Primary Texts
Jane Eyre (1846), Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights (1847), Emily Brontë
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Anne Brontë
Villette (1853), Charlotte Brontë
Shirley (1849), Charlotte Brontë
The Professor (1857), Charlotte Brontë
Agnes Grey (1847), Anne Brontë
3-5 Secondary/Theoretical Works:
The Cambridge Companion to the Brontës (2002), Edited by Heather Glen
The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel (2012), Edited by Deirdre David
The Brontë Myth (2001), Lucasta Miller
The Madwoman in the Attic (1979), Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar
Poetics of Space (1958), Gaston Bachelard
Ideas in Things (2006), Elaine Freedgood
Relics of Death (2015), Deborah Lutz
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- Also by Deborah Lutz: The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives In Nine Objects (2016)
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Academic Journal:
Brontë Studies: The Journal of the Brontë Society
Key terms:
Victorian Culture/Society, Religion, Gender, Material Culture, Gothic, Brontë Biography
Initial Thoughts:
The main questions I have decided to approach my reading list with have been: how can I deepen my understanding of the Brontë sisters? How can I gain a deeper cultural understanding of their lives and lifestyle? Considering my initial curiosity about ways that religion and gender is utilized in specifically Jane Eyre, are there patterns across novels that could indicate deeper meanings? The Brontës lived in the mid-nineteenth century. Are there ways that their novels questioned or supported cultural “norms” that we, as current readings, take for granted?
I briefly with Professor Sider Jost because I wanted to know if there were ways I could broaden my frame of reference for religion – although he didn’t have concrete answers for me, it was nice to let him know what I’m researching. I have plans to talk with Professor Seiler on this topic as well – I studied Jane Eyre with her last semester in her Novel and the Normal class, and she referred me to The Madwoman in the Attic, which I want to pursue with greater attention this semester. Although I am beginning my thought process on the Brontës with thoughts of religion, this is largely because I understand it to be the subject I am least familiar with. I hope that by asking these questions, and doing more research, I will be able to find framework to begin posing more in-depth questions about the nature of the Brontë works.
Update:
My initial thought process when I started thinking about how I wanted to research Brontë literature was centered around what I didn’t know – namely, religion. After spending some time reading through the Brontë Studies journal, I encountered material culture in conversation with Brontë literature, a new concept to me that I found immediately fascinating. Not only is it newly contemporary within this journal, but I have found that, when reading books of this time, object and materials are very present and often very significant within Victorian culture. After continued conversation with Professor Kersh, several books that could be helpful in furthering my research into material culture have been added to my reading list based on her suggestions.
Following our in-class discussion with our library liaison, I have also found several other useful databases and search techniques that will be helpful in expanding my research into Brontë biography as well as general Victorian culture.
Because of these observations, my questions have shifted away from the religious presence in Jane Eyre and towards the Gothic presence, specifically as it relates to material culture. Some of the biggest “objects” within the novel are buildings, think Thornfield Hall, Gateshead, Lowood, that in turn indicate deeper cultural significance and themes. These themes, like colonialism and many iterations of hierarchies, in turn manifest through these buildings and the novel’s narrative elements as Gothic themes that then connect to cultural ones, or are indicative if deeper cultural ideologies. This thought process sparked the idea that, if these Gothic themes that are manifested through material culture, specifically through buildings/architectural structures within Jane Eyre, then it is very likely that this is a connecting theme across Brontë works (i.e. Wuthering Heights) in a way that will likely offer greater insight into their Victorian society but also the Brontë’s lived experiences. To that aim, I intend to further my research by continuing to research material culture and the current scholarly works about it, as well as Victorian culture and Brontë biography, to try and observe these connections across texts.