Uzbekistan state world languages university philology faculty

5. The usage of male pseudonyms in female writers' works
Nineteenth century Britain was a time of great progress and reform in British society due to industrialization and social upheaval. One of the most controversial debates was about the position of women in society. Aspects such as a wife's right to own property, a mother's right to custody of her children, and the right to own her own body or the right to vote marked the birth of the women's rights movement and the first suffrage in the late 19th century. the beginning of the 20th century.
It was also the era of the professional female writer, when more women wrote professionally and claimed a place alongside men in the literary world. One strategy these early female writers resorted to was the use of male pseudonyms.
20th-century feminist literary critics such as Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar called them "metaphorical pants" or male pseudonyms in the 19th century to take them seriously as authors.
Charlotte Bronte, the author of Jane Eyre, is one of the most famous female writers in the history of literature. Charlotte Brontë originally published Jane Eyre and all her works under the name Currer Bell. The name represented the male identity needed to achieve success during the period in which Brontë was actively writing. Jane Eyre is considered one of the most influential works of literature in history and is currently published under the real name of Charlotte Brontë.
Jane Eyre is critical of Victorian England’s strict social hierarchy. Brontë’s exploration of the complicated social position of governesses is perhaps the novel’s most important treatment of this theme. Like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, Jane is a figure of ambiguous class standing and, consequently, a source of extreme tension for the characters around her. Jane’s manners, sophistication, and education are those of an aristocrat, because Victorian governesses, who tutored children in etiquette as well as academics, were expected to possess the “culture” of the aristocracy.
Yet, as paid employees, they were more or less treated as servants; thus, Jane remains penniless and powerless while at Thornfield. Jane’s understanding of the double standard crystallizes when she becomes aware of her feelings for Rochester; she is his intellectual, but not his social, equal. Even before the crisis surrounding Bertha Mason, Jane is hesitant to marry Rochester because she senses that she would feel indebted to him for “condescending” to marry her. Jane’s distress, which appears most strongly in Chapter 17, seems to be Brontë’s critique of Victorian class attitudes.
Jane herself speaks out against class prejudice at certain moments in the book. For example, in Chapter 23 she chastises Rochester:
“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!—I have as much soul as you—and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you.”
However, it is also important to note that nowhere in Jane Eyre are society’s boundaries bent. Ultimately, Jane is only able to marry Rochester as his equal because she has almost magically come into her own inheritance from her uncle.
Three sisters were accomplished 19th century authors who are still celebrated for their contributions to English literature.
Although today the sisters are well known by their real names, early in their careers their work was published under male pseudonyms because they didn’t think they could get their work published as women. The sisters’ first book, a collaborative work called “Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell” did not actually do well, selling only three copies. The girls were not discouraged by this lack of success. Next, Charlotte penned “Jane Eyre,” which was also published under her pen name Currer Bell. The book was a success.
However, when the publisher grew suspicious that the work was a joint effort with “Ellis Bell” the sisters travelled to London where they surprised the publisher with the knowledge that they were young women. Emily’s Wurthering Heights was also published under pseudonym, Ellis Bell, and was designed as a companion novel to “Acton’s” (Anne’s) book “Agnes Grey,” both earning commercial success. Under the name Acton, Anne also published the successful “The Tenant of Windfell Hall.”
The works of these three women were considered controversial for the time (even for a male author) and had mixed reception from critics but generally enjoyed great commercial success, even once it became known that they were women.