Jane Eyre and paratext

The Scotsman mentions Gérard Genette's paratext theory.

There is a concept in literary theory called “paratext.” It sounds daunting, especially when defined by Gérard Genette as “a fringe of the printed text which in reality controls one’s whole reading of the text.” Basically, though, it’s as simple as pie. You might remember a novel that begins “There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.” But were you reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë or were you reading “Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. [in gothic type]. Edited by Currer Bell”, as the novel was originally published? (Stuart Kelly)

NYU News features the book A Good Time to be Born: How Science and Public Health Gave Children a Future by journalist and pediatrician Perri Klass.

In addition to mining writings about these real-life historical tragedies, Klass also looks to popular literature from the past—think Charles Dickens, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charlotte Bronte, and even Mark Twain—for clues about cultural norms around childhood death. (Eileen Reynolds)

The Elm brings attention to a new paper connected to Jane Eyre.

The 2020-2021 school year comes to an end in three weeks, and after a stressful virtual year, many seniors can finally relax before graduating from Washington College. 

Senior Natasha Slaby recently turned in their English Senior Capstone Eexperince which is “about escape and return to abusive space in ‘Jane Eyre,’ specifically looking at how emotional and physical freedom are related to each other.”

Slaby said that they chose the topic because of their interest in psychology and because “[they] noticed that there was this large blind spot in psychoanalysis and trauma writing in regards to how space is utilized in stories that showcase trauma and domestic abuse, such as ‘Jane Eyre.’”

“’Jane Eyre’ is really personal to me — it was the first classic novel I ever read, and it was what got me interested in reading as a kid,” Slaby said.

Not only did Slaby’s SCE mean a lot to them, they said they had a bit of trouble finally letting it go. 

“I don’t miss writing and editing it – or the stress of having to put so much time into it – but I do feel like there is so much more to be said about and around my topic. I like to joke that if I go to get my master’s, or Ph.D. I’ll just expand upon what I’ve already written. Or that I’ll write a whole book about my SCE, with expansions of course, because there is just so much to talk about in it that I really couldn’t include because it was too off-topic,” Slaby said. (Emma Russell)

La Voz de Galicia (Spain) reports on a recent activity carried out by local high school students.

El resultado fue una jornada distendida en la que surgieron nombres procedentes de todo tipo de mundos, lugares y disciplinas, expuestos en algunos casos de modo performativo. La vida de las hermanas Bronte y en concreto la de Emily, escritora de Cumbres Borrascosas; la dualidad y estrecha relación interpretable entre Mary Shelley —célebre autora de Frankenstein— y la mangaka Hiromu Arakawa —creadora de la serie de manga y anime, FullMetal Alchemist—; una exposición revestida de simbología anarquista, sobre la política y teórica del anarquismo Federica Montseny y sus avances en materia de igualdad de género y feminismo; o la leyenda de una pirata irlandesa llamada Grania O’Malley que, según se cuenta, quería viajar a España. (Javier G. Sobrado) (Translation)

Caitlin Moran's column in The Times has a couple of Brontë mentions:

 Now, obviously, there’s a copyright issue here. Personally, I am hugely aggrieved on behalf of the person at M&S who invented the original Colin the Caterpillar. Unless this person also invented Percy Pig, Colin the Caterpillar stands as their great masterwork: their West End Girls; their Wuthering Heights.

Sure, great art can inspire other artists — there are dozens of bands influenced by the Pet Shop Boys or Kate Bush — but in the case of Colin, for others to go right ahead and make a chocolate caterpillar with a name beginning with “C” is like if, in 1984, another synth duo called the Pet Food Boys had sprung up; or if another crazy lady in a nightie had rocked up with a song called Wuthering Tights. About tights. Just make it a chocolate snake cake, you no-imagination-having sons of bitches! Or a sausage dog! To go full caterpillar is just, at the end of the day, a full-scale legal provocation.

Woman (Spain) interviews poet Olga Novo.

¿Qué mujeres escritoras están entre tus referentes?

Rosalía de Castro, Emily Dickinson, Luz Pozo Garza, las hermanas Brontë, Olga Orozco, Xohana Torres, Safo, Virginia Woolf, Joyce Mansour, Delmira Agustini, Sylvia Plath, Anaïs Nin, Blanca Varela, María Zambrano, Carmen Blanco… Y todas las narradoras orales de la tradición ágrafa que ha llegado hasta mi madre cantando romances tradicionales, cantares de ciego y coplas populares. (Isabel Loscertales) (Translation)

It's Book Day in Spain today and Aleteia has a bookshop owner recommend books to give:

«Los clásicos han superado la piedra de toque del tiempo. Tolstoi, Dostoyevski, Shakespeare… Son autores que han descubierto qué hay en el alma humana. Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë…» [...]

«Este año hay reediciones de clásicos como «Jane Eyre» con portadas muy atractivas o ediciones juveniles.» (Dolors Massot) (Translation)

Catalunya Radio's programme El búnquer (in Catalan) had a little (apparently humorous) bit on Charlotte Brontë and TB.

Finally, Brussels Brontë Blog posts about a recent talk by Samantha Ellis on 'Why Anne Brontë didn’t go to Brussels and why it matters'.