Brontë Studies. Volume 37, Issue 3

The new issue of Brontë Studies (Volume 37, Issue 3, September 2012) is already available online. We provide you with the table of contents and abstracts:

Editorial
pp. ii-iii(2) Author: Adams, Amber M.

‘Give me my name’: Naming and Identity In and Around Jane Eyre
pp. 174-189(16)  Author: Earnshaw, Steven
Abstract:
The article discusses the importance of names, naming and identity in connection with Jane Eyre. A focus on the framing provided by the title page is the basis for insights into the importance ‘names and naming’ has for our interpretation of the novel, leading to discussion of how these elements are innovatively handled in a mid-nineteenth-century context. Such an apprehension of what a name is (or is perceived to be) becomes key to our understanding of Jane’s and the novel’s sense of self and identity.

Pilate’s Wife’s Dream
pp. 190-193(4)  Author: Brontë, Charlotte

Charlotte Brontë’s Poetics: A Study of ‘Pilate’s Wife’s Dream’
pp. 194-207(14)  Author:  Pearson, Sara L
Abstract:
Charlotte Brontë’s poetry has often been dismissed as inferior to her sisters’ and uninteresting in its own right. Using her poem ‘Pilate’s Wife’s Dream’ as a representative example, this article will illustrate some of Charlotte’s strengths and weaknesses as a poet. In this poem, the strengths include her use of end-rhyme, rhetorical devices (particularly personification) and characterization as a part of her boldly creative expansion of a few biblical verses; among its weaknesses are her unimaginative use of the stanza form, her prosaic syntax and her pedestrian metre. Despite these shortcomings, ‘Pilate’s Wife’s Dream’ has great literary merit, indicating that Charlotte Brontë’s poetry is worthy of further critical attention.

Charlotte Brontë’s Headaches: Fact and Fiction
pp. 208-215(8)   Author:  Larner, A J
Abstract:
A reading of the letters of Charlotte Brontë shows that she suffered an intermittent headache disorder throughout her adult life, with many of the features of headache being compatible with a diagnosis of migraine. Although such headaches interrupted her social and occupational functions including on occasion her writing, they do not seem to have informed her fictional characterizations, since reports of headache occur rarely in her novels.

‘The Fiery Imagination’: Charlotte Brontë, the Arabian Nights and Byron’s Turkish Tales
pp. 216-226(11)  Author:  Llewellyn, Tanya.
Abstract:
Although the influence of the Arabian Nights on Charlotte Brontë’s imaginative and artistic development is well known, this influence is generally considered in relation to her earlier writings. This study explores how references to the Nights in Charlotte Brontë’s adult fiction function complexly as symbols of both an imaginative liberation that takes on a heightened importance for women within their confined sphere and, conversely, of the sexual danger (and allure) with which Charlotte Brontë associates the Orient through Byron’s Turkish Tales. As for many contemporary writers, Charlotte Brontë’s life-long struggle with the danger and allure of imagination itself — the godlike act of artistic creation — is transposed on to an Orientalist fantasy beyond the borders of English identity.

Physiognomy in Anne Brontë’s Fiction
pp. 227-237(11)   Author: Tytler, Graeme
Abstract:
Anne Brontë’s novels are interesting for the ways in which they reflect the impact that physiognomic theories, especially those advanced by Lavater, exerted on European cultural life during the first half of the nineteenth century. But although it is possible to discern certain analogies between Anne’s descriptive methods and Lavater’s ideas, as it is to trace Scott’s influence in her depictions of the outward person, our concern here is chiefly to consider how physiognomy is used in her fiction for essentially structural purposes. Noteworthy in this connection is the important part played by observation, whereby the author makes it abundantly clear that a capacity (or incapacity) to read the human face has profound moral implications. Perhaps the most significant aspect of physiognomy in Anne Brontë’s novels, however, is to be found in her treatment of love, notably in her delineation of the relationship between Agnes Grey and Edward Weston.

Patrick Brontë as a Local Author
pp. 238-249(12)  Author:  Duckett, Bob
Abstract:

Reprinted from The Bradford Antiquary, 2011, with kind permission of the Bradford Historical and Antiquarian Society.

An account of the literary career of Patrick Brontë, from early poetry and articles in church magazines to novels, tracts and letters in local newspapers. In addition to being an inspirational role model for his children, the Reverend Patrick Brontë was a leading local thinker on ecclesiastical and political affairs.

A Brontë Reading List: Part 5
pp.  250-258(9) Author:  Ogden, James; Pearson, Sara L
Abstract:This is part of an annotated bibliography of scholarly and critical essays. The earlier parts were published in Brontë Studies, 32·2 (July 2007), 33·3 (November 2008), 34·3 (November 2009), and 36·4 (November 2011). The five parts cover about 250 essays published from 1999 to 2011.

Correspondence: Did Charlotte Brontë write ‘Kitty Bell’?
pp.  262-263(2)   Author: Stoneman, Patsy

Correspondence: Did Charlotte Brontë Write ‘Kitty Bell’?: A Reply
pp.  264-266(3)   Author:  Heywood, Christopher