I am reading the Bronte Myth of Lucaste Miller
In the years after Elisabeth Gaskell from 1900 till........
- Release of the Hegers papers.
- Vanaf 1920 Psychobiography
- Influence of Freud (Hidden working of the unconscious mind) and Lytton Stracey ( uncovering of the revealing unedifying motives behing revered façades).
- Why Charlotte attracted such an un usual prevalence of psychoanalytic interpretation? Her rich symbolic of her novels and the legacy of Gaskell' s "" Life"".
- It became fashionable to redefine the Victorian virtue of self denial as a sick symptom of masochisme.
- Psychobiographers: Subtilety and complexity were often sacrificed for the sake of fitting. It detach the subject from the social, cultural and literary influences.
- Hollywood transformed Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights in to the greatest love stories ever told.
- Suffragettes, before the First World War, claimed Charlotte Bronte as a pioneer.
- Later feminism: Charlotte, a parable of victimhood oppressed by the men in her life, het father, her brother, her husband and her teacher
- 1980-1990 For the first time since Gaskell biographers stop routinely seeing Charlotte as a victim.
1912 May Sinclair The Three Sisters- Had an enormous influence on perceptions of Emily
- Charlotte sublimate desires by redirecting them in to a spirituel channel. Charlotte became spiritual superiority.
- Reaction against the caricature of Charlotte as a frustrated spinster ( a seks-starved hysteric).
- She believed in the concept of the ideal women artist.
1914 Frederica Mac Donald gutenberg/files/The secret of Charlotte Bronte
1919 Esther Alice Chadwick In the Footsteps of the Brontës
- A few years after Esther Alice Chadwick (fl. 1882-1928) - who wrote under the name Mrs Ellis H. Chadwick - had read a copy of Elizabeth Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë, she moved to a house near the Haworth vicarage where the Brontë family had lived. As a result, Chadwick was able to speak to many people who had known the family, and in 1914 she published this extensive biography of the family.
- Emily, the innocent recipient of mystical experiences which came direct from God.
- Emily could not have created Heatcliff without the inspiration of real-time romance. This biographer came up with Constantin Heger!!!!!
1920 Lucille Dooley
Psycho analysis of Charlotte Bronte. As a type of woman of genius
- Charlotte had a father fixation. Electra complex.
- Lucile Dooley was the first commentator to suggest that Charlotte' s death was caused by "psychogenic reactions" linked to her father fixation. Charlotte could not become a mother without a destroying conflict.
- The unconscious artist. Charlotte'snovels hadrisen whole and unalterable from ""the Unconscious"".
- Dooley subtler than many other psychobiographers.
1927 Isabel C. Clarke Haworth parsonage. A picture of the Bronte family- William Weightman awoke the passion to create Heatcliff
- Emily must have been a Roman Catholic
- Comparing Emily to catholic mystics
1928 Romer Wilson The Life and Private history of Emily Jane Bronte.
- Romer is a Yorkshirewoman
- She boasted that she paid especial and respectful attention to primary sources.
1929 Rosamond Charlotte
- Wanted to explode the foolish fashion of canonising Charlotte Bronte.
- If Charlotte's life was sad, it was her own fawlt
- The key to Charlotte's problem "surpressed personality"
- Lack of interest in the literary evidents of Charlotte's writings.
- Charlotte is prim, priggish and a prude
- Rosamond invented the idea Charlotte liked green and Emily purple
1932 E.F.Benson
- Calling Charlotte ruthless, bitter, ungracious and black censoriousness of others is the root of much of her unhappiness.
- Charlotte' s hardness contrasts Emily' s superior generous nature.
- Charlotte forfeited Emily' s love.
- Charlotte remained detached from her works.
- Not to gain a deeper understanding of het literary imaginazing but to judge het personal life.
- He put Charlotte as bitch on the map.
- Emily Bronte lesbian.
1936 Virginia Moore The Life and Eager Death of Emily Bronte
- She wrote Glendale poems instead of Gondal Poems
- Masculinity of Emily's prose
- Heathcliff is a self-portrait
- She had difficulty reading old handwriting.
- She misread the title of a poem "Love's Farewell" as ''Louis Parensell" and went on to invent alover of that name
1941 Fannie Ratchford
- The Brontes web of Childhood
- First in -depht study of the juvenilia
- Pioneering work
1948 John Maynard Charlotte Bronte and sexuality
- Sexual desire was rooted in her reading Byron' s Don Juan and Shakespeare' s comedies and through het intuition and introspection.
1953 Muriel Spark- Emily' s poems and novel, not anything that happened in het external life, formed the principal facts of her biography.
- Emily is a self-created being centered in the universe of her own imagination.
- Gondal and Wuthering Heights became so central to Emily' s life that she ceased to distinguish between the realand the imaginary.
- Emily believed she was at liberty to will or not to will death from a fatal disease. She suffered
- from delusions about the power of her own genius, dramatizing her own dying.
1960 Millicent Collard. Wuthering Height- the Relevation, a Psychical Study of Emily Bronte.
- What was it that Emily Bronte was hiding from the World? A strong psychic nature, contact with the death, second sight.
- This book seem like a lone eccentric, but it reflects the process of mystification, established during the interwar period.
1967 Winifred Gerin. Lived on the edge of Haworth moor. The evolution of genius
- Combinated passion and erudition in her books
- The first who used footnotes, documented her sources
- Her main aim to trace the evoling process by which Charlotte became a novelist
- Visitations deserted Emily
- Emily close to Branwell
1969 John Hewish A Critical and Biographical Study
- Skepticism. Did Emily bake the bread or is a story Gaskell made up?
- Law Hill "problem". Excactly how many month did Emily spend teaching at Law Hill?
1976 Helene Moglen The Self Conceived
- Charlotte was doomed because, as a woman, she could not be Zamorna.
- Nicolls is an authority figure, though it internalizes Charlotte' s needs to be dominated.
1976 Margot Peters Unquit Soul.
Life and Art, both an eloquent protest over the cruel and frustrating limitations imposed upon women,
Life could not be other than a battle between conformity and rebellion.
- Bertha Mason is Jane Eyre's doppelganger, able to express what Jane cannot
- The Red Room: the figure in red represent the passionate rage of Jane
1988 Rebecca Fraser
Placed Charlotte in the context of nineteenth rather then twentieth century wrinting of gender
Interested in recognizing those aspects of Charlotte''s personality which enabled her to become an ambitious artist.
- Emily' s poetry embedded in a whole web of other literary sources analogues
- German Philosophy
- Gives a vived picture of the relationschip between biographer and biographee
- Emily may have has a lesbian consciousness, but cannot prove it.
1994 Stevie Davies
1932 E.F.Benson
BeantwoordenVerwijderenBoy, I really dislike this fellow and I can't read his book much because of his overflowing bitterness that stamps every page .
This is like the newer book that says Arthur and Charlotte poisoned everyone lol ...then Arthur poisoned Charlotte...why he then took care of Patrick for six years until Rev Bronte died of natural causes is never explained lolol
Charlotte' s hardness contrasts Emily' s superior generous nature.
Like Mr. Benson would know. Does he mention Emily was the one who beat Keeper to a pulp? Brontes are both hard and soft
Emily attracts those who wish to make a Bronte to their own liking
Since there is much we cannot know , the idea of Emily is used like clay to fashion a made up image...and of course the far better known human being comes off the worse for it.
His book has far more to do with E.F. Benson, than the Brontes imo
1920 Lucille Dooley
Psycho analysis of Charlotte Bronte. As a type of woman of genius
Lucile Dooley was the first commentator to suggest that Charlotte' s death was caused by "psychogenic reactions" linked to her father fixation. Charlotte could not become a mother without a destroying conflict.
lol of course Tabby's typhoid fever was a non factor lol. We know Charlotte was nursing Tabby because CB wrote to a doctor about Tabby's illness and said "she voids without warning " ie CB got covered. I think one can say infection was a factor in her passing...which followed Tabby's with the same time period of illness and death
The unconscious artist. Charlotte's novels had risen whole and unalterable from ""the Unconscious"".
That is ridiculous and a great disservice to Charlotte If today one's reads Elizabeth Imay's amazing book
Charlotte Bronte and the Mysteries of Love: Myth and Allegory in "Jane Eyre"
One is shown Charlotte was a super conscious artist, astonishing so .By the time she wrote Jane Eyre, Charlotte was a master craftswoman ..saying she was not is a means to bring her down a peg or two while not having to do research oneself .
Why it took near the end of the 20th century for folks to READ the vast amount of source material there all along is a mystery. But thankfully they have
The 20's was the beginning of a time of the over dominance of Psychoanalysis speculation...which we are still in, but not as deeply thank goodness .
It was crafted to take the place of exhausted religion as a value system.
By both are of not much worth if they are allowed to thoroughly dominate humans and crush creativity . There is a saying in the bible.
" the Sabbath was made for man, man was not made for the Sabbath"
Meaning any system that crushes the human being is being used wrongly and it then loses its value.
People in the 20's said God is dead, but then worshiped Freud...where is the progress in that? One simply has a new God and religion...and one without the great art lol
The Brontes were and are ripe for treatment from such then and now because they are so emotional alive. They crackle with feeling still...many are attracted to that, but must contain it somehow...must pin the butterfly to a board to study it .
I have to say of the many psychologists I have met ( they seem drawn to the art field as a way to feel ) a good many have a difficult time with just feeling their feelings...that the Brontes do not have this difficulty is an outrage lol
Thanks for updating this post!
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI think Winifred Gerin is a must read for the Bronte fan for as you say she
Combined passion and erudition in her books
making her rare then and now imo... Her work has an amazing balance
that makes it a standout
Being human and a genius, CB is vastly more multifaceted than many treat her.
Was Charlotte was doomed because, as a woman, she could not be Zamorna.? Well perhaps...but
that over looks the fact she still was Zamorna within ...plus that is but a small part of this woman...people tend to have pet theories and make too much of them when an allusion to the idea would provide insight .
They often tend to see things as wholly negative...I believe CB liked being lorded over because she liked being a rebel..One can hardly do so when in charge, as increasingly she was as Papa's health was declining ...
Charlotte writes" Arthur says this and Arthur says that" just as all her life before she wrote " Papa says this or that" but for the most part, and certainly since her success, she hid behind them as she did exactly what she wanted . They are a marvelous convenience when you don't want to do something...like getting the vapors .
A good part of Ellen's fury over the letters is towards Charlotte. Because CBN did not dream of fighting Arthur over the issue ...but simply laughed at him , "obeyed" and moved on ...she picked her fights and did not waste powder on those she deemed not worthy.
I believe Charlotte regularly burned other's letters and this "order" did not register as an overbearing one. Charlotte's main response seems to have been "Whatever".
Of course Ellen transferred her anger about it to Arthur solely.... Charlotte was a wretched and helpless victim. That view does not flatter Charlotte or her judgment to marry Arthur.... and it rather makes him more powerful than he was.
One can call Charlotte alot of things , but by that time in her life "helpless" would not be one of them imo. However by making Charlotte a total victim, Ellen does not have to face the fact Charlotte indeed chose Arthur over herself...in this incident and other wise
It's marvelous to have so many books about the Brontes... and from so many eras . Reading them, old and new, and rereading them over time is very enjoyable for the Bronte fan .
You can't read books from just one era. One should employ the full spectrum of Bronte scholarship ....because all worthy Bronte biography informs the rest imo
Hey Geri, It took me some days to realize it , but the photo you have for John Maynard is
BeantwoordenVerwijderenactually of John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) British economist.
I think a book about Charlotte's sexuality by John Maynard Keynes however would have been interesting lol
I'm awaiting my copy of John Maynard's book from inter library loan
1928 Romer Wilson The Life and Private history of Emily Jane Bronte.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenShe had difficulty reading old handwriting. She misread the title of a poem "Love 's Farewell" as " Louis Parensell" and went on to invent a lover ( for Emily Bronte) of that name.
That is hilarious... ouch
Hi Anne,
BeantwoordenVerwijderenO dear, o, dear, I toke away John Maynard Keynes........ Thank you for mentioning it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And Louis Parensell is from Virginia Moore. i changed this as well.
It was fun collecting all these biographers with their different ideas.
Thank you for your comment.
You are welcome. I was looking at his photo for days thinking" I didn't know John Maynard Keynes wrote a book about Charlotte's sexuality? ... he was part of the Bloomsbury group so I thought well maybe lol Then I read the name more carfully
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI do like reading everything and deciding for myself and how great we have so many years of Bronte books
to choose from ?
And Louis Parensell is from Virginia Moore. i changed this as well
Well whoever wrote it, it shows it does not take much to create an Emily myth as one wishes lol
Another interesting aspect to study is how each Bronte faced having to leave and go into the world beyond the Parsonage once they grew up ...some did better than others. But it was a crisis for each ...which Anne seemed to master more than the others.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI have started John Maynard's " Charlotte Bronte and sexuality"
and I'm very impressed.
Maynard sees Charlotte as a conscious, serious artist
" the first author in English to deal with this topic before Hardy " ....
So already I like it
But then he takes on the physiologically (mis)treatment CB had been subjected to
and says much what I said earlier in the comments , only vastly better
I 'm so impressed, I have utilized my lone typing finger to tap out some choice quotes
Psychological studies of Bronte have tended , however, to attempt more than some further insights into the life behind the work; they have offered themselves as a central mode of interpreting her work .
As such , they have regularly encouraged readers of Bronte to interpret her sexual and psychological insights not as a major aspect of her art but as the uncontrolled drama of her own inner life spilling over into her writing
Indeed!
" The very ways of looking at experience that lead to Bronte anticipate broadly the assumptions of Freudian psychology , the massive symbolic and psychological content of her fiction , attract the psychological biographers and critics as a well designed playground attracts children
LOL how true
The psychological studies of Bronte show in aggravated form many of the problems with psychopathology as a whole . The practicing analyst asks questions that bring his living patients to knowledge that they may try out in their on going lives ; the biographical shrink on the contrary arbitrarily imposes psychological interpretations on the dead without any possible test of their validity
alot of wisdom there
Anyone who takes the trouble to read over the psychological studies of Bronte will not find it difficult to maintain comic perspective on the issues raised so gravely , unless indeed he has his own ax to grind
Lord yes
I have to thank you Geri. I didn't know of this book before reading about it here!
John Maynard's " Charlotte Bronte and sexuality"
BeantwoordenVerwijderenUpdate: This book continues to impress..I feel I know CB better after reading Prof. Maynard's book
and '
Elizabeth Imay's " Charlotte Bronte and the Mysteries of Love: Myth and Allegory in "Jane Eyre"
Both of them see CB as a fully conscious artist/ author , makes her choices in a fully conscious way ....not swept up unknowingly .
She had severed too long an apprenticeship for that .
Charlotte Bronte : Master Craftswoman Writer .
She herself contains the true Master within