Penultimate Episode of the Autobiography of Jane Eyre

When considering The Autobiography of Jane Eyre, specifically as a multimedia hypertext, it's relevant and important to consider the ways in which this "text" was released. Unlike a novel, this web series couldn't be released as an entire unit, nor should it have been, because it would have ruined the conceit of it being a vlog, which would, of course, be updated periodically. The serialized installments of The Autobiography are what creates the illusion of Jane Eyre being a young woman vlogging in the twenty-first century.

The penultimate episode, “Revision” is a specifically interesting episode because the release date of the episode conflicts with the implications of things Jane says in her vlog, thus disrupting the illusion that narrative time coincides with reality. In "Revision" Jane implies that she hasn't posted in a while with phrases like "a quick update because [she] hasn't done one in a while" and "there are things I'm sure you're dying to know." She then launches into updates about everyone's lives that the audience meets over the course of the web series. Things like this imply that in the world of The Autobiography, Jane hasn't vlogged in a while. Despite this, the final five episodes were posted in relatively quick succession (comparable to the rest of the series) from May 10 to May 17 to June 7 to June 14 to June 21.  The series would have been better served and more realistic as a vlog if there had been a lag in videos corresponding to the implied lapse in narrative time since it is a multimedia narrative. Perhaps though, this demands too much structurally in service of a conceit that is otherwise effective. 

Hall, Alysson and Nessa Aref. "Revision." YouTube, uploaded by Jane Eyre, 14 Jun. 2014. 

Associated Place(s)

Event date:

14 Jun 2014