Charlotte Brontë

Abstract

This paper traces the attempt of Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855) to achieve recognition as a woman author in nineteenth century England. Drawing extensively on Bronte’s own works, which are read as a form of self/life writing, it advocates a theory of situated authorship and posits permeable boundaries between the genres of autobiography and fiction. It claims that in her writings from childhood onwards, Charlotte Bronte displayed a fragmented and conflicted subjectivity, constructing herself in the role of Romantic creative genius, regardless of gender, and struggling against contemporary social and religious constraints on women’s role in society. The paper analyses Bronte’s view of genius, noting her fierce ambition, her religious scruples, her dutiful attempts to construct herself as a teacher and the reasons for her eventual success as an author from a feminist perspective, it affirms that writing offers a means of self-creation for a woman marginalized in a patriarchal society. It contends that Charlotte Bronte finally gained recognition as an author through exploiting the creative potential of her own lived experience and speaking in the voice of a female protagonist in Jane Eyre.