each associated with colonial categories that are used to control marginalized bodies. These are: (1) the skin, the description of which in the novels brings out the colonial categories of race/skin colour and aesthetic beauty; (2) the role of the hands, through which it is shown how the colonial Other is read as a working body; and (3) the mouth, which in the novels makes clear how colonial languages and linguistic systems oppress the colonised body. The final chapter examines how the texts themselves can be read formally as opaque bodies by transcending and going beyond the form of the Western novel.","abstract_html":"This master’s thesis examines the literature of the Caribbean diaspora and investigates how it subverts colonial paradigms. Therein, the use of the material body as a subaltern knowledge system is read as an act of decolonial resistance. The analysis focuses on two English-language novels by 20th-century female authors originally from the Caribbean: the 1934 novel Voyage in the Dark by the British author Jean Rhys, born in Dominica; and Lucy by the Antiguan-American writer Jamaica Kincaid, published in 1990. Both novels tell the stories of young women from the Caribbean who leave their islands to work in Western metropolises (London and New York, respectively). Both young women reject colonial categories such as race and gender, which are used to understand and control their bodies. Instead, they use the experience of their own bodies as a knowledge system through which they can understand the world around them. In the analysis, the theory of “affective embodied encounters” by Sara Ahmed is brought together with the decolonial theory of Édouard Glissant. Building on Glissant’s concept of the “right to opacity”, it is argued that the opaque material body can be a tool of decolonial resistance. In both novels, the Caribbean female characters strive for a right to material opacity by rejecting colonial classifications of their own bodies and the bodies of others. Building on this theoretical basis, the following chapters provide analyses of how specific body parts are each associated with colonial categories that are used to control marginalized bodies. These are: (1) the skin, the description of which in the novels brings out the colonial categories of race/skin colour and aesthetic beauty; (2) the role of the hands, through which it is shown how the colonial Other is read as a working body; and (3) the mouth, which in the novels makes clear how colonial languages and linguistic systems oppress the colonised body. The final chapter examines how the texts themselves can be read formally as opaque bodies by transcending and going beyond the form of the Western novel.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Douglas, Elliot"],"institution":"Universität Potsdam","degree_name":null,"degree_level":"master","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Eckstein, Lars","Waller, Nicole"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-02-26","date_published":"2025-02-26","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:52:15Z","subjects":["Caribbean","postcolonial","opacity","affect","materialism","embodiment","Jamaica Kincaid","Jean Rhys","Karibik","Postkolonialismus","Materialismus","Körper"],"languages":[],"rights":["Keine öffentliche Lizenz: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/70139","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"source_url"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Eckstein, Lars","Waller, Nicole"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Douglas, Elliot"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Universität Potsdam"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["masterThesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["master"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["Universität Potsdam"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Caribbean","postcolonial","opacity","affect","materialism","embodiment","Jamaica Kincaid","Jean Rhys","Karibik","Postkolonialismus","Materialismus","Körper"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Keine öffentliche Lizenz: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This master’s thesis examines the literature of the Caribbean diaspora and investigates how it subverts colonial paradigms. Therein, the use of the material body as a subaltern knowledge system is read as an act of decolonial resistance. The analysis focuses on two English-language novels by 20th-century female authors originally from the Caribbean: the 1934 novel Voyage in the Dark by the British author Jean Rhys, born in Dominica; and Lucy by the Antiguan-American writer Jamaica Kincaid, published in 1990. Both novels tell the stories of young women from the Caribbean who leave their islands to work in Western metropolises (London and New York, respectively). Both young women reject colonial categories such as race and gender, which are used to understand and control their bodies. Instead, they use the experience of their own bodies as a knowledge system through which they can understand the world around them. In the analysis, the theory of “affective embodied encounters” by Sara Ahmed is brought together with the decolonial theory of Édouard Glissant. Building on Glissant’s concept of the “right to opacity”, it is argued that the opaque material body can be a tool of decolonial resistance. In both novels, the Caribbean female characters strive for a right to material opacity by rejecting colonial classifications of their own bodies and the bodies of others. Building on this theoretical basis, the following chapters provide analyses of how specific body parts are each associated with colonial categories that are used to control marginalized bodies. These are: (1) the skin, the description of which in the novels brings out the colonial categories of race/skin colour and aesthetic beauty; (2) the role of the hands, through which it is shown how the colonial Other is read as a working body; and (3) the mouth, which in the novels makes clear how colonial languages and linguistic systems oppress the colonised body. The final chapter examines how the texts themselves can be read formally as opaque bodies by transcending and going beyond the form of the Western novel.","In dieser Masterarbeit wird untersucht, wie die Literatur der karibischen Diaspora koloniale Paradigmen unterläuft. Die Verwendung des materiellen Körpers als subalternes Wissenssystem wird als Akt dekolonialen Widerstands gelesen. Die Analyse konzentriert sich auf zwei englischsprachige Romane von Autorinnen des 20. Jahrhunderts, die ursprünglich aus der Karibik stammen: Voyage in the Dark von der in Dominica geborenen britischen Autorin Jean Rhys aus dem Jahr 1934 und Lucy der Antigua-Amerikanerin Jamaica Kincaid, erschienen 1990. Beide Romane handeln von jungen Frauen aus der Karibik, die ihre Inseln verlassen, um in westlichen Großstädten zu arbeiten: London bzw. New York. Beide jungen Frauen lehnen koloniale Kategorien wie race und Geschlecht ab, die zum Verständnis und zur Kontrolle ihrer Körper verwendet werden. Stattdessen nutzen sie das Erleben ihrer eigenen Körper als Wissenssystem, mit dem sie die Welt um sich herum verstehen können. In der Analyse werden die Theorie der „affective embodied encounters“ von Sara Ahmed mit der dekolonialen Theorie Édouard Glissants zusammengeführt. Aufbauend auf Glissants Konzept des „right to opacity“ wird argumentiert, dass der opaque material body ein Werkzeug des dekolonialen Widerstands sein kann. In beiden Romanen streben die karibischen Frauenfiguren ein Recht auf materielle opacity an, indem sie koloniale Klassifizierungen ihrer eigenen Körper und der Körper anderer ablehnen. Auf dieser theoretischen Grundlage bieten die folgenden Kapitel Analysen, wie jeweils ein bestimmtes Körperteil mit kolonialen Zuschreibungen verbunden ist, die zur Kontrolle marginalisierter Körper verwendet werden. Dabei handelt es sich 1) um die Haut, deren Beschreibung in den Romanen die kolonialen Kategorien der race/Hautfarbe und der ästhetischen Schönheit hervortreten lässt, 2) um die Rolle der Hände, durch die dargestellt wird, wie der koloniale Other als arbeitender Körper gelesen wird, und 3) um den Mund, der in den Romanen deutlich macht, wie koloniale Sprachen und Sprachsysteme den kolonisierten Körper unterdrücken. Im letzten Kapitel wird untersucht, wie die Texte selbst formal als opaque bodies gelesen werden können, indem sie die Form des westlichen Romans transzendieren und überschreiten."]},{"key":"dc:format.medium","label":"Dc Format Medium","values":["application/epub+zip","application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Decolonising the body in Jean Rhys’s Voyage in the Dark and Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Eckstein, Lars","Waller, Nicole"],"dc:creator":["Douglas, Elliot"],"dc:description.abstract":["This master’s thesis examines the literature of the Caribbean diaspora and investigates how it subverts colonial paradigms. Therein, the use of the material body as a subaltern knowledge system is read as an act of decolonial resistance. The analysis focuses on two English-language novels by 20th-century female authors originally from the Caribbean: the 1934 novel Voyage in the Dark by the British author Jean Rhys, born in Dominica; and Lucy by the Antiguan-American writer Jamaica Kincaid, published in 1990. Both novels tell the stories of young women from the Caribbean who leave their islands to work in Western metropolises (London and New York, respectively). Both young women reject colonial categories such as race and gender, which are used to understand and control their bodies. Instead, they use the experience of their own bodies as a knowledge system through which they can understand the world around them. In the analysis, the theory of “affective embodied encounters” by Sara Ahmed is brought together with the decolonial theory of Édouard Glissant. Building on Glissant’s concept of the “right to opacity”, it is argued that the opaque material body can be a tool of decolonial resistance. In both novels, the Caribbean female characters strive for a right to material opacity by rejecting colonial classifications of their own bodies and the bodies of others. Building on this theoretical basis, the following chapters provide analyses of how specific body parts are each associated with colonial categories that are used to control marginalized bodies. These are: (1) the skin, the description of which in the novels brings out the colonial categories of race/skin colour and aesthetic beauty; (2) the role of the hands, through which it is shown how the colonial Other is read as a working body; and (3) the mouth, which in the novels makes clear how colonial languages and linguistic systems oppress the colonised body. The final chapter examines how the texts themselves can be read formally as opaque bodies by transcending and going beyond the form of the Western novel.","In dieser Masterarbeit wird untersucht, wie die Literatur der karibischen Diaspora koloniale Paradigmen unterläuft. Die Verwendung des materiellen Körpers als subalternes Wissenssystem wird als Akt dekolonialen Widerstands gelesen. Die Analyse konzentriert sich auf zwei englischsprachige Romane von Autorinnen des 20. Jahrhunderts, die ursprünglich aus der Karibik stammen: Voyage in the Dark von der in Dominica geborenen britischen Autorin Jean Rhys aus dem Jahr 1934 und Lucy der Antigua-Amerikanerin Jamaica Kincaid, erschienen 1990. Beide Romane handeln von jungen Frauen aus der Karibik, die ihre Inseln verlassen, um in westlichen Großstädten zu arbeiten: London bzw. New York. Beide jungen Frauen lehnen koloniale Kategorien wie race und Geschlecht ab, die zum Verständnis und zur Kontrolle ihrer Körper verwendet werden. Stattdessen nutzen sie das Erleben ihrer eigenen Körper als Wissenssystem, mit dem sie die Welt um sich herum verstehen können. In der Analyse werden die Theorie der „affective embodied encounters“ von Sara Ahmed mit der dekolonialen Theorie Édouard Glissants zusammengeführt. Aufbauend auf Glissants Konzept des „right to opacity“ wird argumentiert, dass der opaque material body ein Werkzeug des dekolonialen Widerstands sein kann. In beiden Romanen streben die karibischen Frauenfiguren ein Recht auf materielle opacity an, indem sie koloniale Klassifizierungen ihrer eigenen Körper und der Körper anderer ablehnen. Auf dieser theoretischen Grundlage bieten die folgenden Kapitel Analysen, wie jeweils ein bestimmtes Körperteil mit kolonialen Zuschreibungen verbunden ist, die zur Kontrolle marginalisierter Körper verwendet werden. Dabei handelt es sich 1) um die Haut, deren Beschreibung in den Romanen die kolonialen Kategorien der race/Hautfarbe und der ästhetischen Schönheit hervortreten lässt, 2) um die Rolle der Hände, durch die dargestellt wird, wie der koloniale Other als arbeitender Körper gelesen wird, und 3) um den Mund, der in den Romanen deutlich macht, wie koloniale Sprachen und Sprachsysteme den kolonisierten Körper unterdrücken. Im letzten Kapitel wird untersucht, wie die Texte selbst formal als opaque bodies gelesen werden können, indem sie die Form des westlichen Romans transzendieren und überschreiten."],"dc:format.medium":["application/epub+zip","application/pdf"],"dc:publisher":["Universität Potsdam"],"dc:rights":["Keine öffentliche Lizenz: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz"],"dc:subject":["Caribbean","postcolonial","opacity","affect","materialism","embodiment","Jamaica Kincaid","Jean Rhys","Karibik","Postkolonialismus","Materialismus","Körper"],"dc:title":["Decolonising the body in Jean Rhys’s Voyage in the Dark and Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy"],"dc:type":["masterThesis"],"thesis:degree_level":["master"],"thesis:institution_name":["Universität Potsdam"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:52:15Z"}