The Independent asks, 'Is feminism relevant to 21st-century fiction?' and quotes Brontëite Joyce Carol Oates as saying:
"In the short run, something like a 'political' vision seems essential; in the long run, it is probably irrelevant. One can sense, for instance, from a reading of Jane Eyre, that the author is both a revolutionary - (in the very trajectory of her tale of a young, disenfranchised orphan-girl's rise to the most extraordinary social position) - and a traditionalist - (the triumphant rise is by way of romantic love and its outward sign is a marriage in the Church of England): that is, Charlotte Brontë transcends both, in her literary genius. How many other women writers struggled to express these same goals, with limited literary success - their names unknown to us, now? A revolutionary political vision will attract attention - initially. But if the literary work is not enduring, the politics will soon become dated. That is why the most seemingly apolitical of American women poets, Emily Dickinson, reads as if she were our contemporary, while the feminist polemics of women writers of the 1970s and 1980s have lost their audiences." (Arifa Akbar)
Indeed.
Jane Eyre is a book for all sorts of readers, as proved by this review in
The New York Times of children's book Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt, where
as [eighth grader] Doug studies “Jane Eyre” in English class, Charlotte Brontë’s diction begins to seep into his vocabulary, just as Audubon’s birds seep into his soul. (Richard Peck)
That's why we think that this open confession by
The Gustavian Weekly is nothing but her loss:
I’ve also realized that although I have a space in this newspaper every week, some people might not agree with what I have to say or even want to read it. That is their choice, and I respect that choice. I choose not to read any books by the Brontë sisters or the business section of the newspaper, and that’s OK, too. (Susan Kranz)
As the
Epsom Guardian says in a review of Shared Experience's Polly Teale's
Brontë,
Jane Eyre is the most - read book in the English language after the bible, and Wuthering Heights is still hugely popular. [...]
The writer Polly Teale cleverly combines fact and fiction exposing the soul of their inner lives which ran free in their writing and provided an escape from the parsonage drudgery. All the Brontës struggled in the real world trying and failing to hold down careers as either tutors or governesses. [...]
The play is extremely well researched and beautifully written genuinely conveying a deeper understanding of the harsh realities of the Brontes’ lives and their thwarted hopes and dreams. Branwell’s slow decline as his world collapsed into an opiate sea of laudanum is most sympathetically portrayed.
Great trouble is taken to set the piece firmly in the grip of the industrial revolution with its grey, grim textile mills counterpointing with the wild and craggy heather-clad moors.
This is a deeply thought - provoking piece that is a must for literary souls alike that will have you reaching for your copy of Jane Eyre and wondering at the rare genius of three sisters who haunt and perplex us still. (Liz Colbert)
A Younger Theatre reviews the play as well:
Teale ingeniously decided to mix fictional and real characters, bringing the mundane, domestic lives of the three women alive as it would have been in their extraordinary minds. France McNamee plays Cathy Earnshaw, Emily’s wild heroine from Wuthering Heights, as well as a madwoman who expresses Charlotte’s hidden desires as well as being a reference to Mrs. Rochester from Jane Eyre. McNamee is absolutely stunning in her portrayal of these imagined people, having only a brief moment onstage to establish complex and intricate characters. Her command of the stage space is extraordinary and captivating in both her projection and passionate dance sequences. For a part that is meant to be on the periphery, McNamee does well to steal the limelight every now and then and breathe life into the characters. (Tiffany Stoneman)
Barry Wilson writes in
The Toronto Star about a 'sophisticated sea-to-sea stroll across England' where
Our walking itinerary of towns reads like an English writer’s literature studies course. We’ll visit poet William Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage in Grasmere. Tread in the footsteps of James Herroit’s veterinary characters as they tended to, “All Creatures Great and Small” and explore the same haunting moors that the Brontë sisters used as a backdrop for their novels.
And two more reviews of Stevie Nicks's new album which includes the song
Wide Sargasso Sea. According to the
Dallas Voice,
The title track and the subsequent “Wide Sargasso Sea” have a stronger pulse, mixed well but letting her jam out just a hair. (Rich Lopez)
And the
Global Times thinks that,
Reliably refined, Nicks still manages to rock out while making nearly every other diva of any era look positive gauche by comparison, especially on the Eagles-esque "Wide Sargasso Sea" and Mac-classic-styled "Ghosts Are Gone." (Michael Gold)
The strange description of the day comes from
The Philadelphia Inquirer:
David Hasselhoff, the perennially tanned and topless friend of beach bunnies the world over, has joined Ving Rhames, Christopher Lloyd, and Paul Scheer in the cast of horror sequel Piranha 3DD, the touching Emily Brontë-esque story of lil' fishies with really sharp, pointy teeth. (Jonathan Storm)
Finally, an alert from the Australian Brontë Association:
14 May 10:30am Sydney Mechanical School of Arts
Mandy Swan - Charlotte Brontë and Romanticism
Categories: Books, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, References, Theatre, WeirdoWide Sargasso Sea
0 comments:
Post a Comment