Villette: Anglo-American Feminist Criticism Revisited

Abstract

Anglo-American feminist criticism has contributed to the provision of methods for the discussion and assessment of Charlotte Brontë’s works. Villette, concerned with the interlocking issues of femininity and sexuality, particularly justifies the pertinence of such a theoretical angle in its textual analysis. The novel is often considered a paradigmatic feminist text and critics have located feminist consciousness immanent in the novel due to the recurrent references to female rage and anxiety. But Brontë’s elusive fiction, replete with multiple strata of signification, cannot be fully elucidated by such a monolithic approach. First and foremost, Villette evinces textual uncertainty, which incessantly displaces meanings and identities. The instability of characterization seems to negate the integrated humanist conception of the individual self. It further calls into question the very probability of interpretation itself. That suspicion is substantiated by the evasiveness of the narrative and the precariousness of the plot. In this respect, Villette turns out to be a touchstone in considering the strength and limitation of Anglo-American feminist criticism. By radically stirring up central assumptions around the notion of the unitary self which underlies the tactics of the criticism, Villette engages us to reassess its methods and possibilities and to revise the fundamental contradictions of the critical position, suggesting a more complex and non-linear perspective.