Jane's Heirs

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

What is it about Jane Eyre that has so captured our collective imagination for the past one hundred and sixty years? In this course, we will celebrate Charlotte Brontë's cultural legacy and assess the enduring appeal of her mousy governess. We will begin by carefully reading Jane Eyre; we will supplement our understanding of the novel by applying selected theoretical approaches (specifically feminist and cultural theories) to the novel. As we work with Brontë's text, we will explore as well the historical parameters under which she worked, attempting to account for her success. We will then sample the richly varied film and novel adaptations of Brontë's novel (including Rebecca, Wide Sargasso Sea, and The Autobiography of My Mother, as well as pop culture reincarnations like Jane Slayre) to interrogate the story's continuing hold on our imagination. Our readings of these derivative texts will focus on their constructions of femininity and masculinity and their questioning of social mores to reveal the gendered concerns driving them. Throughout the semester, we will interrogate the ways in which people respond to the literary canon so that their literary intervention and reinventions assure a classic like Jane Eyre's lasting relevance.