Abstract | This paper explores the ways in which Charlotte and Emily Bronte employed elements of gothic in their novels. It focuses on the intersection between gothic and realist modes of writing and argues that whereas Charlotte attempts to contain the gothic energies in Jane Eyre into certain spatial and geographical areas, Emily sought an almost continuous overlapping of gothic and realism in Wuthering Heights. The paper then argues that through the process of editing Wuthering Heights, Charlotte gained an understanding of the power of Emily's method and used it herself in Villette, an early version of an 'urban gothic' text. The paper was developed from a lecture given at a day conference on the Brontes at Newnham College, Cambridge, organized by Cambridge Literary Days in January I998. |
---|