Brontë Birds

An interesting and curious alert for today, December 14, in New Haven, Connecticut. A talk about the use of birds in Charlotte and Emily Brontë's novels.

New Haven Bird Club.
Thursday, December 14, 2006

The social half-hour begins at 7:00 PM; the program at 7:30 PM. Except where noted in the program descriptions below, all meetings will be held in the Jones Auditorium, CT Agricultural Experiment Station, Huntington St., New Haven, Connecticut.

Naturalists & Novelists
David Spector

Birds have played many roles in literature. They have been symbols in mythology as well as the blithe spirits of romantic poetry. They appear as flamingo croquet mallets in Alice in Wonderland, and the British field guide author James Bond even gave his name to Ian Fleming's spy. In this presentation, David, a biology professor at CCSU, focuses on the use of birds in the novels of Emily and Charlotte Brontë. He has chosen their best known books, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, to illustrate how an understanding of the biology of birds can give new insight into their use as symbols in literary works. Much of the Brontë sisters' bird knowledge came from Thomas Bewick's History of British Birds. The book influenced and inspired many people throughout the 19th century, among them the poet Tennyson who mentioned no fewer than 60 species of birds in his works. David's program will include many slides of Bewick's elegant and pioneering wood engravings. And just as Bewick's bird descriptions informed novelists and poets, so too his illustrations inspired other illustrators, including Audubon.

The reader interested on this topic can check the following articles available on line:

Bird Imagery Throughout Jane Eyre by Dawn Newlin
Bird Imagery in Jane Eyre by David Anderson.

And of course, Thomas Bewick's A History of British Birds that can be read online, here.

Categories: Talks, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights