Catherine's Korean Ghost

A recent example of Brontë-related Korean research:

워더링 하이츠』 속 캐서린의 유령에 대하여: 가부장적 정체성의 재정의를 통한 재소유 과 (Catherine's Ghost in Wuthering Heights: The Restoration of Dispossessed Identity through Redefining Patriarchical Identity)
이정연 (Lee Jeongyeon), 정이화 (Chung Ewha),  Korean Society of English Language and Literature
영어영문학연구 ( English Literature Studies)  Volume 51, Number 2 65-89 (May 2025)

This article analyzes Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847) by using the theoretical paradigm in Beth Torgerson’s book, Reading the Brontë Body (2005). Torgerson interprets Wuthering Heights as a critique of the patriarchal system by using the metaphor of “illness,” to focus on the flaws of male-centered inheritance and economic structures. According to Torgerson, for Brontë, patriarchal society is where both women and socially marginalized men are deprived of their economic and bodily autonomy because of their lack of access to inherited land, property, wealth, family name, and social status. Torgerson defines this hierarchy as a relationship of “dis/possession” within the patriarchal system. Torgerson argues that the recurring images of the “vampire” and “ghost” in Wuthering Heights symbolize the patriarch and the victims of patriarchy, metaphorically representing the dynamics of “dis/possession.” Thus, “vampire” and “ghost,” along with the metaphor of “illness,” expose the fundamental corruption of the patriarchal system. This study readdresses Torgerson’s interpretation of the dynamics of dispossession in an attempt to examine why Catherine Linton’s ghost cannot enter Wuthering Heights after having died and haunted the grounds for twenty years. Catherine’s ghost suffers from the “illness” of “dispossession” under the patriarchal order. In order for Catherine’s ghost to return home, she must undergo a process of restoring her lost identity before she is able to return to Wuthering Heights. In this article, we explore how the relationship between the younger Catherine Heathcliff and Hareton Earnshaw contributes not only to the process of restoring the identity of Catherine’s ghost but also ultimately redefines the roles of women and marginalized men within Brontë’s novel.