Another new Brontë-related thesis:
Abbasi, Azam. California State University, Bakersfield, 2023.
The aim of this thesis is to examine the Foucauldian theory of power relations within the extremely hierarchical Victorian world of Jane Eyre (1847), by Charlotte Brontë. Though in patriarchal world of this novel, power is supposedly in hands of white males and women are powerless, according to Foucault’s theory, no one is outside the network of power and absolutely powerful or totally powerless, because resistance is another form of power. This thesis will explore different oppressed stages of Jane’s life, as well as her resistance to oppression: her power relation with John Reed in form of verbal aggression and violence at Gateshead, her resistance and practicing power in form of silence and obedience at Lowood, and her strategic manner of resistance and practicing power with Rochester at Thornfield and later with St. John Rivers at Moor House. It will show that although Jane is an outsider and under oppression due to her social class and gender, in fact, she exercises power all the time in the form of resistance. By adopting a Foucauldian theory of power relations, this thesis aims to demonstrate a relational, mutual form of practicing power, not a patriarchal form of power within the patriarch world of the novel. In addition, the thesis aims to show the shifting power between men and women and their simultaneous experiencing of being oppressed and oppressor
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