{"id":1382,"date":"2024-10-01T17:16:29","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T21:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/?p=1382"},"modified":"2024-11-06T01:14:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T06:14:00","slug":"laying-the-framework-beginning-to-build-the-tower-of-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/2024\/10\/01\/laying-the-framework-beginning-to-build-the-tower-of-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Updated: Laying the Framework, Beginning to Build the Tower of Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Primary Texts<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Jane Eyre<\/em> (1846), Charlotte Bront\u00eb<\/p>\n<p><em>Wuthering Heights <\/em>(1847), Emily Bront\u00eb<\/p>\n<p><em>The Tenant of Wildfell Hall <\/em>(1848), Anne Bront\u00eb<\/p>\n<p><em>Villette <\/em>(1853), Charlotte Bront\u00eb<\/p>\n<p><em>Shirley <\/em>(1849), Charlotte Bront\u00eb<\/p>\n<p><em>The Professor <\/em>(1857), Charlotte Bront\u00eb<\/p>\n<p><em>Agnes Grey <\/em>(1847), Anne Bront\u00eb<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>3-5 Secondary\/Theoretical Works: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>The Cambridge Companion to the Bront\u00ebs<\/em> (2002), Edited by Heather Glen<\/p>\n<p><em>The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel <\/em>(2012), Edited by Deirdre David<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"text-decoration: line-through\">The Bront\u00eb Myth<\/span><\/em><span style=\"text-decoration: line-through\"> (2001), Lucasta Miller<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"text-decoration: line-through\">The Madwoman in the Attic<\/span><\/em><span style=\"text-decoration: line-through\"> (1979), Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Poetics of Space<\/em> (1958), Gaston Bachelard<\/p>\n<p><em>Ideas in Things<\/em> (2006), Elaine Freedgood<\/p>\n<p><em>Relics of Death <\/em>(2015), Deborah Lutz<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n<ul>\n<li>Also by Deborah Lutz:\u00a0<em>The Bront\u00eb Cabinet: Three Lives In Nine Objects\u00a0<\/em>(2016)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Academic Journal: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bront\u00eb Studies: The Journal of the Bront\u00eb Society<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key terms: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Victorian Culture\/Society, <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through\">Religion<\/span>, <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through\">Gender<\/span>, Material Culture, Gothic, Bront\u00eb Biography<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Initial Thoughts:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The main questions I have decided to approach my reading list with have been: how can I deepen my understanding of the Bront\u00eb 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 <em>Jane Eyre<\/em>, are there patterns across novels that could indicate deeper meanings? The Bront\u00ebs lived in the mid-nineteenth century. Are there ways that their novels questioned or supported cultural \u201cnorms\u201d that we, as current readings, take for granted?<\/p>\n<p>I briefly with Professor Sider Jost because I wanted to know if there were ways I could broaden my frame of reference for religion \u2013 although he didn\u2019t have concrete answers for me, it was nice to let him know what I\u2019m researching. I have plans to talk with Professor Seiler on this topic as well \u2013 I studied <em>Jane Eyre<\/em> with her last semester in her Novel and the Normal class, and she referred me to <em>The Madwoman in the Attic<\/em>, which I want to pursue with greater attention this semester. Although I am beginning my thought process on the Bront\u00ebs 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 Bront\u00eb works.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My initial thought process when I started thinking about how I wanted to research Bront\u00eb literature was centered around what I didn\u2019t know \u2013 namely, religion. After spending some time reading through the Bront\u00eb Studies journal, I encountered material culture in conversation with Bront\u00eb 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. \u00a0After 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.<\/p>\n<p>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 Bront\u00eb biography as well as general Victorian culture.<\/p>\n<p>Because of these observations, my questions have shifted away from the religious presence in <em>Jane Eyre<\/em> and towards the Gothic presence, specifically as it relates to material culture. Some of the biggest \u201cobjects\u201d 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\u2019s 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 <em>Jane Eyre<\/em>, then it is very likely that this is a connecting theme across Bront\u00eb works (i.e. <em>Wuthering Heights<\/em>) in a way that will likely offer greater insight into their Victorian society but also the Bront\u00eb\u2019s 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 Bront\u00eb biography, to try and observe these connections across texts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Primary Texts Jane Eyre (1846), Charlotte Bront\u00eb Wuthering Heights (1847), Emily Bront\u00eb The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Anne Bront\u00eb Villette (1853), Charlotte Bront\u00eb Shirley (1849), Charlotte Bront\u00eb The Professor (1857), Charlotte Bront\u00eb Agnes Grey (1847), Anne Bront\u00eb &nbsp; 3-5 Secondary\/Theoretical Works: The Cambridge Companion to the Bront\u00ebs (2002), Edited by Heather Glen The Cambridge &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/2024\/10\/01\/laying-the-framework-beginning-to-build-the-tower-of-research\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Updated: Laying the Framework, Beginning to Build the Tower of Research<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145914],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2024-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}