The Strange Dialectic of Bronte Biography: Yorkshire Gossip and the Ascent into Myth, 1855–1900
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| Publicado en: | ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (1997) |
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| Acceso en línea: | Citation/Abstract Full Text - PDF |
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| Resumen: | The purpose of this dissertation was threefold: (1) to examine the unusual proliferation of biographical writings devoted to the members of the Bronte family during the nineteenth century, (2) to enumerate the primary reasons for that large body of biographical writing, and (3) to explore the methods used by Victorian biographers to create what is now known as the Bronte myth, a subtle combination of gossip and verifiable fact.Seventeen book-length biographies of the Bronte family were published between 1857 and 1900, including both single-subject and group/family texts. Biographical pamphlets and booklets were also popular, and although the ephemeral nature of such publications renders exact figures impossible, research indicates that the Brontes were the primary subjects of at least fifteen, which ranged from sixteen to seventy-eight pages in length. Hundreds of journal and newspaper articles also were written about the Brontes. Most of these articles were either (1) lengthy reviews of book-length Bronte biographies, in which Victorian reviewers typically emphasized the more sensational aspect of the Brontes' lives, or (2) narrative accounts of writers' pilgrimages to Haworth, the home of the Bronte family. When this enormous body of biographical writing is viewed within the context of the Brontes' relatively small body of publications, which comprised one book of poetry and seven novels, the disparity becomes obvious.Victorian biographers were drawn to the Brontes for several reasons, the most obvious of which was the unusual phenomenon of three sister novelists who lived in relative isolation, died at tragically young ages, and left no direct descendants. The mythical aspects of their historical identities result largely from emphasis on—and exaggeration of—this phenomenon, in combination with an imbalance of primary source material, which encouraged biographers' use of gossip obtained from residents of Haworth. The demands of exemplary biography, the prevalent mode of life-writing during the Victorian period, also mandated that the Brontes be depicted in exaggerated contrast--Charlotte and Anne as examples of female domesticity, Branwell and Patrick as figures of degenerate masculinity, and Emily as an example of the effects of protracted isolation and self-involvement. |
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| ISBN: | 9780591696462 |
| Fuente: | ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global |