Ghosts from the Past

A recently published book with Brontë-related content:

Ghosts from the Past: Gothic and Postcolonial Themes in 19th and 20th Century Novels

by  Bansari Mitra

Wilderness House Press

ISBN: 978-1257769841

September 2025

This book focuses on genre studies and examines Gothic's outstanding characteristics like loose plot, hidden crimes and ruined settings. Anne Brontë redefines Gothic by writing in a fragmentary way. This storytelling is further examined in Jane Eyre. The story resists closure because Jane cannot establish peace with the characters that haunt her. The adage "no happy woman writes" makes us reflect on the unhappy life of Mary Shelley which led her to write her "monstrous" novel, Frankenstein. Instead of literary criticism that stems from Romantic and feminist sensibilities, there is a new interpretation of the non-western character, Safie, whose story is a variation from the other tales of catastrophes. Broad categories fail to define genres, like Eliade and Devi's works, Bengal Nights and Na Hanyate. We reexamine the limitations of various forms of life-writing like memoirs and autobiographies and the encounters and clashes between eastern and western cultures. We also examine the form of Gothic and swashbucklers, two popular, successful types of film. Western and eastern cultures differ, especially when settings and plots are reinvented to create blockbusters, and themes are revised to suit the palates of eastern audiences. The last essay focuses on transformations of Gothic from Victorian to contemporary times. In a wide assortment of mysteries, the common themes of a missing woman and misinterpretations of the detective heroine show how settings of Gothic have changed from 18th to 21st Century. Bicentenaries of Shelley and Brontës were recently celebrated, discussing their impact on contemporary times, so it is time to look at their novels in a new way.

The Somerville Times interviews the author:

Doug Holder : You explain that Shelley and the Bronte Sisters have been celebrated for their impact on contemporary times. Explain.

BM: I think that Artificial Intelligence is causing such controversies now that Frankenstein can be examined as the kind of science fiction that is a cautionary tale, very relevant for our times. Also, I feel that there could be a new interpretation by focusing on the only non-western character, Safie, who is generally regarded as a shadow of the other women characters. Anne Brontë has always been eclipsed by her famous sisters, Charlotte and Emily, but she wrote the “first sustained feminist novel” according to Winifred Gérin. She is now being recognized as a writer who would have earned a place much earlier in the canon like Fanny Burney and Elizabeth Gaskell. Although Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre has always enjoyed a great deal of attention from critics, we can examine the growth of a feminist heroine through her progress during the five stages of her journey from urban to rural settings. How Nature is represented in the novel as a pagan goddess, thus reinventing the Cinderella myth set in the Victorian Age. Fairy tales continue to fascinate readers throughout ages, and Brontës grew up on them, borrowing patterns from them to design the plots of their novels. Thus generic revisions are effected in their novels.