Reiteration of Jane Eyre's Search for the Feminine Subject in Atkinson's Crime Novels

Kate Atkinson in her first and fourth crime novels, Case Histories and Started Early, Took My Dog, rewrites Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and other Female Gothic narratives to ponder feminism’s failure to ‘arrive.’ Second-wave feminism asks women to retrieve the half-obliterated feminine subject and...

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Main Author: Esra Melikoğlu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The English Language and Literature Research Association of Türkiye 2023-04-01
Series:Ideas: Journal of English Literary Studies
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Online Access:https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/2704582
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author Esra Melikoğlu
author_facet Esra Melikoğlu
author_sort Esra Melikoğlu
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description Kate Atkinson in her first and fourth crime novels, Case Histories and Started Early, Took My Dog, rewrites Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and other Female Gothic narratives to ponder feminism’s failure to ‘arrive.’ Second-wave feminism asks women to retrieve the half-obliterated feminine subject and construct from the fragments an emancipated identity for themselves. In Atkinson’s first crime novel, the amateur detective and actress Julia Land must retrieve a vanished sister and, in the fourth, in her onscreen role as a forensic pathologist the identity of a mutilated sex worker. Yet Julia repeats Jane Eyre’s simultaneous search for a lost woman and complicity with patriarchy’s occlusion of her. Atkinson, it will be argued, signals that the contemporary literary female investigator and ultimately today’s women relive the gothic heroine’s dilemma: Susceptible to the myth of romantic love, they abort their feminist mission and collude with patriarchy’s obliteration of the feminine subject.
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spelling doaj-art-03952091279f48af9addcea58e5a72f72025-01-05T19:26:44ZengThe English Language and Literature Research Association of TürkiyeIdeas: Journal of English Literary Studies2757-95492023-04-01315870Reiteration of Jane Eyre's Search for the Feminine Subject in Atkinson's Crime NovelsEsra Melikoğlu0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4996-5490Istanbul UniversityKate Atkinson in her first and fourth crime novels, Case Histories and Started Early, Took My Dog, rewrites Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and other Female Gothic narratives to ponder feminism’s failure to ‘arrive.’ Second-wave feminism asks women to retrieve the half-obliterated feminine subject and construct from the fragments an emancipated identity for themselves. In Atkinson’s first crime novel, the amateur detective and actress Julia Land must retrieve a vanished sister and, in the fourth, in her onscreen role as a forensic pathologist the identity of a mutilated sex worker. Yet Julia repeats Jane Eyre’s simultaneous search for a lost woman and complicity with patriarchy’s occlusion of her. Atkinson, it will be argued, signals that the contemporary literary female investigator and ultimately today’s women relive the gothic heroine’s dilemma: Susceptible to the myth of romantic love, they abort their feminist mission and collude with patriarchy’s obliteration of the feminine subject. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/2704582kate atkinsoncase historiesstarted earlytook my dogjane eyrefeminine subject
spellingShingle Esra Melikoğlu
Reiteration of Jane Eyre's Search for the Feminine Subject in Atkinson's Crime Novels
Ideas: Journal of English Literary Studies
kate atkinson
case histories
started early
took my dog
jane eyre
feminine subject
title Reiteration of Jane Eyre's Search for the Feminine Subject in Atkinson's Crime Novels
title_full Reiteration of Jane Eyre's Search for the Feminine Subject in Atkinson's Crime Novels
title_fullStr Reiteration of Jane Eyre's Search for the Feminine Subject in Atkinson's Crime Novels
title_full_unstemmed Reiteration of Jane Eyre's Search for the Feminine Subject in Atkinson's Crime Novels
title_short Reiteration of Jane Eyre's Search for the Feminine Subject in Atkinson's Crime Novels
title_sort reiteration of jane eyre s search for the feminine subject in atkinson s crime novels
topic kate atkinson
case histories
started early
took my dog
jane eyre
feminine subject
url https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/2704582
work_keys_str_mv AT esramelikoglu reiterationofjaneeyressearchforthefemininesubjectinatkinsonscrimenovels