Brontë Studies. Volume 39. Issue 2

The new issue of Brontë Studies (Volume 39, Issue 2, April 2014) is already available online. We provide you with the table of contents and abstracts:

Editorial: 
pp. iii-iv Author: Adams, Amber M.

Patrick Brontë: the Man who Arrived at Cambridge University
pp. 93–105  Author: Wilks, Brian
Abstract:
This paper discusses the importance in Patrick Brontë’s life of his early years (1777–1802) in County Down, Ireland, an area greatly affected by the tumultuous turmoil in Europe, by violence, treason, sedition and rebellion. The reasons for Patrick’s ‘voluntary exile’ from his home are explored and the impact on him of life at Cambridge University as a sizar assessed. The idea of the family’s separateness is traced to its beginnings in Patrick Brontë’s early years. His compassion and understanding were based on his belief in the rule of law, he having experienced the atrocities and savagery of rebellion in his youth. His singularity of mind, his individualism and dedication to his work as a clergyman, all resulting from his early experiences, influenced and inspired his family.

The Brontës’ Irish Background Revisited
pp. 106–117    Author:  Chitham, Edward 
Abstract:
Interest is again being expressed in the Brontës’ Irish background. A number of points can be added to the research detailed in The Brontës’ Irish Background of 1986 and K. Constable’s A Stranger within the Gates in 2000. An important factor is the definite date now available for Hugh Brunty’s birth. Further to this, new light has been shed on the demography of County Fermanagh by the publication of the Ordnance Survey Memoirs in the 1990s and by more accessible copies of the Irish ‘Tithe Applotment’ and Griffith’s ‘Valuation’ on the Internet. This article brings some of this new material forward as a contribution to the understanding of the Brontes’ family heritage.

The Presentation of Hareton Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights
pp. 118–129       Author: Tytler, Graeme
Abstract:
It is evident from writings published on Wuthering Heights over the past hundred years or so that, in their concern with Hareton Earnshaw, Brontë scholars have tended to focus their attention on his character. But whereas only a handful of scholars have been affirmative in their evaluations of Hareton, a good many others have been somewhat dismissive in theirs, chiefly by comparing him unfavourably with Heathcliff. Yet valid as is this concern with Hareton’s character, there is nevertheless also a need to consider the thematic and structural functions of his role in the narrative. For instance, it is through their relations with Hareton that the author throws useful light on some of the main characters, just as it is through their particular limitations that we become aware of Hareton’s essential wholesomeness. Especially noteworthy is Emily Brontë’s discreet use of sundry references to Hareton, including some seemingly casual ones, in her apparent endeavour to present him as a figure who deserves consideration of a kind more serious than we readers might otherwise be inclined to bestow on him.

Let’s Not Have its Bowels Quite so Quickly, Then: a Response to Maggie Berg
pp. 130–140   Author:  Hornosty, Janina
Abstract:
In ‘“Let me have its bowels then”: Violence, Sacrificial Structure, and Anne Brontës The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’, Maggie Berg creates a useful frame in which to examine aspects of the violence that haunts The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and especially Helen Huntingdon’s past. Berg’s main theoretical touchstone is Derrida’s ‘carno-phallogocentric’ paradigm, and she correctly argues that ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall [...] elaborate[s] the psycho-social mechanisms by which men maintain this order, and the costs to its victims’. However, her employment of Anne Brontë’s descriptions of narrator Gilbert Markham is unjustifiably selective. Determined to peg Gilbert as unremittingly part of the carno-phallogocentric brotherhood by which Helen is victimized, Berg misses the ways in which the novel is structured to reveal his transcendence of the values to which he was born. Berg sets her carno-phallogocentric sniffer dogs running through the story, but they tree exactly the wrong man.

Narrating the Queen in Jane Eyre
pp. 141–152    Author:  Fain, Margaret
Abstract:
The autobiographical elements of Jane Eyre have been examined in detail. Charlotte Brontë’s incorporation of contemporary social issues and historical accuracy has also received scrutiny as exemplars of issues in early Victorian England. Despite the intense scrutiny, few commentators have paused to consider whether Charlotte Brontë also drew upon the public image of the young Queen Victoria when developing the character of Jane Eyre.

Reviews
pp. 153-161  

Recent Brontë Books for Children
pp. 162-164     Author: Duckett, Bob