An alert for today; January 14, at the British Library. The event
will also be screened in other libraries across the country:
Jane Eyre: Gothic Rebel
Tue 14 Jan 2020, 19:00 - 20:30
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London
NW1 2DB
The spirit of rebellion in Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is a classic example of defied convention. It presented a new voice, fully convinced of her defiance against adult tyranny. Join us as a panel discusses the spirit of rebellion found in its pages and what it is to be a child. With Sara Collins, Alison Owen and Sally Shuttleworth. Chaired by Alex Clark.
This event, which is being livestreamed, is aimed at an adult audience but children are welcome to attend.
Sara Collins is an author of Jamaican descent. A passion for gothic literature led her to leave her 17 year career as a lawyer and write her first novel, The Confessions of Frannie Langton, a gothic romance about the twisted love affair between a Jamaican maid and her French mistress in 19th-century London.
Alison Owen is a film producer who adapted Jane Eyre in 2011. Other film credits include Brick Lane, Shaun of the Dead and Suffragette. She is currently working on a biopic of the life of Amy Winehouse.
Sally Shuttleworth is professor of English literature at Oxford University, and an expert on Victorian literature. She has written many books, including Charlotte Brontë
and Victorian Psychology, and was editor of the Oxford World’s Classics edition of Jane Eyre.
Alex Clark is a critic, journalist and broadcaster, who writes on a wide range of topics for the Guardian, the Observer, the Spectator and the Times Literary Supplement. She regularly judges literary awards and chairs events.
An alert for today; January 14, at the British Library. The event 
I think Jane Eyre is what I would call a reactive rebel rather than a proactive rebel. That is to say Jane's rebellion is a disaffected form that takes it impetus from being mistreated. She is implicitly being required to suffer in silence. Her reaction is against thereby an unjust authority. It is reactive in kind. It is not oppositionality that is proactively pursued just for the sake of excitement or thrill seeking - which is another separate kind of rebelliousness. So Jane's rebellion is the stuff of disaffected youth or indeed of the tantruming `terrible two year old'. But does it serve as a means of self-identification? It is not clear, I think.
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