Programs

JANE EYRE: GOTHIC MELODRAMA AND SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Ever since its publication in 1848, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre has caught and kept the public's attention. Although appealing to a wide audience, Bronte's novel, a blend of gothic melodrama and spiritual autobiography, has especially stirred interest--and even controversy--among feminists and Christians alike. During our discussion of Jane Eyre, we will discuss why this story of an emotionally and physically abused young girl who seeks to find purpose and belonging as she enters womanhood has affected so many readers so profoundly, focusing especially on its "scandalous" religious subtext and its startling apocalyptic ending.

Robert Kachur is Assistant Professor of Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century British Literature at McDaniel College where he also teaches courses on the Apocalypse and horror fiction. He received his Ph.D. in Nineteenth-Century British Literature with a minor in Composition Studies as well as his M.A. in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.