'Outside the Machine': Stasis and Conflict in the work of Jean Rhys. Issue 2 (2nd April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Free, Imogen
• Is Part Of: Women. Volume 31:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 211
• Page End: 223
• Publication Date: 2020-04-02
• Subjects: women -- conflict -- feminism -- hospital -- machine -- Rhys -- abject; Women -- Great Britain -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; Feminism -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; Women in popular culture -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; Women in the performing arts -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; 305.40941
• DOI: 10.1080/09574042.2020.1759546
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0957-4042

Abstract

Abstract: Responding to longstanding critical discomfort around feminist readings of Jean Rhys's fiction, this essay analyses her depiction of female conflict and feminine abjection. In engaging with her writing towards and against other women, it argues that the narrative of conflict is essential to Rhys's portrayal of gender and agency. Situated in a women's hospital, as depicted in Rhys's short story, This essay analyses the patterns of structured inertia and the entangling yet alienating interaction between patients in a women's hospital, as depicted in Rhys's short story, 'Outside the Machine'. Ultimately, this essay argues for Rhys's transgressive feminism by embracing the very difficulty of reading her seemingly misogynist passages.