Jane Eyre in Africa
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How to read Jane Eyre in Africa.
In this episode I talk about my experience when I discussed my favourite book, Jane Eyre, with a group of teenagers in Hillbrow at the Windybrow Arts Centre in Johannesburg.
I share with you what I discover about this book during this journey. Jane Eyre not only is a white classic which in itself makes it a complicated choice, yet it also, as I learn along the way, has a racist element in it that can not be excused. At the Windybrow Arts Centre I used the children's version from Tanya Landman, first published in 2020 by Barrington Stoke, an imprint by HarperCollinsPublishers. This - in my opinion - very good retelling of Jane Eyre does not talk about the colour of the skin of the characters. But how do we read the original nowadays? I don't believe we should stop reading important stories from the past. On the contrary we should read them and look at what they tell us about ourselves. And talk about it with each other.
In this episode I talk about my experience when I discussed my favourite book, Jane Eyre, with a group of teenagers in Hillbrow at the Windybrow Arts Centre in Johannesburg.
I share with you what I discover about this book during this journey. Jane Eyre not only is a white classic which in itself makes it a complicated choice, yet it also, as I learn along the way, has a racist element in it that can not be excused. At the Windybrow Arts Centre I used the children's version from Tanya Landman, first published in 2020 by Barrington Stoke, an imprint by HarperCollinsPublishers. This - in my opinion - very good retelling of Jane Eyre does not talk about the colour of the skin of the characters. But how do we read the original nowadays? I don't believe we should stop reading important stories from the past. On the contrary we should read them and look at what they tell us about ourselves. And talk about it with each other.
