REFLECTIONS OF CARIBBEAN SOCIO-POLITICAL SCENARIO IN JEAN RHYS’S “AGAIN THE ANTILLES”

This paper attempts to study the sociopolitical scenario of Dominica during the 19th Century through Jean rhys’s Short Story Again the Antilles. Born as a daughter of a Welsh father and a Dominican White Creole mother, Jean Rhys always felt isolated in her birthplace Dominica, due to various inter-racial tensions and cultural ambivalences of the period. Though she left Dominica at the age of sixteen and settled down in England, most of her literary contributions revolve around Caribbean themes and tropes. With her childhood experiences in Dominica, she was able to inscribe the historical, sociopolitical and inter-racial issues that existed in the West Indies. Again the Antilles is one such Short Story which is grounded in the political and historical context of post slavery Dominica, highlighting various political and historical events like Guerre Negre, Mullatto Ascendency and Religious Riot of 1847.