From Pasha to Cleopatra and Vashti: the Oriental Other in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette
Critics have argued that Jane’s engagement with the Orient in Jane Eyre (1847) is grounded in the vocabulary of her role as liberator and the discourse of female slavery and male domination as represented by the use of the harem metaphor in the text. Yet little is said about how this same metaphor e...
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| Format: | Proceeding Paper |
| Language: | English |
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2010
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| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/14795/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/14795/2/IRIIE_2011_Aimillia_Mohd_Ramli%27submission_for_Yellow_Social_Sciences_and_Humanities.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848777743365308416 |
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| author | Mohd Ramli, Aimillia |
| author_facet | Mohd Ramli, Aimillia |
| author_sort | Mohd Ramli, Aimillia |
| building | IIUM Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Critics have argued that Jane’s engagement with the Orient in Jane Eyre (1847) is grounded in the vocabulary of her role as liberator and the discourse of female slavery and male domination as represented by the use of the harem metaphor in the text. Yet little is said about how this same metaphor exposes in Villette (1853) the ambivalence inherent in the construction of a Western character that has been invaded by the so-called menacing influences of the Orient. In the novel, the Oriental familial institution of the harem is figuratively and literally seen as a contaminant that poses a threat to a racial and gendered colonial British character. It suggests that this contamination destabilizes this character, blurring the line that divides both East and West, fantasy and reality, and argues that the Oriental institution of the harem, the artistic representations of women as illustrated by the Orientalist portrait of Cleopatra and the actress playing Vashti and, finally, M. Paul, represent the different ways in which this character is gendered and orientalized.
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| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T14:50:50Z |
| format | Proceeding Paper |
| id | iium-14795 |
| institution | International Islamic University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T14:50:50Z |
| publishDate | 2010 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | iium-147952012-11-05T15:08:24Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/14795/ From Pasha to Cleopatra and Vashti: the Oriental Other in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette Mohd Ramli, Aimillia PE English PN0441 Literary History Critics have argued that Jane’s engagement with the Orient in Jane Eyre (1847) is grounded in the vocabulary of her role as liberator and the discourse of female slavery and male domination as represented by the use of the harem metaphor in the text. Yet little is said about how this same metaphor exposes in Villette (1853) the ambivalence inherent in the construction of a Western character that has been invaded by the so-called menacing influences of the Orient. In the novel, the Oriental familial institution of the harem is figuratively and literally seen as a contaminant that poses a threat to a racial and gendered colonial British character. It suggests that this contamination destabilizes this character, blurring the line that divides both East and West, fantasy and reality, and argues that the Oriental institution of the harem, the artistic representations of women as illustrated by the Orientalist portrait of Cleopatra and the actress playing Vashti and, finally, M. Paul, represent the different ways in which this character is gendered and orientalized. 2010-07 Proceeding Paper NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/14795/2/IRIIE_2011_Aimillia_Mohd_Ramli%27submission_for_Yellow_Social_Sciences_and_Humanities.pdf Mohd Ramli, Aimillia (2010) From Pasha to Cleopatra and Vashti: the Oriental Other in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette. In: IRIEE 2011, 9-10, February 2011, Gombak, Kuala Lumpur. |
| spellingShingle | PE English PN0441 Literary History Mohd Ramli, Aimillia From Pasha to Cleopatra and Vashti: the Oriental Other in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette |
| title | From Pasha to Cleopatra and Vashti: the Oriental Other in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette
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| title_full | From Pasha to Cleopatra and Vashti: the Oriental Other in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette
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| title_fullStr | From Pasha to Cleopatra and Vashti: the Oriental Other in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette
|
| title_full_unstemmed | From Pasha to Cleopatra and Vashti: the Oriental Other in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette
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| title_short | From Pasha to Cleopatra and Vashti: the Oriental Other in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette
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| title_sort | from pasha to cleopatra and vashti: the oriental other in charlotte brontë’s villette |
| topic | PE English PN0441 Literary History |
| url | http://irep.iium.edu.my/14795/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/14795/2/IRIIE_2011_Aimillia_Mohd_Ramli%27submission_for_Yellow_Social_Sciences_and_Humanities.pdf |