Open Access

Adina Sorian

• This chapter revisits Jane Eyre (1847) in the light of key concepts of Victorian culture, the traditions of the Bildungsroman, the autobiography, and the Gothic, as well as feminism, psychoanalysis, and Bakhtinian aesthetics, and shows that while on the one hand the novel represents the typically Victorian attempt to synthesise the individual’s freedom with social integration, on the other hand Brontë’s most noted piece of writing bristles with internal contradictions and ideological ambiguities, which create ruptures not only in the contemporaneous system of beliefs but also in the variety of theoretical frames that were later applied to the text. Juxtaposing interpretations of Jane Eyre that seek to support specific theories with readings that highlight the text’s penchant for ambiguous colonial tropes, diaologicity, and nuanced gender concepts, the chapter seeks to suggest that Brontë’s text engages in a complex process of both expressing and destabilising ideologies, therebyThis chapter revisits Jane Eyre (1847) in the light of key concepts of Victorian culture, the traditions of the Bildungsroman, the autobiography, and the Gothic, as well as feminism, psychoanalysis, and Bakhtinian aesthetics, and shows that while on the one hand the novel represents the typically Victorian attempt to synthesise the individual’s freedom with social integration, on the other hand Brontë’s most noted piece of writing bristles with internal contradictions and ideological ambiguities, which create ruptures not only in the contemporaneous system of beliefs but also in the variety of theoretical frames that were later applied to the text. Juxtaposing interpretations of Jane Eyre that seek to support specific theories with readings that highlight the text’s penchant for ambiguous colonial tropes, diaologicity, and nuanced gender concepts, the chapter seeks to suggest that Brontë’s text engages in a complex process of both expressing and destabilising ideologies, thereby preventing any single-minded reading and enriching our understanding of the open quality of the work.…