The development of feminist criticism of Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre: the unusual romance by the Parson's daughter that sparked the literary rebellion

Abstract

Román Charlotte Brontëovej Jana Eyrová v anglo-americkej literárnej kultúre zaujíma výsostné postavenie ako jeden z klasických textov ženskej literárnej tradície. Neutíchajúci záujem kritikov pútal už krátko od svojho vydania v roku 1847, no skutočné literárne uznanie získal až v sedemdesiatych rokoch minulého storočia so vznikom modernej feministickej kritiky, ktorá dielo znovu objavila a odhalila jeho feministickú stránku, dovtedy zanedbávanú tradičnou literárnou kritikou, ktorej dominovali predovšetkým muži. Na radikálne prvky diela poukazovali však už predchádzajúce generácie kritikov. Viktoriánska spoločnosť, vrátane prísnej recenzentky Elizabeth Rigbyovej, vnímala dielo ako odraz vážneho problému vtedajšej doby, tzv. "ženskej otázky", zatiaľ čo ženské kritičky začiatku dvadsiateho storočia, Virginia Woolfová a Queenie D. Leavisová, videli v diele ozveny feminizmu, ideovej línie, ktorá vznikla na prelome storočí na podporu boja za ženské práva.

In 1847, when Charlotte Brontë was writing Jane Eyre in Haworth parsonage and secretly dreaming of her literary career, not even in her wildest dreams could she have imagined what a life and what a variety of meanings female critics would once give to her first novel, and that one day she would be even studied as one of the female writers who helped to spark the women's literary rebellion and her Jane Eyre would be celebrated as a feminist classic. After all, this is what the fascinating story of this unusual romance has turned out to be. As my thesis has revealed, ever since its publication Jane Eyre has always drawn the attention of female critics. The first woman whose opinion about the novel was publicly heard was the Victorian reviewer Elisabeth Rigby. Interestingly, unlike female critics who came after her, she was not delighted by the appearance of this novel but on the contrary, she felt fully alarmed by it. She condemned it on both moral and religious grounds, disliking Jane's rebellion against the established order, as well as her sympathy towards the poor and the oppressed. Her opinion was nothing unusual concerning the fact that she was both a member of the upper class and a conservative. Yet, what was rather astounding was that as a woman allowed to write, she questioned the propriety of female...