Brussels Brontë Weekend 2019

This weekend, the Brontë Brussels Group celebrates the Brussels Brontë Weekend 2019: 

Brussels Brontë Weekend 
6-7 April 2019

Saturday 6 April

10.30: Talk by Professor Rosemary Ashton: Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and the Woman Question

In the bicentenary of George Eliot’s birth, Rosemary Ashton, Emeritus Professor of University College London, will discuss the treatment of women’s position by Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot, looking at Brontë’s heroines Jane Eyre and Lucy Snowe and Eliot’s Maggie Tulliver (Mill on the Floss) and Dorothea Brooke (Middlemarch).

Rosemary Ashton’s research areas include Romantic and Victorian literature and culture and the cultural history of nineteenth-century London. Her books include biographies of Coleridge, Thomas and Jane Carlyle and George Eliot, and 142 Strand, about a set of avant-garde writers who gathered at the London house of the radical publisher John Chapman.

12.00: AGM of the Brussels Brontë Group

14.00: Talk by Kristien Hemmerechts: A Belgian reads the Brontës

Kristien Hemmerechts is a Belgian lecturer and published author of fiction and non-fiction. At a pivotal time in her life, she spent two years in Britain, mirroring Emily’s and Charlotte’s stay in Brussels. For all their differences she often finds herself identifying with them. Their resilience, power and determination have often been a source of inspiration for her.

Recently she has written and presented a series of broadcasts on the Brontës’ life and work for Klara (VRT Radio). Rereading their work on that occasion and reading about them has only added to her enthusiasm and profound admiration. Her talk focuses on what the Brontës have meant to her as a writer, a teacher, a feminist and a Belgian.

Guided walk Sunday 7 April 2019

This two-hour walk features Brontë places in the Place Royale area. Charge: €10.
10am, 22 April 2018, to register, contact Helen MacEwan