11. A Straightforward Linear Narrative?

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we begin to think about Jane Eyre should be read as a linear account of Jane’s progression from childhood to adulthood, or whether what happens later in her life impacts how she presents her past self: does she describes herself as an “insignificant plebeian” in comparison to Blanche Ingram because she knows how the story is going to end?

Course

In this course, we explore several aspects of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. The course is divided into two equal halves: in the first six modules, we think about some of the major themes of the novel, looking in particular at gender, race, and class; in the second, we think more about narrative structure and concept of autobiography, focusing in particular on the extent to which Jane is a reliable narrator.

Lecturer

Alfie Bown is Lecturer in Digital Media Culture and Technology at Royal Holloway, University of London. His principle research interests are in psychoanalysis, digital media, critical theory and videogames, though he has also published in nineteenth-century studies, film studies and medieval studies. He is author of The Playstation Dreamworld (2017) and In the Event of Laughter (2018) among other things. His most recent book is an edited collection of essays entitled Post-Memes: Seizing the Memes of Production (2019).