An online course with Dr Sam Hirst.
The Brontë Parsonage Museum is excited to be running a second online course with Dr Sam Hirst, a Teaching Associate at Sheffield University, who led our 'Brontës and the Gothic' course last year.
This course will explore the relationship between the Brontë siblings and the work and life of Lord Byron. Byron’s celebrity at the start of the nineteenth century saw his star dramatically rise and fall. Almost as well known for his public persona and his many scandals as he was for his poetry, Byron was the subject of furious debate, poetic veneration, and equally fervid hatred. His polarising legacy and the popularity of his work – full of Byronic outcasts and savage, commanding men – continued throughout the nineteenth century. This online course explores the influence of his work, his life, and his image on the Brontë siblings and their own literary creations.
Week 1- Byron and his legacy
This first session will explore who Byron was, what he wrote, and how he was viewed. It will look at some of the controversies surrounding him and will follow the ‘legacy wars’ of the nineteenth century, in which competing biographies vilified and defended him in turn. We will look at the influence of his work on his peers and on the work of subsequent generations, and explore how the Brontës themselves interacted with his work.
Week 2- Byron and the Brontës’ early work
In this session, we will look at how the Byronic figure appears in the early work of the siblings, focusing on Charlotte and Branwell. We will focus on heroic and anti-heroic figures, discuss the Byronic models the siblings drew from, and explore their changing relationship to this Byronic figure. We will also explore how the Byronic ‘image’ occurs in their broader creative work (not only their writing).
Week 3- Byronic Romance in the Brontës’ novels
This session will explore the figure of the Byronic romance interest, particularly in the work of Charlotte Brontë. The talk will explore how Charlotte adopted the Byronic figure, changed it, and critiqued it. It will go on to see how Charlotte’s reimagining of the Byronic figure impacted the broader history of popular romance and the brooding heroes we have to this day.
Week 4- Byronic outcasts on the Brontë moors
This session will explore the idea of the Byronic outcast and his relationship to the natural world in the writing of Emily Brontë. We will look at how Emily rewrites the Byronic outcast and the motif of the Byronic heroine in her own writing and poetry.
Week 5- Byronic villains at Wildfell Hall
This session will explore the legacy of Byron as villain and Anne Brontë’s critique of the Byronic figure. It will also explore the complicated relationship between Byron and Branwell and how this plays out in Anne’s fiction and poetry.
Suggested reading- None of this reading is compulsory but reading beforehand may enrich the discussions. If you have limited time, Sam would recommend concentrating on the Juvenilia, as this tends to be the part of the family's writing that people are less familiar with and it is the most obviously influenced by Byron.
Tales of Glasstown, Angria and Gondal (Oxford) - particularly 'Albion and Marina'.
'Caroline Vernon' and 'Mina Laury' by Charlotte Brontë.
'A Pirate's Tale' by Branwell.
Charlotte Brontë - 'The Duke of Zamorna' (can be found in Tales of Angria published by Penguin)
Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë - The Professor
Emily Brontë - Wuthering Heights
Anne Brontë - Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Lord Byron - The Corsair
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