The new (double) issue of Brontë Studies (Volume 48 Issue 1-2, January-April 2023) is already available online. We provide you with the table of contents and abstracts:
Editorial
pp. 1-4 Author: Claire O’Callaghan & Sarah Fanning
Gimmerton in Wuthering Heights
pp. 5-13 Author: Graeme Tytler
Abstract:
Of no little significance in Wuthering Heights (1847) is the prominent part played by Gimmerton for various aesthetic purposes both serious and humorous. Thus, for example, whereas the village is referred to here and there for its geographical features and for its usefulness as a centre of commercial, professional and travel facilities, it is also noted for the extent to which its inhabitants are given to malicious gossip and mindless credulity. Especially striking for its structural and poetic functions, on the other hand, is the occasional mention of Gimmerton Kirk, chiefly as pertinent to the presentation of Catherine, Heathcliff and Edgar in their childhood and adulthood. Perhaps the most remarkable thing, however, is the fact that it is only on hearing the word 'Gimmerton’ mentioned while on his way to a quite different destination in the North that Lockwood is prompted to pay his final visit to Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, thereby ensuring not only the completion of his diary but the very existence of Emily Brontë’s masterpiece.
Books in Wuthering Heights
pp. 14-22 Author: Graeme Tytler
Abstract
One of the interesting things about Wuthering Heights (1847) is the extent to which books play their part both structurally and thematically. Thus, as well as underlining the marked social differences between the two main households depicted, they help to enlighten us on the mentality of some of the central figures. Notable in this respect are the ways in which the second Catherine (Cathy) uses her love of books to establish her social superiority, especially in her relationship with Hareton, which for a time makes her appear an unpleasant person. Cathy’s bibliophily, moreover, stands in stark contrast with the more or less negative attitudes harboured towards books both by the first Catherine and by Heathcliff. This contrast has, in fact, induced some critics to regard their distaste for books as a positive feature, and to see Cathy’s attempt to teach Hareton to read as a deplorable clipping of his wings. After tracing the multiple ways in which books illuminate the characters of Wuthering Heights and their relationships, this article concludes that, although the novel’s most admired protagonists are notable book-haters, the bibliophile Cathy emerges in the end as a fully sympathetic character
The Presentation of Nelly Dean as a Servant in Wuthering Heights
pp. 23-32 Author: Graeme Tytler
Abstract:
Nelly Dean has been much discussed down the years for her character, her role as confidante, and her function as the secondary narrator of Wuthering Heights (1847), but comparatively seldom for her presentation as a servant. Yet it is by presenting Nelly from this perspective that Emily Brontë displays her unwonted gift for characterization. Thus, for example, notwithstanding Nelly’s intermittent references to the domestic chores she conscientiously carries out in the two households where she is employed, as well as her remarks on the importance she attaches to being house-proud, we note that, several years after becoming housekeeper of Thrushcross Grange, she reveals certain moral shortcomings that we have only glimpsed during her time of service at the Heights. Conspicuous among such shortcomings are her sundry disloyalties to Edgar Linton as manifest partly through her occasional failure to keep his daughter Cathy under requisite control, but mainly through yielding to the nefarious demands of Heathcliff. Whether Nelly deserves to have successfully reached the apex of her domestic career, as she appears to have done by the end of the narrative, may be deemed an open question.
‘Of Spirits so Lost and Fallen’: The Violent Byronic Hero in Miserrimus and Wuthering Heights
pp. 33-45 Author: Lydia Craig
Abstract:
Key thematic parallels between Frederic Mansel Reynolds’ controversial Miserrimus: A Tale (1833) and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847) indicate an intertextual connection between these novels in their suggestive portrayal of the Byronic hero as demonic entity. Crafted by Reynolds to explore the realised violent potential of Lord Byron’s heroes, Miserrimus risks becoming inhuman and spiritually damned under the influence of unrestrained passion and revels in committing acts of cruelty. Similarly moulding Heathcliff in the Byronic tradition, Emily takes inspiration from Miserrimus’ demonic violence to add mystery to her character’s all-absorbing desire for revenge. Knowingly, each man faces the prospect of eternal damnation but cannot spiritually recover from the consequences of selfish fury. With Heathcliff’s death, Wuthering Heights eliminates the threat of the violent Byronic hero to restore a more hopeful future prospect, unlike Miserrimus, which concludes only with expressions of misery and regret.
Serializing Victorian Fiction Abroad. The Earliest Translation of Jane Eyre in the Iberian Peninsula
pp. 46-61 Author: Marta Ortega Sáez
Abstract:
Soon after Jane Eyre (1847) left Charlotte Brontë’s desk, the novel began an international journey that reached several countries worldwide. In Spain, the first translation of Jane Eyre was serialized in the capital’s daily newspaper El Globo from 9 September 1882 until 7 February 1883. It is a retranslation into Spanish of the 1854 French rendering of Brontë’s novel by Madame Lesbazeilles-Souvestre, which had altered the English text to conform to stereotypical female attitudes in France. This paper will examine the role of folletines in the dissemination of foreign literature in nineteenth century Spain and the particular idiosyncrasies of the Jane Eyre published in El Globo.
Sino-Soviet Relations under Class Discourse: Reading and Criticism of Wuthering Heights in China (1949–1966)
pp. 62-74 Author: Li Min
Abstract:
From 1949 to 1966, the period from the founding of the People’s Republic of China to the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, the discourse system that advocated class oppression and class contradiction dominated the fields of Chinese ideology and culture. Concurrently, on the other hand, the relations between China and the Soviet Union experienced changes from ‘close friends’ to ‘enemies’. The reading and criticism of Wuthering Heights (1847), a work from the Western world, became closely related to this mainstream discourse and the Sino-Soviet relations. The political manipulation of culture (literature included) has long been an important perspective of the Chinese cultural studies of this period, which can find a good example in the reading and criticism of Wuthering Heights.
Reconsidering Heathcliff in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights
pp. 75-87 Author: Sharon Lynne Joffe
Abstract:
Since Emily Brontë published Wuthering Heights in 1847, critics have debated the nature of Heathcliff’s background. Overwhelmingly, they have viewed Heathcliff as the representation of an Irish, Black, or Roma individual. This paper argues that Brontë incorporated nineteenth-century stereotypes of Jews into her character. Brontë would have been familiar with these stereotypes through her reading of Blackwood’s Magazine which regularly published articles that negatively depicted Jews. Heathcliff’s physical characteristics, his initial inability to speak English, his lineage, and his eventual success all support my contention that Brontë used Jewish stereotypes to create Heathcliff. Additionally, Heathcliff wanders the earth after death, and he is denied access to the Christian afterlife, an idea that confirms his Jewish roots. Such a representation ultimately challenges configurations of Christian identity in Victorian England. By invoking these cruel and unflattering stereotypes, Brontë comments on English society. Heathcliff becomes a character who incorporates both positive qualities and negative stereotypes and allows us to rethink stereotyping.
Marie Laurencin: The Modern Portraits of the Brontës
pp. 88-98 Author: Jian Choe
Abstract:
This article examines Marie Laurencin’s illustrations for Les Soeurs Brontë: Filles du Vent, René Crevel’s booklet of 1930. In five colour lithographs, she brought up to date Brontë portraiture, re-envisioning the sisters as icons of modern urban femininity. The print set can be considered Laurencin’s pictorial narratives on the sisters. It signifies the artist’s revisionist approach to the myth of the Brontës as elemental Romantic geniuses in rural Yorkshire. Laurencin’s exquisite, peculiarly feminized rendition of the sisters displaces them from their usual cult status, alluding to their potential interests and aspirations as ordinary women at a quotidian level. The evanescent, pastel-tinted images unsettle prevailing perceptions of the sisters, evoking the fundamental contingencies of the Brontë iconography. This body of graphic works claims a unique niche within the Brontë portrait canon.
Jane Eyre in China, 1867–1949: A Transnational Transfer and Cross-Cultural Spread
pp. 99-114 Author: Tianming Bai
Abstract:
Although there has been growing scholarly interest in the Brontë studies in China since its Reform and Opening-up (gaige kaifang) in the late 1970s, the Brontë sisters’ initial entry to China, the translation of their works and their Chinese reception before 1949 have not been adequately mapped out. This essay first delves into the transnational journey of the Brontës to China in Shanghai-based English newspapers. It then examines how the intellectual debate over literary translation in the 1920s preconditions the quintessentially Chinese reception of Jane Eyre and its cinematic reconstruction in the coming decades, centred on whether they were of political relevance to China. I attend to the ways in which the controversial Chinese reception of Jane Eyre and its 1944 film adaptation unveils a Chinese society that was dramatically transforming itself on intellectual, socio-political, and military fronts. In so doing, the paper sheds new light on the interpretation of Jane Eyre through a Chinese lens.Keynote Lecture
Honresfield: Imagining One Man’s Collectionpp. 115-125 Author: Kathryn Sutherland
Abstract:
This article is a reproduction of the keynote lecture as delivered at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Brontë Society on 10th September 2022. The talk will appear in expanded form in a book to be published in 2023 from the Friends of the National Libraries.Reading ListA Brontë Reading List: 2020pp 126-147 Author: Sara L. Pearson, Peter Cook &James OgdenAbstract:This reading list is an annotated bibliography of selected scholarly and critical work on the Brontës published in 2020.1 Bibliographical details are followed where possible by summaries and assessments. The list covers most book chapters and peer-reviewed articles on the Brontës, but it is not comprehensive. Articles published in Brontë Studies are as a rule excluded, as are books reviewed in Brontë Studies; readers are directed to the publisher’s website, www.tandfonline.com, for online access to these reviews. The author of each entry is indicated by the author’s initials in brackets following the entry.AnnouncementBrontë Studies Early Career Research Essay Prizepp 148-149Abstract:Brontë Studies is delighted to announce the launch of an Essay Prize established in honour of Margaret Smith. The Brontë Studies Early Career Research Essay Prize aims to encourage new scholarship in the field of Brontë studies, recognize and reward outstanding achievement by new researchers, and support the professional development of the next generation of Brontë scholars.Margaret Smith remains one of the most important Brontë scholars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As well as (co-)editing scholarly editions of Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette, and The Professor and The Oxford Companion to the Brontës (with Christine Alexander), Smith is widely regarded for her field-defining volumes of The Letters of Charlotte Brontë (1995, 2000, 2005). Alongside numerous other publications and contributions to the Brontë Society, Smith published many original articles and reviews in Brontë Studies over the years. Her minutely researched, comprehensive and scrupulous work will continue to be an indispensable resource and inspiration for current and future generations of Brontë scholars.ConferenceThe Brontë Society Conference 2023: How Beautiful the Earth is Stillpp 150-51Abstract:"The Brontë Society Conference 2023: How Beautiful the Earth is Still." Brontë Studies, 48(1-2), pp. 150–151
Call for papersCall for Papers—Brontë Studies Special Issue—Material Culturepp 152-153 Author: Deborah WynneAbstractCall for Papers—Brontë Studies Special Issue—Material CultureEditorial - Reviews SectionEditorial. Reviews Sectionp 154 Author: Carolyne Van Der Meer
Book ReviewsA Fever Dream of Love, Lust and ObsessionEmily by Frances O’Connorpp 155-156 Author: Michael StewartBrontë Festival of Women’s WritingDefying Expectations, 23–25 September 2022, In Haworth and Onlinepp. 157-158 Author: Dawn Gant
Drinks with Dead Poets: A Season of Poe, Whitman, Byron and the Brontës
pp. 159-162 Author: Carolyne Van Der Meer
