Lunchtime Talks at The Rosenbach: Christine Woody on The Brontë Sisters

The Brontë Family: Popular Media and Personal Innovation

The Brontës have often been portrayed as a family of isolated geniuses, cut off from the currents of British society on the wild and romantic Yorkshire moors. This lecture will explore a different narrative of the young Brontës formative years, one in which the consumption of popular media fed into a fascinating period of imitation, innovation, and collaboration between the siblings. Focusing on their youthful experimentation with genre, form, and voice, this lecture will examine the lines of connection between the Brontëan oeuvre and the late-Romantic magazine. It will provide a look into the wide-ranging sagas, invented scandals, and handmade periodicals that embodied the Brontës early imaginative world. Together we will consider how our sense of the genre, tone, and project of the later novels might be influenced by this early engagement with popular culture.

About the Speaker

Christine Woody is currently teaching The Brontë Sisters course at the Rosenbach.

Christine Woody is a Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focusses on periodical literature and the transformational effects of media forms on literary production. She has published widely on role of magazines and book reviews in shaping literary performance, as well as on the dynamics and impact of serialization. She regularly teaching courses on Romantic and Victorian literature, Book History, and Adaptation Studies.

Sponsor

Lunchtime Talks at The Rosenbach are sponsored by Lenore Steiner and Perry Lerner.

About Lunchtime Talks at The Rosenbach

New! Enjoy In Conversation Programs at midday with leading scholars, artists, and authors talking about their work.

Seating is limited; advance registration is strongly recommended.