The Washington Post has a food-for-thought kind of article on why we shouldn't look for more Jane Austens (or Brontës) by Devoney Looser, author of
Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing Porter Sisters, Who Paved the Way for Austen and the Brontës.
For almost a century, sleuthing critics have been taking a trowel to the literary past in search of forgotten female novelists. How many undiscovered Jane Austens or Charlotte Brontës, they wondered, had been buried by sexist beliefs about the limits of women’s genius? Quests to find lost figures crystallized after Virginia Woolf’s stirring 1929 “A Room of One’s Own,” and by the 1980s a staggering number of early female writers had been unearthed by second-wave feminist literary critics who enjoined us to read and evaluate them.
Some of these early novelists wrote for themselves or private audiences, but a surprisingly large number turned out to have published their work to a wider readership, only to have it forgotten. The task of recovering them is telegraphed in the title of Dale Spender’s “Mothers of the Novel: 100 Good Women Writers Before Jane Austen” (1986). Austen’s genius remained a given, but the reality that many “good” predecessors had been sidelined by sexism was laid bare. Nevertheless, no other early works of fiction by women have yet been bumped up from “good” to “great.” Why?
Shouldn’t we have discovered more Austens and Brontës — or even another writer as singular as Mary Shelley — among these pioneering hundreds by now? A cynic might answer that we haven’t because there aren’t any others. To this way of thinking, three female geniuses (or five, maybe six, if we include every Brontë and George Eliot) survived because a meritocracy of authorship worked out perfectly.
A more optimistically patient person might answer that, even after all these years of feminist archaeology, we still haven’t looked hard enough. It may be that finding female fiction writers who’ve been absent from history for more than a century requires another century for collective recognition and rediscovery.
But perhaps it’s time to acknowledge that the ways we’ve been looking are part of the problem. When we go in search of new Austens or Brontës, we’re imagining we’ll find novels that remind us positively of theirs. We claim we’re searching for something new, and equally original, but in effect we’re seeking out literary echoes, not wholly distinct virtuoso performances. [...]
If it’s easy to see these parallels, though, it’s partly because we’re so used to looking for Austen-ness or Brontë-ness. I’ve often been asked whether any of the other 18th- and 19th-century female writers I’ve read or taught were “as good as Jane Austen.” Reader, I have gotten so tired of this question. It has no good answers.
Whenever I replied “No,” I worried that I’d wronged a female writer who’d already been wrongly disregarded. Could this question ever be answered in the affirmative? Surely no author could out-Austen Jane Austen, any more than a contemporary writer could, say, out-Joyce James Joyce. For too long, we’ve used the few women who made the cut into the canon as our sole guides to seek out lost or undervalued voices. It’s time to try new methods and modes of reading. [...]
Revisiting heavily imitated authors of centuries past absolutely won’t catch every deserving lost work or writer. It could, however, get us closer to a more expansive notion of what the category “classic” might have been — or could yet be. What’s evident is that Austen’s and the Brontës’ deserved literary triumphs have come at a cost. Our enduring love of them and their works may have inadvertently prevented other worthy female novelists from coming into better focus. We must look beyond these long-acknowledged greats if we ever hope to count more of them as brilliant.
The Guardian asks singer-songwriter Michelle Zauner about the books of her life.
The book I discovered later in life
Somehow, I had never read Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre until last year. The language is truly exceptional and the story is so thrilling. I went down a rabbit hole with the Brontës after that. It’s especially heartbreaking, the way their tragic family history is recast in their literature.
The Cut interviews poet Amanda Gorman.
So what do you do at the end of your day instead?
I love playing ASMR on my computer. I’m the type of person where I do get that calming, soothing feeling. So I’ll play some type of night-rain, fire-crackling ASMR. And then I’ll drink some tea and have that as my sacred time to read a beloved author. I’m often reading Shakespeare at night, if not Charlotte Brontë or Anne of Green Gables — kind of just classics that make me feel as if I’m a little kid again and just enjoying language and storytelling and fantasy. (Maya Allen)
The world had stopped during lockdown, but Rosalia’s plans for a new venture did not.
“It was then that I had my eureka moment, why don’t I create a merchandise range inspired by the Brontë family? Not just the sisters, but also include their brother, Branwell, he had an interesting character too, a talented poet, writer and painter!” explained Rosalia. “I wanted my own Brontë t-shirt, a cool one! I stumbled over some obvious copies, the images we all know of the Brontë sisters. I wanted to launch an edgier range of merchandise. I was bouncing ideas off my partner and friends. I went full circle although I did also like Brontë Babe but that was taken.”
After a search online for a cool Brontë themed t-shirt to wear, Rosalia found that she wasn’t too spoilt for choice and decided to put matters into her own hands, from there, Brontë Bitch was born.
Rosalia was worried Brontë Bitch could get misconstrued; but wants to make people aware it’s not meant in a derogatory way at all. “I was nervous to put myself out there, I went full circle and thought right, it’s brave and bold, just like the Brontë sisters!” explained Rosalia. “Other independent creatives came in to play, including Anna Cleary, a graphic designer guru who specialises in brand identity!”
Brontë Bitch features illustrations on vibrantly-coloured tote bags, tea towels, greeting cards and t-shirts. Rosalia visioned a modern take on the Brontë family through illustration, some of the prints include different styles of art and design, but feature the quotes from the well-known books and poems by the Brontës.
Anna, created the Brontë Bitch logo, and is partly responsible for the first image of the brand. The second design is by Bomi Carrot Art, whose design focuses on Emily Brontë and her love of animals on a windswept Top Withens. Another design was created by Doodlher, this idea was to bring the brother, Branwell, back to life.
“I love all three pieces. All the Brontë Bitch designs are unique, you will not find any of them on the high street. My aim for this series is familiarity but with a cool edge.” [...]
But does the Brontë devotee have a favourite Brontë novel? “The Brontë sisters wrote some of the best poems and novels in the history of English literature. This is a difficult question, but it has to be the classics, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. Perhaps this could be a follow up interview on the subject alone!” laughed Rosalia. (Sophia Smith)
Emily is a biopic partially re-imagined, drawing as much on the imagination of Emily Brontë as her life itself.
A long-brewing passion project for actress turned director, Frances O’Connor, Emily grasps at something greater but never fully lives up to its promise.
But re-contextualising one of history’s most enduring and enigmatic authors is never futile, and the youth-friendly casting of Emma Mackey (of Sex Education fame) will surely help to get eyes on it.
And Mackey certainly proves her worth beyond the cynicism of marketing, holding the screen with the same aloof, casual depiction of genius as Keira Knightley in The Imitation Game.
She plays Brontë as a woman on the precipice of history, held back only by the fear of her own potential until it grows too large to contain.
Her version of the Wuthering Heights author is timidly precocious, seeking to both dull and invigorate her live-wire brain with opium and sex, the latter with her local priest (Fleabag fans rejoice!).
She chases disorder, but never fully relinquishes control in the way that her beloved brother Branwell does. [...]
Emily is a good watch anchored by Mackey’s fantastic lead performance, but it occasionally meanders over 131 minutes before a rushed denouement undercuts its careful pacing.
If it gets more people to seek out canonical literature however, then all the better for it. (James Anderson)
16A. The “Jean Rhys novel that’s a response to ‘Jane Eyre’” is WIDE SARGASSO SEA, which features a character based on Bertha Mason, the first wife of Edward Rochester, who was driven mad and wound up trapped in the attic at Thornton Hall.
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