The Balance between Earth, Sky and Grace

Some recent scholar papers:

On Finding the Balance between Earth and Sky: Jeanette Winterson, Charlotte Brontë, and the "Bluebeard" Tale
Heta Pyrhönen, University of Helsinki, Finland
Contemporary Women's Writing 2008 2(1):50-69

Jeanette Winterson's debut novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985), is one of the most notable postmodern rewritings of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847).1 Winterson acknowledges her debt to Brontë on the novel's first page, and throughout, manifold intertextual links are obvious. Both novels are fictional autobiographies focusing on a young woman's Bildung narrative. Winterson, however, departs from the heterosexual romance of Jane Eyre by replacing Jane's love for Mr. Rochester with the love of a heroine having the same first name as the author—Jeanette—for Melanie. While this change surely is significant, what unites the novels is their shared emphasis on the religious and spiritual dimensions of love. Jane believes that she is called to serve God as Rochester's wife; Jeanette too must decide what role God plays in matters of the heart.

Reflection and The Aesthetics of Grace in Villette
by Linda Freedman
Literature and Theology 2008 22(4):406-418

This article is a reading of the aesthetics of grace through the Pauline theology in Villette. Divine grace is given as a gift and is fulfilled only in death. I discuss the Pauline theology which underlies the novel and argue that the structures of giving and withholding are central to Lucy's sense of her own salvation. I explore the connection between surveillance and the Pauline idea of ‘seeing through a glass darkly’ and argue that the aesthetics of grace are ultimately tied to the book's status as a reflected narrative.

Categories: Journals, Scholar