From the Poisoned Gift of Forgiveness to Body Horror

Upcoming and recent Brontë-related talks:

The Poisoned Gift of Forgiveness in Jane Eyre
Professor Henry Staten (University of Washington)
2nd May 2013, 17:00 to 18:45, Seminar Room, Hallgarth House, Durham University, UK

In the mid-19th century the new materialist “physio-psychology” of Alexander Bain, Herbert Spencer, and G. H. Lewes, which reduced “mind” and “soul” to movements of “nerve energy,” held sway. Under its influence, the Brontës and George Eliot developed a radical new form of novelistic moral psychology, one that was no longer bound by the idealizing presuppositions of traditional Christian moral ideology, and which is closely related to Nietzsche’s physiological theory of will to power (itself directly influenced by Spencer). This lecture explains how, through the figure of St. John Rivers, Charlotte Brontë in Jane Eyre investigated the “free gift” of forgiveness in terms of the physio-psychology of vengeance—a paradigm case of the poisoning of the aggressive instincts when they are repressed by a moral ideology that ignores their physiological hydraulics, forcing them to find covert expression.

The Labyrinth in Religion and The Arts
Conference to be held on May 1, 2013 at 11:30 AM in Obal Hall on Lodi Campus
Felician College, Lodi, NJ
The Spiritual, Emotional, and Moral Labyrinth in Jane Eyre—Dr. Sherida Yoder, English, FC

2013 Undergraduate Literature Conference
Department of English, University of Pittsburgh, April 12, 2013

Racial Passing in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Joelle Chasse
Merit in Such Goodness: Re-reading Jane Eyre as a (Particularly Female) Marxist Allegory, Ronald E. Reha, Jr.
An Unconventional Religion: Emily Brontë’s Deathless Love in Wuthering Heights, Jaclyn Gaydos
Wide Sargasso Sea: the Predetermined Pilgrim’s Progress, Raymond Van Ham

Women's & Gender Studies Conference
Women, Leadership & Power
March 25-26, 2013
Wilkes University, PA
‘Speak I Must’: An Examination of  Social Class and Personal Identity in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Michael Ruth, King’s College

This paper discusses the idea of social class juxtaposed with individualism  in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. It argues that Jane is fully aware of her low  place in nineteenth-century English society, but that she has such a strong  sense of personal identity and dignity that she finds the courage to break a societal taboo when she stands up to her “superior” guardian, Mrs. Reed.

1st Global Conference
Body Horror. Contagion, Mutation, Transformation
11th February – 13th February 2013
Sydney, Australia

Bertha Mason in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea: A Racialised Body Redeemed in Different Space and Time, Irenna Chang.