The Cultural Other and Self-Confirmation: An Analysis of the French Image in Charlotte Bronts Works

Charlotte Bront is a representative writer of 19th-century Britain. From the perspective of imagology, existing scholarship often focuses on individual texts, neglecting the integrity of the French image and failing to explore the relationship between the Other and self-image in depth. In fact, Bront constructs France as a negative cultural Other in her novels, thereby accomplishing the self-confirmation of British identity. Drawing on comparative literary imagology as a theoretical framework, this paper analyzes the French image in The Professor, Jane Eyre, Shirley, and Villette. Bront constructs France as a morally disordered cultural Other through the dimensions of characters, language, and space. This not only reflects the moral anxieties within British society but also mirrors imperialist ideologies amid Anglo-French rivalry. This study offers a new perspective for understanding the ideological structure of 19th-century British society.