A Bold Exception

CBS News gives some more details about the Taylor Swift literature course at the University of Ghent:

Poetry, prose and now songwriting: Ghent University in Belgium is launching a new literature course dedicated to the literary merit of Taylor Swift's discography. This fall, "Literature: Taylor's Version" — a nod to the artist's re-recorded album titles — will be available to students, curated by assistant professor Elly McCausland.

McCausland — author of the blog "Swifterature," which compares the pop star's themes, imagery and use of language to writers including Sylvia Plath, Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare — will use Swift's work to engage with literature "from the Medieval period to the Victorian," including Geoffrey Chaucer's "Troilus and Criseyde," Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and Charlotte Brontë's "Villette," as well as the work of contemporary authors including Margaret Atwood and Simon Armitage.

Terry Eagleton in UnHerd uses sarcasm in this article about the university, and cannot help but quote Wuthering Heights: 

Much the same goes for the study of literature. Before Thomas Hardy came to write in the late 19th century, there was scarcely a novelist in Britain whose work concluded on a downbeat note. Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is one of the few bold exceptions. From Henry Fielding to Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, happy endings are more or less obligatory. Why? Because there has to be somewhere in the world where the virtuous reap their reward and the wicked get their comeuppance, and this place is known as a novel.

Globe Gazette gives more details about the upcoming opening of the new bookstore Three Bells Books in Mason City, IA:

 Three Bells Books is a small community-minded book store described by Angstman as being "named after the Brontë sisters, a trio of Victorian-era English authors who all wrote under the pseudonymous last name of Bell."

"Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, for example, are some of the family's most famous works. The Three Bells Books name alludes to the store's foundation in classic literature, respect for unlikely successes, and a deep devotion to grumpy romantic heroes." (Robin McClelland)

A participant in the quiz show Tipping Point has trouble telling apart Jane Austen from Charlotte Brontë. In Daily Star:

In the opening round, Ben took a cheeky swipe at former librarian Jean after she answered a literary question incorrectly.

He asked Gloucester-born star: "The 1995 film Clueless is loosely based on the novel Emma, by which 19th century female author?"

Jean confidently responded: "Charlotte Brontë," before Ben revealed that her answer was incorrect and it was Jane Austen who wrote the book. (Jennie Buzaglo)

The novella In the Act by Rachel Ingalls is discussed in The Baffler:

At the end of her housework, Helen faces a void. Time passes. She considers calling her friend Gina to complain “about life in general” but remembers that strange noises have been emanating from Edgar’s locked room. In the cellar is a key. “If there was nothing inside that could harm her,” she thinks, “it was an insult to keep her out . . . if there was something dangerous up there, did she dare go in and find out about it?” Like the revelation of Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre, the inciting incident of In the Act echoes “Le Barbe Bleue,” French folklorist Charles Perrault’s gruesome 1697 fairytale of female curiosity and marital violence. (Jamie Hood)

Los Angeles Review of Books reviews The Marriage Question: George Eliot’s Double Life by Clare Carlisle:

Reading Jane Eyre (1847), Eliot thought it was obvious that Jane should have chosen to live with Mr. Rochester despite the “legal fiction” of his marriage to the madwoman in the attic. The Eliot-Lewes-Hunt series of ménages was among the domestic strategies by which Victorian middle-class families navigated the intersecting constraints of love, commitment, and law. (Victoria Baena)

Paste interviews Julie Klausner, particularly about her hilarious song Silence, where she parodies The Silence of the Lambs in a very Kate Bush-y style:

It’s got a strong lead and a specific point of view and the mise en scéne of the thing is just crawling, bonkers-like, up the wazoo—big time!  It also features some gothic “bad romance” that fun-house mirrors “Wuthering Heights” but ultimately, I think it just comes down to me being a big fan of rock and Kate Bush and musicals, and musicals feature songs specific to a character and their situation. (Garrett Martin)

El Comercio (Spain) describes this route through the Camino de Santiago;

En los tramos rectos vamos hablando entre los cuatro pero, según empiezan las subidas, comenzamos a separarnos y a aumentar el silencio y la distancia entre nosotros: cada uno va librando su propia batalla. Así atravesamos el último tramo, un páramo azotado por el viento y la lluvia, la versión coruñesa de 'Cumbres borrascosas', hasta el punto que, en el horizonte, me parece ver a las hermanas Brontë, tres sevillanas a las que mi santo, más prosaico que lírico, rebautiza como Las Diésel porque avanzan lentas, pero seguras. (Rosa Palo) (Translation)

Elle (France) has read Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxième Sexe and mentions:

Sa façon de chipoter devant les livres d'Emily Brontë ou de Jane Austen, à laquelle elle reproche son  'manque d'ironie'. (Charlotte Moreau) (Translation)

The Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (Spain) interviews the writer Gustavo Mattín Garzo:

Según Martín Garzo, “el que quiera saber lo que es la pasión amorosa, lo que es el amor, en vez de recurrir a uno de esos libros de autoayuda lo que debe hacer es leer ‘Anna Karenina’, leer ‘Rojo y negro’, leer ‘Cumbres borrascosas’, leer todas esas novelas donde se ha contado lo que es la pasión. Pero esas novelas son complejas, no dan una respuesta sencilla, simplemente presentan lo que ha sucedido y lo liberan de ese mundo de certezas”. (Translation)

La Repubblica (Italy) interviews the writer Matteo Bussola:

Susanna Macchia: Fluidi come nessun'altra generazione prima di loro, i teen sono anche liberi da stereotipi estetici?

M.B.: "No. Sono semplicemente cambiati i modelli di riferimento. (...) Allo stesso tempo, anche in questa generazione queer resistono stereotipi intramontabili: è un fatto che in molti successi della narrativa young adult gli stereotipi sentimentali imperversano. Tipicamente lui è un giovane uomo introverso e tenebroso, dal passato oscuro, che cela sofferenze e ferite, lei una giovane donna accogliente e bellissima e sensibile che deve provare a salvarlo con il suo sacrificio e il suo amore. Entrambi sono devastati dalla passione. Insomma, da Cime Tempestose non è cambiato poi molto". (Translation)

La Razón (México) discusses Virginia Wolf's A Room of Her Own and women writers:

Jane Austen y Emily Brönte (sic) son voces femeninas que escribían desde su propia voz sin tratar de imitar la voz de los otros, de los hombres. La mujer se arriesga a escribir en ese siglo cuando hacerlo, era un riesgo de vida. No por nada Charlotte Brönte (sic) desafía “¿Quién quiera censurarme que lo haga?”, ese desafío es desde luego para el mundo masculino, para el macho que no permite la libertad de expresión o el desarrollo de la palabra porque al fin de cuentas, la palabra es poder, con ella se nombra y se adjetiva al mundo, con las palabras se construye la paz o se declara la guerra. (Mauricio Leyva) (Translation) 

Infobae (Argentina) quotes Charlotte Brontë in an article about education. Paragraf (Sweden) mentions the use of pseudonyms by the Brontës. An Italian screening of Emily in San Remo News.

Finally, some local news in The Telegraph & Argus:

Parking charges are set to rise at Bradford Council-run car parks across the district.

A consultation has been launched on the proposals and the changes could come into effect on September 1 this year. (...)

Museum and Brontë Village (Haworth)

Up to one hour would go from 70p to £1; up to two hours would go from £1.40 to £2; up to three hours would go from £2.10 to £3; over three hours would stay at £4.

The evening charge – Monday to Sunday 6pm until midnight – will stay at £1. (Felicity Macnamara)