Criticism of Rhys and of her work seems to revolve around identity and
the insights it allows. The criticism privileges the particular over the
universal. Universality is a concept in the study of English literature that
holds that there are themes that are representative of the human condition.
The problem with this concept is that the human condition and European
experience are often confused. In Rhys's novels, however, her heroines are
very specifically located culturally and socially, and the narratives implicate
that cultural and social status, along with individual psychology, are
important in determining the actions and thoughts of these women.
There is also much debate around how Rhys's heroines' Creole status influences both their actions and how other characters perceive them, which shows that these critiques are concerned with the particular as far as culture is concerned, which is one of the things that I believe contribute to Rhys's status as an international author rather than an English one. Gregg notes that Ford Madox Ford "places her writing outside of Western lieterature, which, in his view, conforms with more often that it questions or undermines dominant social systems(6).
