11. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847)
Abstract
This chapter begins by contextualising Wuthering Heights in relation to Emily Brontë’s life in Haworth, West Yorkshire, in the early nineteenth century. It examines Brontë’s literary relationship with the landscape and situates her novel in relation both to Romanticism and to her father’s Evangelical Christianity. The analysis of the novel takes as its central theme the prominence of boundaries and oppositions. It argues that the refusal to welcome the stranger is a key aspect of the social world of the novel and that the physical and social borders in the novel reflect Brontë’s interest in social and psychological fragmentation and in the ambiguous possibility of reconciliation and restored wholeness. The final sections consider the complex polyphonic narrative structure of the novel and suggest that the narrative foregrounds questions of interpretation and the preconceptions that all readers and critics bring to their readings. The chapter concludes by surveying a range of influential critical interpretations and suggests that the novel complicates all interpretative approaches by drawing attention to the limitation and partiality of interpretation itself.
Abstract
This chapter begins by contextualising Wuthering Heights in relation to Emily Brontë’s life in Haworth, West Yorkshire, in the early nineteenth century. It examines Brontë’s literary relationship with the landscape and situates her novel in relation both to Romanticism and to her father’s Evangelical Christianity. The analysis of the novel takes as its central theme the prominence of boundaries and oppositions. It argues that the refusal to welcome the stranger is a key aspect of the social world of the novel and that the physical and social borders in the novel reflect Brontë’s interest in social and psychological fragmentation and in the ambiguous possibility of reconciliation and restored wholeness. The final sections consider the complex polyphonic narrative structure of the novel and suggest that the narrative foregrounds questions of interpretation and the preconceptions that all readers and critics bring to their readings. The chapter concludes by surveying a range of influential critical interpretations and suggests that the novel complicates all interpretative approaches by drawing attention to the limitation and partiality of interpretation itself.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Editors’ Preface V
- Contents VII
- 0. Metamorphoses in English Culture and the Novel, 1830–1900: An Introduction 1
-
Part I: Systematic Questions
- 1. Science and the Victorian Novel 23
- 2. Remediating Nineteenth-Century Narrative 51
- 3. God on the Wane? The Victorian Novel and Religion 71
- 4. Genres and Poetology: The Novel and the Way towards Aesthetic Self-Consciousness 87
- 5. The Art of Novel Writing: Victorian Theories 107
- 6. Victorian Gender Relations and the Novel 121
- 7. Empire – Economy – Materiality 149
-
Part II: Close Readings
- 8. Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus (1833–1834) 173
- 9. Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil, or The Two Nations (1845) 189
- 10. Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847) 205
- 11. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847) 221
- 12. Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey (1847) 237
- 13. William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1847–1848) 253
- 14. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Mary Barton (1848) 273
- 15. Charles Kingsley, Yeast: A Problem (1851) 289
- 16. Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1853) 305
- 17. Anthony Trollope, Doctor Thorne (1858) 321
- 18. Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) 337
- 19. Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) 351
- 20. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (1868) 367
- 21. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Coming Race (1871) 381
- 22. George Eliot, Middlemarch (1871–1872; 1874) 397
- 23. George Meredith, The Egoist (1879) 415
- 24. Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurean (1885) 431
- 25. Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) 445
- 26. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) 461
- 27. Sarah Grand, The Heavenly Twins (1893) 479
- 28. George Moore, Esther Waters (1894) 495
- 29. Mona Caird, The Daughters of Danaus (1894) 511
- 30. Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure (1895) 529
- 31. H. G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895) 547
- 32. Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897) 565
- 33. Henry James, What Maisie Knew (1897) 581
- 34. Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (1900) 597
- 35. Rudyard Kipling, Kim (1900–1901) 613
- 36. Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh (1903) 629
- Index of Subjects 645
- Index of Names 659
- List of Contributors 675
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Editors’ Preface V
- Contents VII
- 0. Metamorphoses in English Culture and the Novel, 1830–1900: An Introduction 1
-
Part I: Systematic Questions
- 1. Science and the Victorian Novel 23
- 2. Remediating Nineteenth-Century Narrative 51
- 3. God on the Wane? The Victorian Novel and Religion 71
- 4. Genres and Poetology: The Novel and the Way towards Aesthetic Self-Consciousness 87
- 5. The Art of Novel Writing: Victorian Theories 107
- 6. Victorian Gender Relations and the Novel 121
- 7. Empire – Economy – Materiality 149
-
Part II: Close Readings
- 8. Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus (1833–1834) 173
- 9. Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil, or The Two Nations (1845) 189
- 10. Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847) 205
- 11. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847) 221
- 12. Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey (1847) 237
- 13. William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1847–1848) 253
- 14. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Mary Barton (1848) 273
- 15. Charles Kingsley, Yeast: A Problem (1851) 289
- 16. Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1853) 305
- 17. Anthony Trollope, Doctor Thorne (1858) 321
- 18. Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) 337
- 19. Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) 351
- 20. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (1868) 367
- 21. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Coming Race (1871) 381
- 22. George Eliot, Middlemarch (1871–1872; 1874) 397
- 23. George Meredith, The Egoist (1879) 415
- 24. Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurean (1885) 431
- 25. Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) 445
- 26. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) 461
- 27. Sarah Grand, The Heavenly Twins (1893) 479
- 28. George Moore, Esther Waters (1894) 495
- 29. Mona Caird, The Daughters of Danaus (1894) 511
- 30. Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure (1895) 529
- 31. H. G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895) 547
- 32. Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897) 565
- 33. Henry James, What Maisie Knew (1897) 581
- 34. Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (1900) 597
- 35. Rudyard Kipling, Kim (1900–1901) 613
- 36. Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh (1903) 629
- Index of Subjects 645
- Index of Names 659
- List of Contributors 675