Book contents
- The Brontës and the Idea of the Human
- Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
- The Brontës and the Idea of the Human
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction Human Subjects
- Chapter 1 Hanging, Crushing, and Shooting
- Chapter 2 Learning to Imagine
- Chapter 3 Charlotte Brontë and the Science of the Imagination
- Chapter 4 Being Human
- Chapter 5 Charlotte Brontë and the Listening Reader
- Chapter 6 Burning Art and Political Resistance
- Chapter 7 Degraded Nature
- Chapter 8 ‘Angels … Recognize Our Innocence’
- Chapter 9 ‘A Strange Change Approaching’
- Chapter 10 ‘Surely Some Oracle Has Been with Me’
- Chapter 11 Jane Eyre, A Teaching Experiment
- Chapter 12 Fiction as Critique
- Chapter 13 We Are Three Sisters
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Chapter 5 - Charlotte Brontë and the Listening Reader
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 May 2019
- The Brontës and the Idea of the Human
- Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
- The Brontës and the Idea of the Human
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction Human Subjects
- Chapter 1 Hanging, Crushing, and Shooting
- Chapter 2 Learning to Imagine
- Chapter 3 Charlotte Brontë and the Science of the Imagination
- Chapter 4 Being Human
- Chapter 5 Charlotte Brontë and the Listening Reader
- Chapter 6 Burning Art and Political Resistance
- Chapter 7 Degraded Nature
- Chapter 8 ‘Angels … Recognize Our Innocence’
- Chapter 9 ‘A Strange Change Approaching’
- Chapter 10 ‘Surely Some Oracle Has Been with Me’
- Chapter 11 Jane Eyre, A Teaching Experiment
- Chapter 12 Fiction as Critique
- Chapter 13 We Are Three Sisters
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Summary
Helen Groth traces sounds, voices and acoustic stresses in Charlotte Brontë’s writing. Groth’s chapter shows how scenes from Jane Eyre and Villette, as well as selected verse, exemplify Charlotte Brontë’s use of literary soundscapes to train her readers to listen to and empathise with the unfamiliar or previously unheard. Groth shows how the listening reader of both poetry and prose is required to eavesdrop on conversations that require a particular kind of attentiveness. From distracting noise to more authentic silences, Brontë privileges what Jane Eyre famously calls the ‘inward ear’ and the alignment of narrative with the involuntary flow of consciousness by relying on first person narration in both Jane Eyre and Villette. Groth demonstrates how this interest in the dynamics (and acoustics) of an interior life aligns with ethological theories of character formulated in the 1840s, and traces the link between mind and sound throughout the Victorian reception of Jane Eyre. Groth also considers Brontë’s narrative poems, looking at complex mindscapes and states of reverie attuned to environmental stimuli in ‘The Teacher’s Monologue’ and ‘Pilate’s Wife’s Dream’. Groth makes a strong case for attention to the sonic dimensions of Brontë’s writing.
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- The Brontës and the Idea of the HumanScience, Ethics, and the Victorian Imagination, pp. 107 - 124Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019