On Caryl Phillips’ A View of the Empire at Sunset (2018)

Abstract

Caryl Phillips’ A View of the Empire at Sunset narrates the story of Jean Rhys, from her childhood in Dominica, her migration to England, and her long-waited journey back to the Caribbean. In this essay, I shall examine how Phillips construct A View of the Empire at Sunset (2 0 1 8) and explain why his attempt to understand her life is important in understanding the Caribbean identity. Phillips’s take on Jean Rhys as a Caribbean writer is interesting in a way since whether to include Jean Rhys in the tradition of Caribbean literature has been contested by several literal critics and writers for decades. Phillips re-tells the life of Jean Rhys and makes her return to the Caribbean imaginatively possible.