BS_O'Callaghan_16.07.2018.pdf (99.79 kB)
“He is rather peculiar, perhaps”: Reading Mr Rochester’s coarseness queerly
This article re-examines the accusation of coarseness directed at Edward Fairfax Rochester, the male protagonist of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847). Elizabeth Rigby condemned Rochester as coarse for challenging normative modes of male gender and sexuality. In re-thinking Rigby’s critique, this paper provides an original reading of Brontë’s novel that explores Rochester’s ‘coarse’ behaviours as representative of queer masculinity. Drawing on contemporary queer theoretical discourse, the article suggests that Brontë’s male protagonist articulates a range of queer masculine possibilities that valuably registers a resistance to dominant ways of being in the nineteenth century. As such, I propose that Jane Eyre offers insight into the flexible ways with which Brontë conceived of male subjectivity.
History
School
- The Arts, English and Drama
Department
- English and Drama
Published in
Brontë StudiesVolume
44Issue
1Pages
123-135Citation
O'CALLAGHAN, C., 2019. “He is rather peculiar, perhaps”: Reading Mr Rochester’s coarseness queerly. Brontë Studies, 44 (1), pp.123-135.Publisher
Taylor and Francis © The Bronte SocietyVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Brontë Studies on [date of publication], available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/14748932.2019.1525885Acceptance date
2018-07-11Publication date
2018-12-17Copyright date
2019ISSN
0309-7765Publisher version
Language
- en