Diagnosing Bertha

The Telegraph and Argus has good news for those living in the wider Keighley area in postcodes BD20, 21 and 22.

The “Go Local” day on Sunday organised by tourism group Bronte Country Partnership is aimed at residents who have never visited places like the world famous Bronte Parsonage Museum at Haworth.
The special day is specifically for people who live in the wider Keighley area in postcodes BD20, 21 and 22.
Spearheading the initiative is Graham Mitchell, chairman of trustees at the Keighley Bus Museum, which is one of the seven venues taking part. He said: “People tend not to visit the attractions on their doorsteps, even when these attractions have a national or even international reputation.
“Many of us drive past the sites daily and yet have never been inside.
“The free day represents huge value for money, particularly for families, and it shows the great wealth of attractions and things to do in the area and how accessible these activities are for local residents.
“We hope the day will encourage residents to visit more often and realise the fun days out they can have on their doorstep and perhaps bringing friends and relatives next time.”
Free entry is up for grabs at: l Bronté Parsonage Museum in Haworth l Cliffe Castle museum, Keighley l East Riddlesden Hall, Riddledsen l Ingrow Loco Museum in Keighley l Keighley & Worth Valley Railway l Keighley Bus Museum in Dalton Lane l Museum of Rail Travel at Ingrow, Keighley.
The bus museum will also be running a free heritage service linking the Ingrow Railway Centre, East Riddlesden Hall, the Keighley Bus Museum and Cliffe Castle Museum.
To qualify for free entry, residents need to provide proof of residency in BD20, 21 or 22, such as a utility bill. Opening times will vary, so visitors are recommended to check at visitbrontecountry.com or at their local Visitor Information Centre. (Clive White)

The Brontë Parsonage Museum is of course the main Brontë-related feature, but it should be remembered as well that East Riddlesden Hall became Wuthering Heights in the latest screen adaptation of the novel.

The Guardian reviews the recent BBC Radio 4 programme Madwomen in the Attic (still available online):

Madwomen in the Attic (Radio 4) was a spirited, none too earnest look at unstable female characters in classic novels. "Back-diagnosing psychiatric illness from the pages of novels – where's the rigour?" asked presenter Vivienne Parry, adding: "But it's so much fun, let's do it anyway."
Starting with the most famous of the lot, the imprisoned Bertha Rochester in Jane Eyre, psychoanalyst Adam Phillips said he feels everyone has her kind of attic in their own head – "at the top of the building, a sealed-off space you have to make an effort to get to". Dinesh Bhugra, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, gamely had a go at diagnosis. Most probably, Bertha, uprooted from Jamaica, was an early example of psychosis related to migration, he noted. If he were treating her, he'd try anti-psychotic medication, psychotherapy and occupational therapy: "and then she might not play with matchsticks".
Anne Catherick in The Woman in White and Emma in Madame Bovary also got restrospective assessments – "most probably a learning difficulty" and "possibly bipolar" – but the most convincing observation came from literary academic Sandra Gilbert. "Over and over again in these novels, the woman labelled mad is someone who has not accepted her socially established position in a culture that wants to subordinate her," she said. (Camilla Redmond)

Children's literature author Maryrose Wood, whose first book is The Mysterious Howling, is interviewed by The Tacoma News Tribune:

Finding the voice of the narrator took some trial and error. I needed a narrator who could not only entertain and keep the story chugging along, but draw the reader into the world of Victorian England and bridge that gap for today's kid. The technique of addressing the reader directly is a really fun way to do this, but it's also true to the period. Think of how Charlotte Bronte has the character of Jane Eyre tell us: "Reader, I married him" - surely one of the most satisfying lines in English literature! (Catherine Mallette)

Charlotte Brontë has quite a birthday party on the blogosphere. All these people are celebrating: Enslow Publishers (they published A Student's Guide to the Brontë Sisters last year), Kristin Berkey-Abbott (by posting about Jane Eyre), SpartaBlog! (a blog by the staff the Northampton Community College Libraries in Bethlehem and Tannersville, Pennsylvania with suggestions of suitable reads for this day (or any other day, actually)), the Brontë Sisters (in Dutch), Boktokig (in Swedish) and The Educated Imagination (with quotations by literary critic Northrop Frye on Shirley).

Finally, Flickr user MichelleNoel has uploaded a picture of a heavily bookmarked copy of Wuthering Heights which comes with a funny anecdote.

Categories: Alert, Audio-Radio, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Charlotte Brontë, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Shirley, Wuthering Heights