Anne Brontë, in theory

A scholar book with Brontë interests:

Literature, In Theory
Tropes, Subjectivities, Responses and Responsibilities
by Julian Wolfreys
* Imprint: Continuum
* Pub. date: 23 Feb 2010
* ISBN: 9781441123244

Jacques Derrida has argued about the difference between literature and theory that despite its institutional status, part of its ‘institution’ is the right of literature to say anything. Literature cannot be defined as such, and as soon as one seeks to produce a reading of the literary, complications arise.
Yet despite its institutional significance, ‘theory’ remains something many wish would go away; and which, for others, is still not read, is misread, and remains to be read. Like literature, it remains as an enigmatic identity, resistant to definition, but subject to misperceptions and open to general statements that are more or less inaccurate.
By examining how ‘theory’ and ‘literature’ are concepts and names which touch on one other incomplex ways, Julian Wolfreys seeks to understand their intersections and differences. Examining a wide range of authors, from Dickens to Joyce, and engaging directly with a number of major theorists, Wolfreys takes the reader on a journey through the issues and ideas involved in reading literature, in theory.

Chapter three centers on Anne Brontë: In Visibility or, the Appearance of ‘True Histories’: Truth, Confession and Revelation in Anne Brontë.

On the other hand, The Child Writer from Austen to Wolf (edited by Christine Alexander and Juliet McMaster) which includes essays about Charlotte and Branwell's Juvenilia appears now in paperback (the hardback edition was publihed in 2005):

The Child Writer from Austen to Woolf
Series: Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture (No. 47)
Edited by Christine Alexander, Juliet McMaster
Cambridge University Press
ISBN-13: 9780521128384

In this highly original collection leading scholars address the largely overlooked genre of childhood writings by major authors, and explore the genesis of genius. The book includes essays on the first writings of Jane Austen, Byron, Elizabeth Barrett, Charlotte and Branwell Brontë, Louisa May Alcott, George Eliot, John Ruskin, Lewis Carroll and Virginia Woolf. All began writing for pleasure as children, and later developed their professional ambitions. In bursts of creative energy, these young authors, as well as those like Daisy Ashford, who wrote only as a child, produced prose, verse, imitation and parody, wild romance and down-to-earth daily records. Their juvenile writings are fascinating both in themselves, and for the promise of greater works to come. The volume includes an invaluable and thorough annotated bibliography of juvenilia, and will stimulate many directions for research in this lively and fascinating topic.

Categories: Anne Brontë, Books, Juvenilia, Scholar