Jean Rhys’s Smile Please: Re/De constructing identity through autobiography and photography

Abstract

Smile Please is puzzling in many regards: because it was unfinished, partly dictated and because it presents an odd assemblage of fragments barely revised and of a photo album which stands as a kind of hinge between the revised part and the unfinished fragments. The purpose of this article is to consider the generic indeterminacy of the text and to ponder over the function of photographs in autobiography as we try to make sense of the link (or absence of link) between text and image. We shall see whether the lack of construction is not perhaps the best means to fully grasp the genius of and the identity of the nascent writer. This autobiographical triptych therefore seems to flaunt its lack of construction the better to hint at the constructedness of any identity and of Rhys’s in particular: the photographs mentioned in her texts as ekphrasis, or contained in the album help us reach an understanding of Rhys’ own stance about autobiographical and photographic representation.

Keywords

• autobiography
• formal vs candid photography
• femininity
• ekphrasis
• representation
• myth