Brontë Juvenilia Seminar Day
This workshop series explores the Brontë siblings' relationship to the Gothic. We’ll explore the Gothic influences that shaped their fiction, dive into their juvenilia and its use of Gothic elements from murder to necromancy to tragic ghosts, and look at how they changed the Gothic forever.
The day also includes a visit to the Museum's Research Library to examine collection materials. It is worth noting that the Museum will be closed to the public on this day.
Please note, this ticket is only refundable if the event is cancelled, in which case we’ll contact you. We reserve the right to make changes to our programme. All information is correct at the time of booking. We kindly ask that you do not bring dogs or other pets to our in-person events unless stated otherwise (if you'd like to bring your service dog to an event, please let us know).
| 10 - 11am | Introducing the Juvenilia: In this session, I’ll introduce the complicated worlds of the juvenilia. We’ll explore Charlotte’s accounts of their fantastical imaginary world’s construction. We’ll also use extracts from Branwell and Charlotte to explore how the siblings constructed different versions of the same world. |
| 11am - 12pm | Influencing the Brontës Juvenilia: In this session, we’ll explore some of the authors and works that inspired the Brontës’ juvenile writing: from Edinburgh magazines, to Gothic novels, to Byron’s poetry, to contemporary geographies, and the Arabian Nights. We’ll look at the tiny magazines that the siblings produced in their imaginary world and what they reveal about the wide ranging interests and reading of all the Brontë children. |
| 12 - 1 pm | Lunch break |
| 1 - 2pm | Introducing Our (Anti-)Heroes: In this session, we’ll dive into the interlocking worlds of the juvenilia by exploring some of the key figures and their ever-changing and evolving stories. |
| 2 - 3pm | Evolving from the Juvenilia: In this final session, we’ll explore the ways in which story points, themes and characters that are famous from the Brontës’ later work come out of the juvenilia. We’ll trace the development of ideas and question some of our assumptions about the novels and what influenced them by looking at how very early several tropes and concerns appear. |
