Past and Present as Dialogic Narratives in Postmodernist Novels: Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair as an Intertextual to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre

Abstract

This article intends to delve into the intertextual use of a Victorian novel in The Eyre Affair (2001) by the British writer Jasper Fforde. In his intertextual novel, which features as a sequel to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (1847), Fforde shows that art is dependent on art and may integrate allusions to prior works. Since the research interest in the existing responses to Victorian narratives is considerably new, my paper aims to give a comprehensive reflection on one of these responses. It contributes to explore the reasons why the Victorian classics still fascinate postmodernist writers, while observing the changes these latter made to please the twenty first century reader. Its main focus is to determine the intertextual dialogue between the two novels focusing on important critical aspects in Jane Eyre such as point of view, the controversial ending, and the migration of characters, which become an inspiration for Fforde to bring Bronte’s tale to life by carrying the idea of intertextuality in The Eyre Affair.