About

This talk will be given by Professor Corinne Fowler, an author, public historian and co-curator of The Colonial Brontës exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in 2026. 

Corinne discusses Heathcliff's racial identity in Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, Wuthering Heights. The talk will detail the colonial reading material which shaped Emily Brontë’s conception of Heathcliff's background and character before discussing references to Heathcliff's racial identity in the novel itself as well as in film versions of Wuthering Heights. The talk ends by focusing on the real-life historical presence of African people in the local area which spanned both Emily's lifetime and the period covered by the novel.