Currer Bell, Charlotte Brontë and the Construction of Authorial Identity

Abstract

Focusing on the recovery of the textual and authoriality-defining politics of Charlotte Brontë's pseudonym 'Currer Bell', this essay examines how Charlotte's penname affected pre-1850 constructions of gendered authorial identity and how, after that date, Currer Bell was partially erased by means of the two distinct personae that readers fashioned for Charlotte, the female author, and Charlotte, the historical figure. The essay explores the pseudonym's redefinition and revaluation by means of an analysis of brief accounts of Charlotte's correspondence and the reviews of her fiction. It also examines how the use of different personae by Charlotte and critics of her works contributed to a myth that conflated distinctions she had introduced to differentiate herself as writer, using the gender-ambiguous remit of Currer Bell, and as the private individual Charlotte Brontë. The essay concludes with a consideration of how Charlotte's textual inscription is transformed by visual culture media, which facilitated her becoming a cultural icon.keywords authorship, Charlotte Brontë, cultural icon, popular and critical afterlife, pseudonym Too little attention has been given to the study of the pseudonym that Charlotte Brontë adopted at the beginning of her writing career and what this particular authorship practice can tell us about her personality. Textual and narratological studies have facilitated sophisticated analyses of the construction of authorship and the ways in which the authorship function of pseudonyms can inform readings of literary texts. 1 The key to understanding Charlotte's professional life lies in the pseudonym of Currer Bell, and it is the relationship between this name and Charlotte's identity and character that promises to correct misconceptions of the historical, rather than the mythified, Charlotte Brontë. Before 1850 readers would have been familiar with the names of Currer, Acton and Ellis Bell as the authors of prominent novels in the late 1840s. They would not have known that these names were pseudonyms. The erasure of the significance of Charlotte Brontë's pseudonym, which has (partially) occurred in her critical afterlife, and especially in the undergraduate syllabus and introductory works to Victorian fiction promoting biographical readings of texts,

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“…Az álnév intézménye már régóta jelen van az irodalomban, egykor a női alkotók férfi alteregóval identifikálták magukat, hiszen az akkori társadalmi közeg elutasító volt a női szerzőkkel szemben (Jung, 2014). Az írók az álneveket az igazi személyiségük megvédése mellett arra is használták, hogy megpróbálják velük levetkőzni a különböző sztereotípiákat.…”

“…Az írók az álneveket az igazi személyiségük megvédése mellett arra is használták, hogy megpróbálják velük levetkőzni a különböző sztereotípiákat. Az angol romantika és gótika egyik kiemelkedő regényét, a Jane Eyre-t például Charlotte Brontë Currer Bell néven jelentette meg (Jung, 2014).…”