The Role of Songs and Acts of Singing in Selina’s Life

Topic: Art Words: 1358 Pages: 2 Updated: Jan 15, 2023

Introduction
Critical Lenses
The Proposal of Argumentation
Annotated Bibliography
Works Cited

Introduction

For Selina, singing is a response to the stability of ingrained social bias and a way of shielding from what she is not able to accept. Singing is necessary for Selina to protect herself from her social and physical environment.

Critical Lenses

I will draw on two critical lenses to evaluate the text: the post-colonial lens and the psychoanalytic lens. More specifically, I will use post-colonial discussions of alienation and the psychological experience of living under a colonial state to examine the principles by which Selina interacts with the outside world. In addition, the post-colonial lens allows me to understand the place of the heroine in the dark and hostile world described by Rhys.

The psychoanalytic lens is used to study the psychological and mental state of the author or character, their desires, repressions, consciousness, and subconsciousness. In psychoanalytic frameworks, singing is described as a reaction of consciousness and subconsciousness to the phenomena of reality. The psychoanalytic lens is ideal for studying Selina’s state of mind and the influence of songs and acts of singing on it. The main character’s subconscious dictates the protective mechanisms to help her cope with a hostile environment. Selina’s subconscious coping mechanisms with her surrounding reality can manifest through singing, which should be observed through a psychoanalytic lens.

The Proposal of Argumentation

The central thesis of the essay, formulated earlier, refers to the use of two perspectives of argumentation. They are the stability of social bias, which implies the cold cruelty of people surrounding Selina, and the protective function of singing. As a typical character in postcolonial literature, Selina tells readers her plight in finding her place in a world where she seems unwelcome (Czarnecki 20). Landlords, police officers, and other persons with a certain power demonstrate their superiority over the heroine, and singing is one of the few tools for her to escape from the sad reality.

First, Selina faces severe difficulties in life, which catalyzes in her a sense of loneliness and insignificance. As an Afro-Caribbean woman, she was not a typical figure for twentieth-century industrial Britain, so her very being in this country was about standing out among the rest (Naidu and Thorpe 27). However, people tend not to accept those different from them, so this may seem to be the strategy chosen by most Londoners who come into contact with Selina (Laguarta Bueno 164-167). Thus, Selina loses her home and job and feels constant condemnation from her neighbors, who rebukes her for drinking and singing.

Second, having experienced the constant stress of migrating and finding her place, Selina turns to singing as an escape. In moments of lack of work and feeling judged by racist neighbors, Selina begins to sing on the street for money, which the woman sees as her salvation (Rhys 74-76). The protective function of singing extends from two levels: on the material, it helps her save money, and on the spiritual, Selina expresses her experiences through creativity. Thus, she consciously turns to singing, which helps her get over her stress.

Third, singing allows Selina to increase her self-confidence and improve her strength significantly. The reference to the prison episode is indicative because Selina was only able to acquire the strength to act after being inspired by Holloway’s song, which means that a woman does not have to sing on her own; she can listen to the songs of others and be inspired by it. The song as a symbol of struggle will later be distorted and sold by an enterprising man, which will suspend Selina’s confidence. Finally, however, she will realize that everyone struggles through life with society and the pressures placed on them, and a song is a tool of salvation for many.

Annotated Bibliography

Czarnecki, Kristin. “Jean Rhys’s Postmodern Narrative Authority: Selina’s Patois in ‘Let Them Call It Jazz’.” College Literature, vol. 35, no. 2, 2008, pp. 20-37.

Kristin Czarnecki, in her article, explores the role of language, words, and voice as the tools of the creation of Selina’s own world, identity, and her protection and protest against the external forces. Czarnecki presents Selina’s voice and her acts of singing as comforting and fighting tools, while hostile characters, such as Selina’s neighbors or police officers, only address her singing as “noise” (22). The same is said about Selina’s language – she never uses proper English and does not want to translate some of Creole words; therefore, others have to adapt to her speech, not the other way round. At the same time, it is demonstrated that Selina can reproduce the speech of others with perfect grammar, punctuation, and diction (Czarnecki 21). While most of the ideas of Czarnecki are in line with previously mentioned articles, it can be said that she goes deeper with her analysis of Selina’s character and the nuances of her actions. The article focuses on Selina’s identity and her attempts to preserve it and takes a deeper look at some other tools used for that purpose, such as language. While Selina’s language was not mentioned in the initial thesis for this essay, the argument regarding her singing still falls in line with Czarnecki’s point about protection from the outside world and preservation of identity.

Laguarta Bueno, Carmen. “The Plight of Not Belonging: Jean Rhys’s ‘Let them Call It Jazz’ and ‘The Day They Burned the Books’.” ES Review. Spanish Journal of English Studies, vol. 39, 2018, pp. 157-72.

The article by Laguarta Bueno, as suggested by its name, assesses the issue of the non-belonging of two different protagonists of Rhys’s stories (157). It is demonstrated how the character of Selina is discriminated against based on her race, gender, and class. Moreover, the discrimination is shown to be persistent on an institutional level, as Selina’s interactions with police and court clearly demonstrate. The article then explores Selina’s reaction to these circumstances; it is shown to be passive at first, as Selina is drinking much to get away from her problems. Later she demonstrates patterns of resistance and retaliation through her actions, such as singing on the street and breaking the neighbors’ window – “this is the most evident episode of resistance to colonial power” (Laguarta Bueno 162). In this case, the article also agrees that harsh external conditions affect the characters and force them to adapt. However, Laguarta Bueno pays more attention to singing as the tool of resistance, revealing its role through the observation of conflict situations (162). This position also supports the thesis that for Selina, singing is a reaction to the outside world and the tool of interaction with it, yet more attention, in that case, is paid to conflict situations.

Naidu, Sam, and Andrea Thorpe. “’I Don’t Belong Nowhere Really’: The Figure of the London Migrant in Dan Jacobson’s ‘A Long Way from London’ and Jean Rhys’s ‘Let Them Call It Jazz’.” English Academy Review, vol. 3, no. 1, 2018, pp. 26-37.

The article by Sam Naidu and Andrea Thorpe studies the fates of migrants in London based on the stories of Jacobson and Rhys (26). The main idea is that despite differences in race, class, and gender, migrants still occupy an unenviable role on the edge of society, harassed by other higher-class citizens and unable to protect themselves adequately. As a result, they see London as a cruel, inhospitable, and hostile place and expect the worst from the native population. Then Naidu and Thorpe reveal the role of Selina’s singing as her instrument of comfort, resistance, and inspiration. This further emphasizes the role of the Holloway song Selina hears in prison “that functions as a catalyst for Selina’s recovery” (Naidu and Thorpe 33). This article supports the essay’s argument as it demonstrates the poor external conditions to which the migrants such as Selina were exposed as they traveled to London. These are the conditions to which the migrants have to adapt, and the article lists some of the coping strategies based on the cases of different characters, including Selina. As it was mentioned before, Naidu and Thorpe show how diverse Selina’s singing is as a tool to overcome surrounding adversity. The article focuses on the role of a song as a means for recovery.

Works Cited

Czarnecki, Kristin. “Jean Rhys’s Postmodern Narrative Authority: Selina’s Patois in ‘Let Them Call It Jazz’.” College Literature, vol. 35, no. 2, 2008, pp. 20-37.

Rhys, Jean. “Let Them Call It Jazz.” The London Magazine, February 1962, pp. 69-83.