Heroines of the postcolonial era - comparison of portrayals of feminine voices in J.M Coetzee's Foe and Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea

This research seeks to analyze and compare the mediums and effects of voice and silence in the lives of the female characters of the re-written postcolonial texts Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea and JM Coetzee's Foe. The analysis shows that Rhys and Coetzee used the names of Antoinette and Susan to show women's treatment during the 19th century. Treated as inferiors to men and lacking the freedom to do or say as they pleased, the treatment of women and their struggle to find a voice was a focus of both novels. The analysis focused on the significant incidents, character interaction, character flaws, and internal & external conflicts of the story to determine the gaps in voices and silences. The paper will also analyze the role of the protagonists', Antoinette and Susan, and their relationship with the other significant characters in the novel Wide Sargasso Sea and Foe to identify how Antoinette and Susan had similar struggles and how they resorted to diverse mediums to find that" voice" and" identity." It can be thus concluded that both the postcolonial texts gave much more importance or significance in terms of voice and identity to the male characters as opposed to the female ones.