Abstract
Focusing on the recovery of the textual and authoriality-defining politics of Charlotte Brontë’s pseudonym ‘Currer Bell’, this essay examines how Charlotte’s penname affected pre-1850 constructions of gendered authorial identity and how, after that date, Currer Bell was partially erased by means of the two distinct personae that readers fashioned for Charlotte, the female author, and Charlotte, the historical figure. The essay explores the pseudonym’s redefinition and revaluation by means of an analysis of brief accounts of Charlotte’s correspondence and the reviews of her fiction. It also examines how the use of different personae by Charlotte and critics of her works contributed to a myth that conflated distinctions she had introduced to differentiate herself as writer, using the gender-ambiguous remit of Currer Bell, and as the private individual Charlotte Brontë. The essay concludes with a consideration of how Charlotte’s textual inscription is transformed by visual culture media, which facilitated her becoming a cultural icon.
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