Depathologising Excess in Wuthering Heights

Abstract

This article re-evaluates the semantics of excess in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. By looking back at the variants between the editions of 1847 and 1850 – extensively revised by Charlotte Brontë – it tracks Emily’s development of her own vocabulary and conception of excess in the novel. It argues that in contrast to contemporary socio-medical narratives of excess, which continued to perceive its manifestations in definite physical terms, Emily shows an interest in more abstract representations of excess as affect. Anchoring this approach in eighteenth-century sentimental fiction, the article goes on to show the ways in which Emily moves beyond this tradition and its regulating discourses on feeling, offering instead a view of excess as energy and opportunity, both on the level of narrative and the text more broadly conceived. The article thus positions Wuthering Heights as a major mid-century cornerstone in the literary process of depathologising excess.