3. Gender and Hysteria

About this Lecture

Lecture

Class warfare expands out into warfare in other arenas, too. As Jane herself says: “Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth” (Chapter 12). In this module, we focus on the struggle between genders – focusing in particular on the concept of ‘hysteria’.

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).