ENGL 628 Jane Eyre Neo-Victorian Appropriations Dashboard

Leader

Kate Oestreich

Description

Jane Eyre: An Autobiography (1847) is a seminal text in the Western feminist literature canon, published fifty-five years after Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and a year before the Seneca Falls convention launched the feminist movement in Western culture. Scores of authors, directors, and digital producers have attempted not just to adapt but to appropriate, revise, and modernize Charlotte Bronte’s most famous novel. Antonija Primorac contends that the current vogue of neo-Victorianism is “a powerful trend in contemporary Anglophone media” pointing to the “continuous production of adaptations and appropriations of Victorian literature and culture.” In order to be considered neo-Victorian, Ann Heilmann and Mark Llewellyn posit that “texts (literary, filmic, audio / visual) must in some respect be self-consciously engaged with the act of (re)interpretation, (re)discovery and (re)vision concerning the Victorians” (emphasis in original). In this class, we will explore the creative and rhetorical choices twentieth- and twenty-first-century authors have made when appropriating, revising, and modernizing Jane Eyre’s narrative, paying particular attention to gender ideology in the Victorian era and in more recent times. In this course, we will also leverage the new media capabilities of the COVE (Central Online Victorian Educator) web site in order to examine more deeply the impact of multimodal writing and digital technology on literary studies in the twenty-first century.

Galleries, Timelines, and Maps

Blog entry

Linoleum

Posted by KENNETH LAREMORE on Wednesday, October 9, 2019 - 16:41

On page 436 of Gemma Hardy, Gemma relates to Hallie how she remembered the red-brown kitchen linoleum in her childhood home. I also grew up with linoleum floors and discovered that the product was invented in England and had a very strong Scottish connection.

Linoleum is a floor covering made from materials such as solidified linseed oil,  pine rosin, ground cork dust, wood flour, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most commonly on a burlap or canvas backing. Pigments are often added...

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Blog entry

Charades

Posted by KENNETH LAREMORE on Tuesday, October 8, 2019 - 17:56

Autobiography of Jane Eyre Episode 22 “Charades”

This video episode established the timelessness of the parlor game “charades” and displayed some differences in the hypertextuality of the game played in both media types.

Charades was essentially a “riddle” game popularized in France in the 18th century. In its earliest form, players solicited syllables for player response, rather than whole words. It gradually became accompanied by dramatic performances by the players. It was brought over to Britain by the English aristocracy.

William Thackeray asserted that charades were enjoyed for "enabling the many ladies amongst us who had beauty to display their charms, and the fewer number who had cleverness, to exhibit their wit". We observed this both in Jane Eyre and the video  blog The Autobiography of Jane Eyre. In both instances, the playing of charades revealed more about Rochester’s relationship with Blanche and Jane...

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Blog entry

St. Magnus Cathedral Clock

Posted by KENNETH LAREMORE on Thursday, October 3, 2019 - 13:54

Gemma Hardy p. 297

Gemma refers to this clock when she is waiting for Mr. White at the jewelry shop in Kirkwall, wanting to pawn her watch for much needed funds. She glances at a wall in the shop and sees a variety of clocks on the wall, spurring her memory of the one at St. Magnus cathedral.

The St. Magnus cathedral clock in Kirkwall was built during the First World War in Edinburgh by James Ritchie and Son, makers of the famous Floral Clock in Princes Street Gardens. It was eventually transported to Orkney and installed in 1919, just as the conflict ended.

The clock features a winding mechanism, a pendulum, a set of weights and a large clock face. To wind it, custodians have had to make their way into the upper levels of the cathedral and slide the glass doors of the large winding mechanism case open. There they were faced with three large cylindrical drums wrapped in steel cables. The drums regulated the chiming of the hourly and quarterly bells...

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Maes Howe

Posted by KENNETH LAREMORE on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - 19:15

Gemma Hardy p.440

Gemma references Maes Howe in her conversation with Mr. Sinclair when on the airplane returning to Scotland. I couldn’t find a previous reference to it so I think she used it as a metaphor to symbolize all the hard work she had put in to take the exams at university.

Maes Howe is a Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave situated on Mainland Orkney, Scotland. It was probably built around 2800 BC. In the archaeology of Scotland, it gives its name to the Maeshowe type of chambered cairn, which is limited to Orkney. Maeshowe is a significant example of Neolithic craftsmanship and monumental...

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Blog entry

Bangers and Mash

Posted by KENNETH LAREMORE on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - 18:07

Gemma Hardy p. 386

Gemma uses the term “bangers and mash” to describe the meal she, Marian, and Robin had after she returned from the village escorted by Archie. Bangers and mash, also known as sausages and mash, is a traditional dish of Great Britain comprising sausages served with mashed potatoes. It may consist of one of a variety of flavored sausages made of pork, lamb, or beef. The dish is sometimes served with onion gravy, fried onions, or peas. The term was in use at least as far back as 1919. The term "bangers" is attributed to the fact that sausages made during World War I, when there were meat shortages, were made with such a high-water content that they were more liable to pop under high heat when cooked. The contraction of "mashed potato" to "mash" was common among the upper-middle and upper classes in Britain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangers_and_mash

Blog entry

lesbianism

Posted by KENNETH LAREMORE on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - 17:54

Gemma Hardy p. 337

On this page, Gemma thinks of this word when she begins to understand the relationship between Hannah and Pauline. Archie explains the status quo of lesbianism to Gemma and provides an accurate account. Homosexuality among men was illegal in Scotland until 1980. Same-sex contact between women had never been targeted in law and was not illegal. Scottish society just chose to believe lassies did not do that kind of thing. Queen Victoria insisted it wasn’t possible between women. When the Sexual Offences Act was granted royal assent on 27 July 1967 it applied to England and Wales only, Scotland, along with Northern Ireland, was excluded. England and Wales can now mark 50 years since the historic reforms which partially decriminalized homosexuality between two consenting men in private over 21 years of age. But Scotland took 13 years to adopt the same legislation into Scots Law.

 

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Blog entry

Aberfan Disaster

Posted by KENNETH LAREMORE on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - 17:29

Gemma Hardy p. 323

Marian uses this term when describing a disaster that buried children alive in the village of Aberfan. She instructs Jean (Gemma) to shield Robin from hearing about the disaster.

The Aberfan disaster was a catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip in the Welsh village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil, on 21 October 1966, killing 116 children and 28 adults. A colliery tip  is a pile built of accumulated spoil/waste material removed during mining It was caused by a build-up of water in the accumulated rock and shale, which suddenly started to slide downhill in the form of slurry.

Over 40,000 cubic meters of debris covered the village in minutes, and the classrooms at Pantglas Junior School were immediately inundated, with young children and teachers dying from impact or suffocation. Many noted the poignancy of the situation: if the disaster had struck a few minutes earlier, the children would not...

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Blog entry

Falls of Moness

Posted by KENNETH LAREMORE on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - 16:13

Gemma Hardy p. 309 

Hannah speaks about this site to Jean (Gemma) when she is convalescing in their cottage. She tells Jean they will walk up there when she feels better. The Falls of Moness were a series of waterfalls on the Moness Burn in the Birks of Aberfeldy (Birches of Aberfeldy), which was also made famous in a poem/song by Scottish poet Robert Burns.‘The Birks of Aberfeldy" is the song lyric written for a pre-existing melody in 1787 by Robert Burns. He was inspired to write it by the Falls of Moness and the birch trees of...

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Blog entry

Black Watch Memorial

Posted by KENNETH LAREMORE on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - 15:42

Gemma Hardy p. 358

In a public park overlooking Wade's Bridge and the River Tay in Aberfeldy, Perthshire stands a striking memorial to the soldiers of the Black Watch Regiment (the Royal Highlanders). The monument is in the form of a massively tall cairn topped by a statue of a soldier wearing the original Black Watch Regimental uniform. Though the statue represents all members of the regiment, it is, in fact, a depiction of Private Farquhar Shaw. Private Shaw was one of three men executed for desertion in 1743. The Black Watch was ordered to march south from Scotland to London. That was odd, for the regiment normally served in Scotland. When they reached London a rumor spread that they were to be transported to the American colonies, which was a method used by Parliament to disperse...

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Blog entry

Fire Sermon

Posted by KENNETH LAREMORE on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - 15:39

Gemma Hardy p. 358

 

On June 8, 1873, the volcano Laki in south Iceland tore open a 16-mile fissure that erupted over nine cubic miles of lava. This eruption would kill over 50% of Iceland’s livestock population as well as 25% of the human population. Its effects were felt the world over with fluorine, sulfur dioxide, ash, sand, and drastically cooled temperatures reaching North America and Africa. The eruption lasted eight months. From the day the eruption began, a humble priest named Jon Steingrimsson would deliver his “fire sermon”, a sermon he delivered after all the townspeople of Kirkjubaejarklaustur were assembled in the church, a giant wall of lava approaching. At the  brief sermon’s conclusion, the lava had changed course, sparing the towns people.

https://www.metafilter.com/79882/The-flood-of-fire-flowed-...

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Individual Entries

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Nunchi

Posted by KENNETH LAREMORE on Monday, November 4, 2019 - 17:53

This Korean term is used throughout Re Jane is most commonly defined as the ability of a person to gauge other people's moods. It is considered important in interpersonal relationships. More specifically. it is the art of sensing what people are thinking and feeling. The emphasis of n unchi is usually placed on the collective rather than specific inbdividuals. In other words, nunchi is an asset at business meetings. IKn this article, the author states that in Korean child rearing, it's on a par with "Look both ways before crossing the street". Literally translated from Korean it means "eye-measure". In Korea, nunchi is woven into everyday life. Take, for example, business cards. Even in the era of LinkedIn, Koreans still exchange business cards, and the exchange approaches ceremonial levels: You must take and receive a business card with both hands, as if it were fragile, and study it respectfully for a few seconds. You never stuff it in your wallet. This ritual gives all...

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Blog entry

The Frangipani Tree

Posted by Brittany Atkinson on Thursday, October 31, 2019 - 21:45

The first traumatic event of Wide Sargasso Sea occurs only two pages into the story. Antoinette's mother's horse is killed, left dead under the frangipani tree: "...he was dead and his eyes were black with flies. I ran away and did not speak of it for I thought if I told no one it might not be true" (Rhys 16). The frangipani tree, although beautiful when in full bloom, has a contrasting wintertime nickname: "the ugly duckling." When winter approaches, the beautiful tree turns into an ugly skeleton of branches (Delvalle). This transformation parallels the storyline of Jane Eyre, or in in this case the prequel to Jane Eyre. Rhys opens with the horse death under the frangipani tree to foreshadow a transformation from something beautiful to something ugly, just as Antoinette and Bertha spiral into insanity.

Bibliography: Delvalle, Terry Brite. “Garden Help: Plumeria go from ugly duckling to swan plant.” The Florida Times-Union, 20 May 2017,...

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as Allusion

Posted by Brittany Atkinson on Thursday, October 31, 2019 - 21:27

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is referenced about halfway through the novel. According to Gemma, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was one of my uncle's favourite books...He thought everyone had to struggle between the good and bad parts of himself" (Livesey 225). Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was published in 1886 by Robert Louis Stevenson. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, "The names of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the two alter egos of the main character, have become shorthand for the exhibition of wildly contradictory behavior, especially between private and public selves" (Lebeau). As with Jane Eyre, The Flight of Gemma Hardy utilizes allusion in order to construct parallels. Here, Gemma Hardy makes a parallel between the alter ego she'll soon discover of Mr. Sinclair by referencing it as one of her uncle's favorite books. As the novel progresses, it even reveals the own alter egos present within herself. 

Bibliography: Lebeau, Vicky. “The Strange...

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Blog entry

The Selkie Story

Posted by Brittany Atkinson on Thursday, October 31, 2019 - 21:12

When Miriam is on her death bed at the hospital, she asks Gemma to tell her a selkie story (Livesey 111). Gemma starts the story, positioning it as a woman living in the village by the sea. According to the OED, the selkie story is "also, in folklore, a creature or spirit having the appearance of a seal; spec. one able to assume human form” (“sealkie”). Elisabeth Gifford is a prose writer who also reflects on and has an interest in the selkie story. She writes, "The legend of the Selkie is told along the Western coast of Scotland and as far down as Ireland. Selkies are seals in the water, but once on land, they take off their skins and become human. If an ordinary mortal sees a Selkie in human form, they will inevitably fall in love. The Selkie legend has several variations but never ends happily. The husband or wife of a Selkie may hide away their seal skins, but once their hiding place is discovered the Selkie is powerless to resist the call of the sea. He slides back...

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Blog entry

Tumblr as Communication

Posted by Brittany Atkinson on Thursday, October 31, 2019 - 21:07

The Autobiography of Jane Eyre uses Tumblr as a source to not only communicate, but also bring awareness to its transmedia elements. For example, in episode nine titled "Q & A," Jane makes watchers realize that the questions being answered are from Tumblr (or at least pretends they were from Tumblr and not fabricated). This not only reinforces the transmedia element of the web series, but also makes watchers form connections to the original novel. In the novel, written letters are often used to communicate, due to the time period.

It is also notable that Jane Eyre does not allow readers to be directly addressed until the very end, when Jane acknowledges the readers, directly telling readers that she married Mr. Rochester. This change from the original novel to the web series brings awareness to the ways in which the world today is much more connected, due to cellphones, the internet, emails, and so on, than it was when Jane Eyre was written....

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Blog entry

Gemma's Name

Posted by Brittany Atkinson on Thursday, October 31, 2019 - 20:53

In The Flight of Gemma Hardy, Gemma discusses why “G” is her favorite letter, and ends up revealing a snippet about her name: "Because it's the first letter of the name of a little clam called a Gemma gemma. And it's a letter in your surname. And it's the first letter of garage" (Livesey 324). In many works of literature, the process of naming characters is a way to add depth to a story. Gemma sounds a lot like "gem" or "gemstone.” In fact, according to Behind the Name, it is a, “Medieval Italian nickname meaning "gem, precious stone." It was borne by the wife of the 13th-century Italian poet Dante Alighieri” (Gemma). In addition to this, Gemma’s name could also allude to, as Gemma Hardy states, a little clam. If one looks at an image of a “gemma gemma” via Google, they would see it is a very small clam (Gemma's size is noted as being small throughout the entirety of the novel). This physical parallel is the obvious way the two are...

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Blog entry

Madeline's Name

Posted by Brittany Atkinson on Thursday, October 31, 2019 - 20:40

Throughout reading different hypertexts, it becomes clear that each author chooses to reinvent the characters, plot points, and motifs present in Jane Eyre in unique ways. One aspect that changes through different versions of Jane Eyre is the name of the child Jane looks after. Identity is so closely intertwined with the process of naming, making the author’s decision on a name important, as it can add layers to the reading of a novel. In Jane, Lindner decides to name the child Madeline (Maddy) rather than Adèle (as is the case in Jane Eyre). The daughter is the offspring of Nico and Celine, a rock star and a French popstar (Lindner 14). The choice to keep the “del” in Madeline nods to Adèle, while being an Anglicized spelling of it (versus Madeleine, which would be the French spelling). Using a French name in an English spelling is an interesting nod to the unity between a French popstar and an English rock star having a baby...

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Place

Massacre, the Windward Islands

Posted by madison rahner on Thursday, October 31, 2019 - 16:10

The town of Massacre in the Windward Islands is the community nearest to where Bertha and Rochester have their isolated honeymoon on "a small estate that was owned by Antionette's mother" before she died (Rhys 60). This is where all the interactions between Rochester and Bertha play out on the page as Bertha gradually descends into the "madness" of indulging in alcohol and sex and growing suspicious of Rochester gold-digging for her dowry.

Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.

Place

Minto, Scottish Borders

Posted by madison rahner on Thursday, October 31, 2019 - 15:54

Minto is where Claypoole School is located. This is indicated multiple times in the text. Examples include the heading of the letter Gemma attempts to send Mr. Donaldson which reads "Claypoole School/Minto/The Borders" and when Ross finds Gemma trying to find Claypoole on a classroom map and remarks, "Here's Hawick, and Denholm. Minto is too small" (Livesey 71, 91).

It's worth noting this quote implies that the village of Minto is too small to show up on a map of Scotland in 1959, and even today is incredibly tiny. Wikipedia lists the population from the 2011 census as 322 people. 

This lends a useful context to not only the town but also to Gemma's plight in the novel. She's bound to the school all the time and is unable to leave even on the weekends. Even if she was allowed to leave, the town is small which compounds the isolation and vulnerability she experiences as a young girl at the mercy of Miss and Mrs. Harris. Gemma knows it would be foolish to try to leave...

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Place

St. David's Well in Weem

Posted by madison rahner on Thursday, October 31, 2019 - 15:42

Gemma heads to St. David's Well following the completion of her exams. She feels elated and free from the burden of studying and she’s confident in her performance on the Latin portion. When she returns to Weem, however, she finds the house empty. Without anyone to celebrate with, Gemma feels restless and she resolves to "walk up the hill to St. David's Well," in hopes that "[p]erhaps the local deity would calm [her]" (Livesey 383). There she lays "small blue flowers on the rock by the well" as a sort of offering and stares into the pool and says, "Please let me find a way to go to Iceland" (384 Livesey). 

Soon after, Archie appears and (seemingly) grants her wish. He says to Gemma: "I'd like to celebrate your exams results by inviting you to go to Iceland as—" (Livesey 385). Gemma interrupts him with an affirmative answer. Readers soon find out that the end of the sentence that Gemma didn't hear, was that Archie wants her to accompany him as his wife, much like St. John...

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