Brontë Studies. Volume 31, Issue 2

The new issue of Brontë Studies (Volume 31, Issue 2, July 2006) is already available on-line. We provide you the table of contents and abstracts:

Editorial pp. iii-iv(1) Author: Duckett, Bob

ARTICLES

Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, and the Meaning of Love pp. 93-100(8) Author: Weisser, Susan Ostrov
Abstract
Charlotte Brontë's novels were a clear departure from the romantic novels in vogue in her time, typified in the work of Jane Austen. No longer were manners, appearance and submissive conformity the ideal. Charlotte believed in a heroine's inner strength, her moral integrity, and her intellectual qualities. The nature of this change is analysed.

The Professor: The Third Participant pp. 101-111(11) Author: Betsinger, Sue Ann
Abstract
The Professor is a new kind of story by a new kind of novelist. Informed by Charlotte Brontë's private reading of the Fall Myth, the novel presents her original hero, Adam's Son, her original heroine, Eve's Daughter, and the significant third participant in Eden. Her uniquely conceived serpent-figure, Hunsden Yorke Hunsden, is an essential influence, crucial to the moral development of the hero and instrumental to the achievement of every good thing in his life.

Painful Life, Azrael, The Weary, and Dr Wheelhouse: The Diverse Legacy of Branwell Brontë pp. 113-119(7) Author: FitzGerald, Sally
Abstract
Three of Branwell Brontë's poems and his unfinished novel are analysed to illustrate the richness of his thought. As more of Branwell's work is published a better appreciation can be made of his skill and his claim to be heard.

'Addresses from the land of the dead': Emily Brontë and Shelley pp. 121-131(11) Author: Stoneman, Patsy
Abstract
In this essay, I adopt the position of several previous critics who have argued that Emily Brontë was influenced by the writings of Percy Bysshe Shelley, and particularly by his poem, Epipsychidion. After sketching an outline of Shelley's life and ideas, and considering the evidence for Emily Brontë's familiarity with them, I summarise what previous critics have made of the relation between the two writers, noting that they have most often singled out Shelley's 'twin soul' idea as linking Epipsychidion with Wuthering Heights. Unlike previous critics, however, I emphasise that the most notorious passage in Epipsychidion is not the 'twin soul' idea but its manifesto of 'free love', which allows Shelley to envisage his love for Emilia as existing alongside that for his wife, Mary. My argument is that, if we accept Emily Brontë's fascination with this poem, it is logical to read her novel as an exploration of the consequences of reversing the genders in Shelley's schema. While Mary and Emilia each accept the other, Edgar and Heathcliff adopt a stance of implacable enmity which not only breaks Catherine's heart, but leaves her ghost begging for entry to a memory in which she exists only as a motive for revenge.
Text based on a talk given at a Day School in Haworth in October 2005 on 'The Brontës and The Poets'.

'A Wild, Wick Slip She Was': The Passionate Female in Wuthering Heights and The Memoirs of Emma Courtney pp. 133-143(11) Author: Fisk, Nicole Plyler
Abstract
Mary Hays's Memoirs of Emma Courtney is an antecedent of, and possible influence on, Emily Brontë. Hays's Memoirs (1796) and Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1847) offer parallel representations of the passionate female. While Emily's Catherine Earnshaw has received much attention in academia, Hays's Emma Courtney remains overlooked. I examine Emma as an early 'Catherine', which, in turn, reveals Hays's and Brontë's similar criticism of 'respectable', patriarchal society, which allows no place for such passionate female expression. It is not coincidental that in the course of the novels, both Emma and Catherine are continually upbraided for and warned against their wayward passionate natures, both submit to passionless marriages, and, eventually, both are either psychologically or physically destroyed.

Anne Lister and Lesbian Desire in Charlotte Brontë's Shirley pp. 145-155(11) Author: Longmuir, Anne
Abstract
During the winter of 1838-39, Emily Brontë lived close to Shibden Hall, whose owner was Anne Lister. Lister's diaries reveal numerous sexual and romantic relationships with women, including her 'marriage' to Ann Walker. While critics and historians have speculated about the connection between Anne Lister and Emily, no consideration has been given to the connection between Charlotte Brontë's novel, Shirley, and Anne Lister's life, despite obvious similarities and the likelihood that Charlotte knew of Lister. Like Shirley Keeldar, Lister was a Yorkshire landowner, who adopted a masculine persona and was attracted to a weaker, more feminine woman. But we do not suggest a crude cause-and-effect between Lister's life and Charlotte Brontë's novel. Instead, it is more appropriate to read Lister's diaries as chronicling ideas and attitudes that were part of Charlotte's world and which open up readings of Shirley which would, before the discovery of Lister's diaries, be anachronistic. In this way, Lister's text allows a more explicitly sexual interpretation of female relationships in Charlotte's novel.
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Short Items

The Book She Never Wrote: Charlotte and the Chartists pp. 157-158(2) Author: Hansen, Astrid
Abstract
An account of a visit by Charlotte Brontë to the village of Wilsden in search of information about the Chartists, for a projected novel.

A Necktie and a Lock of Hair: The Memories of George Feather the Younger pp. 159-162(4) Authors: Ian,; Emberson, Catherine
Abstract
An account of a little-known article by John Longbottom featuring memories from Sally and Hannah Dawson of the Reverend Patrick Brontë and the death of Charlotte Brontë.

Face to Face with Charlotte Brontë: The 2006 Exhibition in Charlotte's Room pp. 163-166(4) Author: Salter, Polly

Reviews pp. 167-178(12)

Categories: Journals, Scholar, Brontë_Society