Title: Ireland, Africa and Love in Emily Brontë’s Gondal Poems
Abstract: This article proposes that in the ‘Gondal Poems’ Notebook, Emily Brontë outlined historical personages and events in the Irish Rebellions of 1579–83 and 1798, disguised as the warfare of Pacific Ocean isles. She named the isles Gondal and Gaaldine, after Gondar, an early capital of Abyssinia, and the neighbouring Galla, the Gondar ascendancy’s source of slaves. Their warfare is described in James Bruce’s Journey in Search of the Source of the Nile, a book in the Keighley Mechanics’ Institute Library. The African analogy echoed and concealed the view of Ireland as London’s slave plantation, held by the United Irishmen, its leadership dedicated to republican ideals, and a movement in which her uncle William Brontë participated during the 1798 Rebellion. Her ‘Gondal Poems’ Notebook reflects her love for Ireland, Haworth and her family, including her visiting uncle Hugh Brontë, her probable source of independent information about Ireland.
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 2
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