Evangelical Reformation, Neuroromanticism and Femininity Nuances

More recent Borntë-related scholar work:

The Effects of the Evangelical Reformation Movement on Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë as Observed in Mansfield Park and Jane Eyre
by Harjung, Anna Joy
M.A., Virginia Tech University, 2019

This thesis attempts to clarify how the authors incorporated their theological beliefs in their writing to more clearly discover, although modern audiences often enjoy both authors, why Charlotte Brontë was unimpressed with Jane Austen. The thesis is an examination of the ways in which Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë interact with the Evangelical Reformation within the Anglican Church in their novels Mansfield Park and Jane Eyre, respectively. Both authors, as daughters of Anglican clergymen, were aware of and influenced by the movement, but at varying degrees. This project begins with a brief explanation of the state of the Anglian Church and beginnings of the Evangelical Reformation. The thesis then examines George Austen's influence on his daughter and the characters and text of Mansfield Park to observe the ways in which traditional Anglicanism and tenets of Evangelicalism are discussed in the novel, revealing more clearly where Austen's personal beliefs aligned. Similarly, the project then analyzes Patrick Brontë's influence on Charlotte Brontë and evaluates the characters and text of Jane Eyre to mark the significance of the Evangelical movement on Charlotte Brontë. After studying these works and religious components of their lives, the thesis argues that Austen's traditionally Anglican subtlety with the subject of religion did not appeal to Brontë's passion for the subject, clearly inspired by the Evangelical Reformation.

Neuromanticism: Emily Brontë and the embodied mind
by Kraus, Sara
Undergraduate Thesis, University of Pittsburgh, 2019

Scholars often regard Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights as a late Romantic novel, though few studies have explored exactly what is meant by this designation or how a Romantic influence comes to bear on the text. Certainly, Romantic literature is more than a mere sum of its parts and the same should be said of Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, for the novel does not simply borrow Romantic aesthetics such as a reverence for nature or a longing for one’s youth, but engages with the larger philosophical debates that concerned Romantic writers as well as the contemporaneous scholars who influenced them. One major debate concerns the potential material nature of the mind or soul and the threat such a materiality brings to orthodox Christianity’s vision of transcendence—a highly contested topic that, as this study shows, appears time and again not only during the Romantic movement but also throughout the Enlightenment. This thesis provides an overview of Enlightenment and Romantic scholars who consider the possible materiality of the mind and soul. Emphasis is placed on the increasingly materialist (though no less contentious) ontologies which appear contemporaneously to the Romantic movement and influence its literature, in part, by offering a new conception of what is meant by materiality. Rather than conceive of matter as inert or inactive, scholars such as Erasmus Darwin and Joseph Priestley propose a vision of matter as active and alive, meaning it has more in common with the mind and soul than ever before. This new understanding of matter collapses the distinctions between the human and natural world, just as it does the distinction between the mind and body. I argue that it is this conception of materiality and its corresponding implications for notions of the mind, body, and natural world which underpins Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.

The Femininity Nuance in Charlotte Brontë's The Professor
by Widjaya, Okeu Irwandi
Diploma thesis, UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung.

The femininity is a term which shows women from some points of view. It creates two definitions: (1) woman who wants to show her independence and (2) the image of beautiful woman based on man’s orientation. Therefore, the study of femininity could give deep observation in women’s study. It is also can be applied in literary work. Based on the reason, Charlotte Brontë’s The Professor is chosen for the research. The study of femininity nuance in The Professor is based on four models proposed by Elaine Showalter called gynocriticism. Gynocriticism embraces the femininity through women’s writing through four models: women’s body, women’s language, women’s psyche, and women’s culture.
The purpose of this research is to find out and understand the femininity nuance’s description through women’s body, language, psyche, and culture in The Professor. It uses three approaches: mimetic, expressive, and objective. Thus, this research used a qualitative descriptive method which describing scientific logic data without number, amount, or a percentage to be easily understood and concluded.
The result shows that The Professor contains four models. In women’s body, the researcher finds some points explained such as the description woman’s picture including the meaning in it perfectly through the man’s first sight. In women’s language, the researcher finds many women’s own figurative languages caused by unique diction. In women’s psyche, the researcher is able to find the relation between Brontë’s characteristic which is reflected by Crimsworth. In women’s culture, the researcher finds the condition of women in the Victorian period which is still controlled by a patriarchal system. For instance, there is an ironical condition between Brontë’s writing and her own life.
The conclusion of the research shows that The Professor contains femininity nuance through those four models. On the other hand, the study femininity can be analysed through Showalter’s four models