Ambiguity in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette
By (author) Olga Springer
Hardback (Published)
(February 2020)
ISBN: 9783847111191
6.34 x 9.33 inches
Price: $74.00
In stock
Charlotte Bronte’s novel Villette is associated with ambiguity because of its open ending: Does M. Paul return to narrator-protagonist Lucy Snowe or is he killed in a storm? This study explores Villette as a text in which ambiguity is all-pervasive in various ways. Among these is the narrator’s ambivalent attitude toward herself and others. The links between ambiguity and doubt are explored through an analysis of Lucy’s signature phrase, “I know not,” expressive of her existential doubts and questioning attitude toward the world. It moreover focuses on the motif of the oracle as a traditionally ambiguous utterance, and explores its relevance in the context of the generic tradition of Villette as a fictional autobiography.
Charlotte Bronte’s 1853 novel Villette has been associated with ambiguity because of its open ending. But there are many other aspects relevant to ambiguity. Lucy’s ambivalent attitude toward herself and others, her reticence and stylistic idiosyncrasies (such as negations and inversions) as a narrator make the novel a text in which ambiguity is all-pervasive: it is embodied in Lucy Snowe’s signature phrase, ‘I know not,’ expressive of her existential doubts and questioning attitude toward the world. The study explores the narrator-protagonist’s ambivalent attitude toward herself and others, through an analysis of her stylistic idiosyncrasies such as negations and inversions. It moreover focuses on the motif of the oracle as a traditionally ambiguous utterance, and explores its relevance in the context of the generic tradition in which Villette stands. A further central theme is the novel’s use of allegories and the interplay of the figurative and literal levels of meaning, imparting an ambiguous quality to the text.
Dr Olga Springer is Assistant Professor of German in the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies at Dublin City University, Ireland. Her research interests are ambiguity in literary texts and Victorian literature.
- By (author) Olga Springer
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