Racial slurs (following a previous post trend)
Posted by Constanza on May 06, 1998 at 11:51:03:
Somebody said before (I cannot remember who, and I could not find the post; I think it was you Kate, but I am not sure) that racial slurs are not found in English writers from the XIX. That set me thinking. And my question is, what about Charlotte Brontė?
I don't know what her problems were with the Belgiams and French, but she talks so ill of them that my heart warms to them.
You can notice her xenophobia (which at least I consider a species of racism) in all her books:
· for instance in Jane Eyre, it says that Adele's wicked French nature was counteracted by her English education (or words to that effect)
· I quote a paragraph from "The Professor" (which IMO is the worst, as far as racism is concerned):
(...) the character of the youth of Brabant, (...) Their intellectual faculties were generally weak, their animal propensities strong; thus there was at once an impotence and a kind of inert force in their natures; they were dull, but they were also singularly stubborn, heavy as lead and, like lead, most difficult to move. (...) having short memories, dense intelligence, feeble reflective powers, they recoiled with repugnance from any occupation that demanded close study or deep thought. (...) Pellet's school was merely an epitome of the Belgiam nation.
I wonder what a Belgiam person would feel upon reading such a book. Not very happy I bet.
· And as religion goes, she was not very tolerant either:
An air of bold, impudent flirtation, or a loose, silly leer, was sure to answer the most ordinary glance from a masculine eye. I know nothing of the arcane of the Roman Catholic religion, and I am not a bigot in matters of theology, but I suspect the root of this precocious impurity, so obvious, so general in Popish countries, is to be found in the discipline, if not the doctrines, of the Church of Rome.
I am a Roman Catholic, so I'll make to comments.;-)
- yes... Kate 12:48:38 5/06/98
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- Bronte and Costanza's questions Stolzi 19:22:46 5/07/98
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- Well, I guess that would explain a lot! nfm Constanza 09:27:56 5/08/98
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- Well, I guess that would explain a lot! nfm Constanza 09:27:56 5/08/98
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- Bronte and Costanza's questions Stolzi 19:22:46 5/07/98
(1)
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