Brontë news on Veterans' Day

Brontë news don't amount to much today. But here's what we have.

This article in The Australian deals with how education standards are decreasing day by day. The author puts as example the theories of American academic Susan Ostrov Weisser (that recently contributed to the July issue of Brontë Studies the paper: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, and the Meaning of Love)

American academic Susan Ostrov Weisser, a professor of English, points out in an essay on college classroom culture, published in US journal Academe, that the study of literature increasingly comes down not to expertise and knowledge but to feeling. Instead of a student and teacher discussing, perhaps, the biographical, historical and social contexts in which Charlotte Bronte wrote, and researching the evidence, they talk about how the student reacts to the novel, what it personally does or does not mean to them. "No one can then agree or disagree with you because it's all about you," Weisser says. (Shelley Gare)

This approach it's not a bad thing per se. But of course as far as the Brontës are concerned all those areas have already been looked at time and time again, so it's easy. Now pick an obscure writer from an obscure era in an obscure country and you will most certainly need some background in order to approach them scholarly.

And you can still go to see Baltimore's Jane Eyre The Musical. Remember that a reader of this blog ZZBest, highly recommended it!

Theater production // Dundalk Community Theatre's production of Jane Eyre - The Musical will be held at 8 p.m. in the K Building Theatre, CCBC Dundalk, 7200 Sollers Point Road. Call for ticket information. 410-780-6369.

The show closes tomorrow.

And finally, not really Brontë-related but we thought some of you might be interested to read what Ruth Wilson's post-Jane-Eyre life is like. Not only will she be appearing in Maple: Nemesis, but she will be also working for Stephen Poliakoff (that is Sandy Welch's husband)... along with Maggie Smith (Toby Stephen's mother). Perhaps she intends to work with the whole family? ;)

Filming started in London on two new dramas written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff produced by talkback THAMES for HBO Films and the British Broadcasting Corp.: Gideon’s Daughter and The Lost Prince.
Both films feature Michael Gambon (HBO’s Path to War, Gosford Park), Maggie Smith (HBO’s My House in Umbria, Gosford Park), Rupert Penry Jones (Spooks), Kelly Reilly (Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Henderson Presents), David Walliams (Little Britain), Ruth Wilson (Jane Eyre), Rebecca Hall (HBO Films’ Starter for Ten, The Prestige) and newcomer Danny Lee Wynter.
Original two-part miniseries Tsunami, The Aftermath will debut on HBO Sunday, Dec. 10 and 17, at 8 p.m. (EST/PST).

That was the American take. Read about the British take on this project here.

And now for the curious things found today on the net. We have to thank Melmoththelost for this extraordinary find:

Jane EYRE did indeed marry Mr ROCHESTER, albeit a William, in Hartlepool in 1854.
The evidence is here in the Tees Valley Indexes online.This being only some 7 years after the publication of Charlotte Brontë's blockbuster novel of 1847, one imagines that the couple concerned came in for a great deal of nuptial ribbing of a more literary than lewd bent.

Categories: Scholar, In the News, Jane Eyre