The Madwoman in Attic & Beyond: Contextualizing & Queering Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre

1. THE MADWOMAN IN
ATTIC & BEYOND
CONTEXTUALIZING & QUEERING
CHARLOTTE BRONTË’S JANE EYRE
Lisa Hager
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager
Pronouns: she, her, hers & they, them, theirs

2. lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
The Brontë Sisters (circa
1834)
by Patrick Branwell Brontë
(1817-1848)
From left to right:
Anne Brontë (1820-1849)
Emily Brontë (1818-1848)
Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)

3. To Walk Invisible
(starts March 26th on PBS)
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
http://www.pbs.org/video/2365970472/

4. Brontë Juvenilia
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
• http://harvardmagazine.com/2012/01/tiny-brontes
• http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou00223
• https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/bront-juvenilia-the-history-of-angria
• http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/03/13/charlotte_bront_the_aut
hor_s_juvenilia_titled_something_about_arthur.html

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NKXNThJ610
The Brontë Sisters Power Dolls
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,

6. Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,

7. The Victorian Governess
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-the-governess
• Taught young boys and girls;
often taught young women until old enough
to go to finishing schools

8. The Victorian Governess
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-the-governess
• Taught young boys and girls;
often taught young women until old enough
to go to finishing schools
• Genteel but not wealthy

9. The Victorian Governess
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-the-governess
• Taught young boys and girls;
often taught young women until old enough
to go to finishing schools
• Genteel but not wealthy
• Required education and social graces

10. The Victorian Governess
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-the-governess
• Taught young boys and girls;
often taught young women until old enough
to go to finishing schools
• Genteel but not wealthy
• Required education and social graces
• One of the few respectable occupations open
to middle-class white women in the British
empire

11. The Victorian Governess
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-the-governess
• Taught young boys and girls;
often taught young women until old enough
to go to finishing schools
• Genteel but not wealthy
• Required education and social graces
• One of the few respectable occupations open
to middle-class white women in the British
empire
• Required women to live with the family for
whom they worked

12. The Victorian Governess
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-the-governess
• Taught young boys and girls;
often taught young women until old enough
to go to finishing schools
• Genteel but not wealthy
• Required education and social graces
• One of the few respectable occupations open
to middle-class white women in the British
empire
• Required women to live with the family for
whom they worked
• Neither a servant nor a member of the
family

13. The Victorian Governess
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-the-governess
• Taught young boys and girls;
often taught young women until old enough
to go to finishing schools
• Genteel but not wealthy
• Required education and social graces
• One of the few respectable occupations open
to middle-class white women in the British
empire
• Required women to live with the family for
whom they worked
• Neither a servant nor a member of the
family
• Men of the family often sexually abused
women servants, including governesses

14. The Victorian Governess
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-the-governess
• Taught young boys and girls;
often taught young women until old enough
to go to finishing schools
• Genteel but not wealthy
• Required education and social graces
• One of the few respectable occupations open
to middle-class white women in the British
empire
• Required women to live with the family for
whom they worked
• Neither a servant nor a member of the
family
• Men of the family often sexually abused
women servants, including governesses

15. Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
• Bildungsroman (object -> subject)

16. Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
• Bildungsroman (object -> subject)
• Focuses on Jane’s internal life

17. Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
• Bildungsroman (object -> subject)
• Focuses on Jane’s internal life
• Critique of women’s limited
options in life

18. Feminist Analysis of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
Sandra M. Gilbert &
Susan Gubar’s
The Madwoman in the
Attic:
The Woman Writer and the
Nineteenth-Century
Literary Imagination
1979

19. Feminist Analysis of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
Part IV: The Spectral Selves
of Charlotte Brontë
9. A Secret, Inward Wound:
The Professor’s Pupil
10. A Dialogue of Self and Soul:
Plain Jane’s Progress
11. The Genesis of Hunger,
According to Shirley
12. The Buried Life of Lucy
Snowe

20. Queering Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
• What is a queer reading of a text?

21. Queering Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
• What is a queer reading of a text?
• Why would you, as a critical reader of
texts, want to do a queer reading?

22. Queering Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
• What is a queer reading of a text?
• Why would you, as a critical reader of
texts, want to do a queer reading?
• What are some problems with queering
nineteenth-century texts?

23. Queering Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,

24. Queering Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
Discuss one of following questions with your group:
• What kind of relationships do you see between Jane and other
women characters? Does Jane does seem to feel romantically
attached to these women? What actions and thoughts alert you
to this?
OR
• How are Victorian gender roles called into question in this
chapter? Are either or both Rochester and Jane doing and/or
experiencing things associated with another gender?

25. Queering Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
1. Jane & Helen: ch. 8 (59-61) & ch. 9 (69-72)
2. Rochester as fortune teller: ch. 19 (172-180)
3. Jane & Bertha: ch. 25 (249-251) & ch. 26 (257-
261)
4. Jane & the Rivers Sisters: ch. 30 (307-309)
5. Jane & Rochester @ Ferndean: ch. 37 (380-395)

26. Queering Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
Discuss one of following questions with your group:
• What kind of relationships do you see between Jane and other
women characters? Does Jane does seem to feel romantically
attached to these women? What actions and thoughts alert you
to this?
OR
• How are Victorian gender roles called into question in this
chapter? Are either or both Rochester and Jane doing and/or
experiencing things associated with another gender?