the madwoman in attic & beyond: contextualizing & queering charlotte brontë’s jane eyre
TRANSCRIPT
THE MADWOMAN IN ATTIC & BEYOND
CONTEXTUALIZING & QUEERING CHARLOTTE BRONTË’S JANE EYRE
Lisa [email protected] || @lmhager
Pronouns: she, her, hers & they, them, theirs
[email protected] || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them, theirs
The Brontë Sisters (circa 1834)by Patrick Branwell Brontë (1817-1848)
From left to right:Anne Brontë (1820-1849) Emily Brontë (1818-1848)Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)
To Walk Invisible (starts March 26th on PBS)
[email protected] || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them, theirshttp://www.pbs.org/video/2365970472/
Brontë Juvenilia
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• http://harvardmagazine.com/2012/01/tiny-brontes • http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou00223 • https://
www.bl.uk/collection-items/bront-juvenilia-the-history-of-angria • http://
www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/03/13/charlotte_bront_the_author_s_juvenilia_titled_something_about_arthur.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NKXNThJ610
The Brontë Sisters Power Dolls
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The Victorian Governess
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https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-the-governess
• Taught young boys and girls; often taught young women until old enough to go to finishing schools
The Victorian Governess
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https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-the-governess
• Taught young boys and girls; often taught young women until old enough to go to finishing schools
• Genteel but not wealthy
The Victorian Governess
[email protected] || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them, theirs
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-the-governess
• Taught young boys and girls; often taught young women until old enough to go to finishing schools
• Genteel but not wealthy• Required education and social graces
The Victorian Governess
[email protected] || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them, theirs
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-the-governess
• Taught young boys and girls; often taught young women until old enough to go to finishing schools
• Genteel but not wealthy• Required education and social graces• One of the few respectable occupations
open to middle-class white women in the British empire
The Victorian Governess
[email protected] || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them, theirs
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-the-governess
• Taught young boys and girls; often taught young women until old enough to go to finishing schools
• Genteel but not wealthy• Required education and social graces• One of the few respectable occupations
open to middle-class white women in the British empire
• Required women to live with the family for whom they worked
The Victorian Governess
[email protected] || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them, theirs
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-the-governess
• Taught young boys and girls; often taught young women until old enough to go to finishing schools
• Genteel but not wealthy• Required education and social graces• One of the few respectable occupations
open to middle-class white women in the British empire
• Required women to live with the family for whom they worked
• Neither a servant nor a member of the family
The Victorian Governess
[email protected] || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them, theirs
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-the-governess
• Taught young boys and girls; often taught young women until old enough to go to finishing schools
• Genteel but not wealthy• Required education and social graces• One of the few respectable occupations
open to middle-class white women in the British empire
• Required women to live with the family for whom they worked
• Neither a servant nor a member of the family
• Men of the family often sexually abused women servants, including governesses
The Victorian Governess
[email protected] || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them, theirs
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-the-governess
• Taught young boys and girls; often taught young women until old enough to go to finishing schools
• Genteel but not wealthy• Required education and social graces• One of the few respectable occupations
open to middle-class white women in the British empire
• Required women to live with the family for whom they worked
• Neither a servant nor a member of the family
• Men of the family often sexually abused women servants, including governesses
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
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• Bildungsroman (object -> subject)
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
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• Bildungsroman (object -> subject)
• Focuses on Jane’s internal life
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
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• Bildungsroman (object -> subject)
• Focuses on Jane’s internal life• Critique of women’s limited
options in life
Feminist Analysis of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
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Sandra M. Gilbert & Susan Gubar’s The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination1979
Feminist Analysis of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
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Part IV: The Spectral Selves of Charlotte Brontë
9. A Secret, Inward Wound: The Professor’s Pupil
10. A Dialogue of Self and Soul: Plain Jane’s Progress
11. The Genesis of Hunger, According to Shirley
12. The Buried Life of Lucy Snowe
Queering Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
[email protected] || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them, theirs
• What is a queer reading of a text?
Queering Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
[email protected] || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them, theirs
• What is a queer reading of a text?• Why would you, as a critical reader of
texts, want to do a queer reading?
Queering Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
[email protected] || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them, theirs
• What is a queer reading of a text?• Why would you, as a critical reader of
texts, want to do a queer reading?• What are some problems with queering
nineteenth-century texts?
Queering Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
[email protected] || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them, theirs
Queering Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
[email protected] || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them, theirs
Discuss one of following questions with your group:
• What kind of relationships do you see between Jane and other women characters? Does Jane does seem to feel romantically attached to these women? What actions and thoughts alert you to this?
OR
• How are Victorian gender roles called into question in this chapter? Are either or both Rochester and Jane doing and/or experiencing things associated with another gender?
Queering Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
[email protected] || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them, theirs
1. Jane & Helen: ch. 8 (59-61) & ch. 9 (69-72)
2. Rochester as fortune teller: ch. 19 (172-180)
3. Jane & Bertha: ch. 25 (249-251) & ch. 26 (257-261)
4. Jane & the Rivers Sisters: ch. 30 (307-309)
5. Jane & Rochester @ Ferndean: ch. 37 (380-395)
Queering Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
[email protected] || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them, theirs
Discuss one of following questions with your group:
• What kind of relationships do you see between Jane and other women characters? Does Jane does seem to feel romantically attached to these women? What actions and thoughts alert you to this?
OR
• How are Victorian gender roles called into question in this chapter? Are either or both Rochester and Jane doing and/or experiencing things associated with another gender?