Brontë Studies. Volume 38. Issue 2

The new issue of Brontë Studies (Volume 38, Issue 2, April 2013) is already available online. We provide you with the table of contents and abstracts:

Editorial
pp. iii Author: Adams, Amber M.

A Map: Plotting 300 Pages of `Longitude' Against 300 Years of `Latitude' to Elucidate the Nested Narratives of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights pp. 93-110(18)   Author: Boyce, Conal
Abstract:
The centrepiece of this essay is non-verbal: a full-page graphic (p. 96) that portrays the first three levels of Emily Brontë’s nested narratives. Its two-dimensional space is defined in one direction by the 300 pages of her novel and in the other by its 300-year span. Dates: in working out the infrastructure for the graphic, we review many of the traditional dates assigned to events in Wuthering Heights, and find a few that might bear revision. In a second graphic (p. 99), we provide a new representation of the Earnshaw/ Linton genealogy, employing a ‘timeless topological’ approach. Expanding on a minor theme in Paglia’s 1991 Wuthering Heights essay, we also explore the many shades of humour in the novel, the majority of which are either too subtle or too outrageous to be perceived as humour on the first reading.

Ireland, Africa and Love in Emily Brontë's Gondal Poems
pp.  111-125(15)      Author:  Heywood, Christopher
Abstract:
In 1919 Marion H. Spielmann published a short seven-page article entitled ‘The Inner History of the Brontë-Heger Letters’. This article claims to offer the true background facts to the four letters written by Charlotte Brontë to Constantin Heger in 1844‐45. It has been much quoted in studies on the Brontës, but has rarely been subject to critical analysis. In our essay we argue that many of the claims Spielmann makes in his article are difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile with true historical facts. A careful revision of Spielmann’s article is long overdue, for it is the only inner history we have of the letters. If his article is as unreliable as we claim it to be, then the history of these letters, among the most important biographical documents in the entire Brontë story, will have to be radically reconsidered.

Thematic Functions of Fire in Wuthering Heights
pp. 126-136(11)   Author:  Tytler, Graeme
Abstract:
One aspect of Wuthering Heights that deserves critical attention is the role and function of fire throughout the narrative. Prominent among references to this element are those underlining the utility of fires, fireplaces and their appurtenances in northern domestic life all the year round. But as well as sustaining the realism of Emily’s novel, some such references can be seen to be symbolically integral both to the presentation of Heathcliff and Catherine as individuals and to their problematic love story. Noteworthy, too, are some of the ways in which fireplaces play their part in the characterization of Hindley, Frances, Isabella and Linton Heathcliff. But though a reference to fire, including candlelight, tends to have a negative connotation, the author remains none the less mindful of the fireplace or hearth as a source of well-being, and nowhere more delightfully than through her delineation of the relationship between Cathy and Hareton.

Letter from a Father on Earth to his Child in her Grave
pp. 137-138(2)        Author:  Brontë, Branwell

Branwell Brontë and T. S. Eliot, April Rain and Aching Memories: History of a Reading?
pp. 139-144(6)   Author: Tonussi, Paola
Abstract:
In literary history it can happen that different sensibilities may produce novels or poems which recall one another, or hint to one another. This brief outline points out how a celebrated twentieth-century poet, T. S. Eliot, may have read one of Branwell Brontë’s late poems of despair, and from this he may perhaps have taken some inspiration for his own lines, now considered almost a symbol of modernist poetry, the renowned incipit of ‘The Waste Land’.

The Destroying Angel of Tempest': the Sea in Villette
pp.  145-156(12)       Author: Swann, Mandy
Abstract:

In Charlotte Brontë’s Villette, the sea represents the repressed intellectual power, romantic fantasies, resentment and fury of Lucy Snowe. Ocean images in Villette are entrenched within the ideological and iconographical heritage of Homer and the Bible. In the Odyssey and the Bible the sea is associated with dichotomous extremes of beauty and hideousness, gentleness and violence, and salvation and punishment. Charlotte’s seas of feminine desire and intellect reflect these dichotomous extremes. With Homeric echoes, Charlotte uses ocean imagery to depict the excesses of passion, insanity and hopelessness that result from the complete liberty of female emotion and intellect. Yet, with biblical echoes, she also uses ocean imagery to create the Christian framework she establishes in order to control these excesses. Ultimately, Charlotte makes the sea in this novel the cognate for human suffering, which she presents as simultaneously ugly, intolerable and exquisite.

The Depiction of Trauma and its Effect on Character Development in the Brontë Fiction 
pp. 157-168(12)  Author:  Morris, Patrick
Abstract:
The novels written by the Brontë sisters remain popular today and as authors they are highly regarded for their ability to express powerful emotions in their characters. This article analyses the portrayal of trauma in the form of child abuse and domestic violence in three key texts: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë. The authors’ intuitive understanding of trauma, both in its realistic depiction and its effect on character development is detailed with reference to modern psychological insights and recent literature on the psychological impact of trauma.

The Rioters' Yell in Shirley
pp. 169-172(4)  Author:  Nussey, John
Abstract:
This article gives background and context to the episode of the rioters’ yell in Charlotte Brontë’s novel Shirley, and considers how she may have known of it. It was edited from notes of the late John Nussey by Bob Duckett.

Reviews
pp. 173-180(8)

`Did Charlotte Brontë write “Kitty Bell“?': A Second Response to Christopher Heywood 
pp. 181-181(1)  Author:  Stoneman, Patsyº