In the "Kidnapped" episode of The Autobiography of Jane Eyre, Jane and Mr. Rochester visit the park and play a game of large chess. Within the video, viewers can see the couple moving large chess pieces on a chessboard while laughing and getting to know each other more. According to the Emery Barnes Park website, the park opened on September 27, 2003, after three phases of construction (EBP). The park was named after Emery Barnes, a well-known politician in legislature and community activist (EBP). The park is not only home to the chessboard that Mr. Rochester and Jane play with, but it also has seating areas in which park-goers can sit and relax in while watching a multi-tiered, fast-flowing water fountain that is surrounded by flowers and other sights (EBP). For Jane and Mr. Rochester in the web series, this day in the park was a determining factor in their soon-to-be relationship as for viewers, it was obvious that they both had untold feelings for each other as they...
moreENGL 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 the "Draw My Life" video of The Autobiography of Jane Eyre, Jane begins the video by saying that "I'm from a place where it's really cold, we like to put gravy on our fries, the true North, strong and free. And we say sorry a lot... if you guessed Canada, then you're right." (DML). She continues by saying that she was born in Montreal though she moved around frequently as a child. According to the Lonely Planet's webpage focusing on Montreal, the city is "a French-infused city that's in love with festivals, the arts, good food, living well and enjoying life to the hilt" (LP). Much like Jane admitted, Montreal is an interesting place. Lonely Planet claims that Montreal's signature/citizen favorite meal is Poutine, a meal that consists of fries that are smothered in cheese curds and gravy (LP). This is what Jane says the city does to their fries, so right off the bat, The Autobiography of Jane Eyre is accurate. Not only...
moreOn 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...
morePictured here, Maes Howe is the location Hugh Sinclair brings Gemma Hardy in an attempt to explain his painful backstory. As a child, Hugh's cousin Seamus and another boy trapped him within the cairn and left him until Hugh became so consumed by fear that he passed out inside. This event kickstarted his lifelong mission to prove his father wrong, who had called Hugh a "coward" and told him that he had "no backbone" (Livesey 273). Maes Howe is a Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave; the monument was probably built around 2800 BC.
Bibliography:
Livesey, Margot. The Flight of Gemma Hardy. HarperCollins, 2012.
Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, plays a background, stationary role in Margot Livesey's The Flight of Gemma Hardy. This is the second location Gemma Hardy makes note of (Livesey 148) on her train ride to Blackbird Hall. In the same passage, Gemma acknowledges her return to the same train platform she stood upon as a child when travelling to the Claypoole School (148). Further into the story, Hugh Sinclair and Gemma are supposed to stop in Edinburgh (before permanently moving to London) to visit one of Sinclair's business clients (260), but this never happens when Gemma learns the truth about Sinclair's past.
Livesey, Margot. The Flight of Gemma Hardy. HarperCollins, 2012.
This is the first location Gemma Hardy makes note of (Livesey 147) on her train ride to Blackbird Hall.
Bibliography:
Livesey, Margot. The Flight of Gemma Hardy. HarperCollins, 2012.
Kirkwall is the largest town (pop. 10,000 as of 2018) of the Orkney Islands. In Chapter 24 of The Flight of Gemma Hardy, Mr. Sinclair takes Gemma here to shop for new clothes and a wedding dress, in preparation for the wedding. It is also the location of the couple's wedding reception. The town itself is not described in detail--the scene primarily takes place in the shop and at the reception--yet Deirdre, the shop employee, remarks, "I hope you get the good weather. And I hope you'll be very, very happy" (Livesey 262). Not only does this present ominious foreshadowing toward the events to take place at the wedding, the author provides subtle detail about the world Gemma inhabits. Kirkwall experiences an oceanic climate, and is generally coller than the rest of the United Kingdom. Winters are damp, chilly, and windy, which reflects the rainy and gloomy day of the wedding.
Bibliography:
Livesey, Margot...
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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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