Challenging Heroines

Today's newsround consists basically of Emerald Fennell mentioning the Brontës again, but fortunately not Branwell. From Tatler:

She has a passion for challenging heroines

From Villanelle in Killing Eve to Camilla in The Crown – and now Cassie in Promising Young Woman – Fennell favours female protagonists with nuance and complexity, rather than saccharine likeability. She hails the literary influence of the Nancy Drew books, authors like Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, Daphne du Maurier, the Brontës (‘the perverted domestic, the madwoman in the attic’) and Hilary Mantel (‘very visceral and very feminine, horrifying in a way I’ve never experienced’). ‘But when it comes to television and film,’ she adds: ‘Because our preoccupation with the women in those media is still based on the way they look – we don’t see those characters so much. These kind of weird old ladies or pervs or voyeurs. We don’t see female losers at all.’ The recent appearance of these sorts of stories on screen, from Fleabag to I May Destroy You and I Hate Suzie, mark a turning point, with Fennell stating: ‘We’re only just getting to the stage, some of us, to tell them… I feel like there’s a backlog of stuff… They’re the underworld.’ (Hope Coke)

We wonder whether Emerald Fennell is in any way related to Maria Branwell's uncle John Fennell.

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