Narrative in the Victorian Period Emily Bront, Wuthering Heights

1. Biography (1818-1848)

Haworth

The village of Haworth

Eagleton (1988): not a marooned metaphysical trio but in the world. Tensions btw landed gentry and industrial capitalists, fierce working class

struggles.

Daughters of a clergyman

EducationCowan Bridge and Roe Head

Located at a painfully ambiguous point in the

social structure
(Eagleton, 1988:8)

Emily Bront: Wuthering Heights (1847) Charlotte Bront: Jane Eyre (1847) Ann Bront: Agnes Grey (1847)

2. Critical Reception
A popular and canonical text To follow the changing opinions about Wuthering Heights is almost to see a history of literary criticism over the last 150 years (Stoneman 1995:xiii). Wherever you focus in the book, there are puzzles (Stoneman 1995:xii).

 Victorian responses (male pseudonym: Ellis Bell) Early Twentieth-Century Criticism Focus on symbolic oppositions: 'Storm' and 'calm' instinct/energy vs convention/law De-contextualised: timeless and universal vs historically grounded approaches.

3. Questions of Genre
Literary Realism (Williams, 1976) a method or an attitude in art Life-like, an air of realityaccuracy, specificity, detail; avoidance of idealisation subjects taken from everyday life. Domestic Realism (Pykett, 1989)

The Gothic Novel

In what sense does Wuthering Heights draw on the conventions of the Gothic?

 Representation of taboo subjects --- violence against women, terror of the domestic/family space exploration of issues which cannot be fy representation (eg the psyche)

 Romance (sexual relationships) Fairy Tale Romanticism

Genre: Conclusions
Formal instability, heterogeneity Pleasure of recognition & pleasure of suspense/trangression Pleasure of detail/accuracy & pleasure of escapism

Ambiguities: Film Treatment

William Wyler, 1939

Peter Kosminsky, 1992