Annotated Bibliography

Dublin Core

Title

Annotated Bibliography

Description

Frank, Katherine. “The Brontë Biographies: Romance, Reality, and Revision.” Biography, vol. 2,
no. 2, 1979, pp. 141-156, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23539341.

Katherine Frank considers the reasons for which the Brontë story is so often retold by biographers, as well as the ways in which Elizabeth Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Brontë has influenced later Brontë biographers. Her analysis of the merits and flaws of Gaskell’s biography, together with a brief examination of the various biographies that it has inspired, is valuable for its exploration of the purpose of biography as a literary genre and both the temptations and dangers of mythicization.

Helms, Gabriele. “The Coincidence of Biography and Autobiography: Elizabeth Gaskell’s The
Life of Charlotte Brontë.” Biography, vol. 18, no. 4, 1995, pp. 339-359, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23539656.

Gabriele Helms argues that the creation of the “biographer-persona” is inherent in the genre of biography, specifically looking at Elizabeth Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Brontë as an example of how the unchecked biases of the biographer can turn biography into autobiography. Her argument is useful in that it offers valuable insight into the complex relationship between biographer-persona and subject, as well as the potential impact of authorial biases on the enduring memory of the subject.

Citation

“Annotated Bibliography,” Manhattan College Omeka , accessed September 7, 2024, https://omeka-pilot.manhattan.edu/items/show/112.