ENGL 628 Jane Eyre Neo-Victorian Appropriations Dashboard
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.
Individual Entries
In Lindner’s Jane, Jane talks to Nico about taking Maddy to the Mystic Aquarium, a place I have visited several times and popular with children of all ages. Jane and Nico’s discussion of this place is another example of modernization and indicative of the cultural change that has taken place regarding how children are entertained now vs. during the Victorian Era. The Aquarium is in the village of Mystic, located in southern coastal Connecticut. It’s a leading seaport of the area and home to the nation’s largest maritime museum and one of the premier maritime museums in the world. The 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan is docked there, the oldest merchant vessel in the country. The Aquarium is one of only two American facilities holding Stellar sea lions, and it has the only beluga whales in New England. In 1997 Steven Spielberg shot various scenes for the film Amistad at Mystic Seaport.
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moreIn Chapter 19 of Jane, the reader experiences another cultural thrust of modernization when Nico’s comeback makes news in Entertainment Weekly with the headline “Rathburn’s Back and Better than Ever”. This magazine covers film, television, music, Broadway, books, and popular culture in general. The magazine features celebrities on the cover and addresses topics such as ratings, movie grosses, production costs, concert ticket sales, ad budgets, and in-depth articles about scheduling, producers, etc. Its sister magazine is People. The last issue of each year features a cover showing the “Entertainer of the Year” chosen by readers on the EW website. Past winners have run the gamut from Bart Simpson to Ben Affleck.
While Bibi takes the place of Bertha as the Mad Woman in the Attic in Lindner's version of Jane, it seems even more cruel than the treatment of Bertha. Schizophrenia is not a disease that one should be locked in an attic, west wing, or room for. It is a stigmatized, often misrepresented chronic disorder. According to the National Institute of Mental Health Schizophrenia is a "chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. People with schizophrenia may seem like they have lost touch with reality. Although schizophrenia is not as common as other mental disorders, the symptoms can be very disabling." Schizophrenia can have a number of symtoms that would be very difficult to be controlled without the constant support of a nurse, or a medical doctor that specializes in the field. Some of the symtoms include hallucinations, including multiple personality disorder, delusions, and thought disorder (symtoms could be difficulty speaking in the...
moreIn Jane, our modernized Jane Eyre comes from affluent surroundings and did not have to suffer the injustices and hardships presented to our Victorian Jane at Lowood School. In fact, she attended Sarah Lawrence College and would have remained there matriculating if n ot for the unfortunate death of her parents in a car accident. Sarah Lawrence is a prestigious, residential, coeducational liberal arts college. Founded in 1926 and consistently ranked among the leading liberal arts colleges in the country, Sarah Lawrence is known for its pioneering approach to education and a rich history of impassioned intellectuality. The college occupies 44 wooded acres in Yonkers, NY, near the Village of Bronxville—just north of New York City. A 30-minute train ride from the Bronxville station takes students into Midtown Manhattan. The student body is 71% female and yearly tuition costs exceed $56,000 USD. Not your run-of-the-mill community college. Lindner's Jane is thoroughly modernized...
moreAdam J. Wright, who portrayed E.D. Rochester in the vlog series The Autobiography of Jane Eyre, grew up in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia outside of Vancouver, Canada (AOJE). Harrison Hot Springs is a very small town, located at the Southern end of Harrison Lake with a population of roughly 1,468 people according to a 2016 census (Wiki). Most of the Hot Springs economy comes from the tourists who visit the hot springs, as well as other attractions such as music and art festivals that the town holds (Wiki). According to Wright's biography on the cast page on The Autobiography of Jane Eyre website, he "was drawn to acting at an early age. The majority of Adam’s training has been in Method Acting" (AOJE).
“Adam J. Wright.” The Autobiography of Jane Eyre, Wix.
https://theautobiographyofja.wixsite.com/jane-eyre/adam-wright
“Harrison Hot Springs.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia...
moreAlysson Hall, actress and writer of The Autobiography of Jane Eyre, grew up in Vancouver, Canada (AOJE). According to her biography page on the Jane Eyre site, Alysson received her Bachelor's in Fine Arts from the University of Victoria (AOJE). The site describes Alysson as enjoying "improv, stand-up, and playwriting... kitties, zombies, and doodling" (AOJE). She is credited for writing 20 epsiodes of the vlog series while acting in more than 75 percent of them (AOJE). According to Alysson's LinkedIn account, post- Jane Eyre, she has continued to work in the surrounding area as a creator, actress, and has held various other jobs (LinkedIn).
https://theautobiographyofja.wixsite.com/jane-eyre/alysson-hall
“Alysson Hall.” The Autobiography of Jane Eyre, Wix.
https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alysson-hall-56583455...
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