Why Emily Brontë Cared About Race | "Wuthering Heights" (2026) Review

Video Description

As Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights" (2026) makes waves, let's discuss... should the film have focused more on race? Empire? Not putting that awful wig on Jacob Elordi? From Heathcliff’s ambiguous origins in Liverpool to Victorian Britain’s shifting racial hierarchies: 00:47 Wuthering Heights Explainer 03:25 The 'Problem' with Heathcliff 05:25 What Do We Mean By “Whiteness”? 07:51 Heathcliff As Racialised Outsider 11:19 The Irish Question 14:24 Modern Adaptations & Social Media 19:02 Whiteness As Constructed Power 22:44 Did Emily Brontë “Intend” This? My BRAND NEW MERCH store: https://jessicaoutofthecloset.myshopify.com/ If you'd like to send the twins a baby gift, please consider donating to their nappy stock- they're very grateful! https://ko-fi.com/jessicaoutofthecloset 📚 Sources & Further Reading Disclaimer: this video utilises postcolonial and critical race scholarship. Interpretations of Heathcliff’s racial identity vary widely among scholars. The aim of this video is to explore historical constructions of race and whiteness, not to impose a definitive modern identity onto a 19th-century text. • Allen, Theodore W. The Invention of the White Race. 1994 • Roediger, David. The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class. London: Verso, 1991. • Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. (See chapter on Jane Austen and imperial structures; includes discussion situating Wuthering Heights within imperial economy.) • Brantlinger, Patrick. Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830–1914. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988. • Gikandi, Simon. Maps of Englishness: Writing Identity in the Culture of Colonialism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. • Dayan, Colin. “Romance and Race.” In Fables of Mind: An Inquiry into Poe’s Fiction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. • Sharpe, Jenny. Allegories of Empire: The Figure of Woman in the Colonial Text. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. • Malchow, H. L. Gothic Images of Race in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996. (Important discussion of racialised Gothic figures, including Heathcliff.) • Kitson, Peter J. “Victorian Literature and the Racialization of the Other.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel, edited by Deirdre David. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. • Eagleton, Terry. Heathcliff and the Great Hunger: Studies in Irish Culture. London: Verso, 1995. (Connects Brontë, Irish identity, and colonial context.) • Lipsitz, George. The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998. • Allen, Theodore W. The Invention of the White Race, 2 vols. London: Verso, 1994–1997. • Ignatiev, Noel. How the Irish Became White. New York: Routledge, 1995. • Curtis, L. Perry Jr. Apes and Angels: The Irishman in Victorian Caricature. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1968. • Young, Robert J. C. Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race. London: Routledge, 1995. • Lloyd, David. Ireland After History. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999. - “Wuthering Heights is at its heart a story of class and race. Emerald Fennell has got it all wrong”- Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, The Guardian. 17th Feb 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/17/wuthering-heights-class-race-emerald-fennell-director - “7 ‘Wuthering Heights’ movie changes that will surprise fans of the book“- Malia Mendez. LA Times. 13th Feb 2023. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2026-02-13/wuthering-heights-book-vs-movie - “Black History: Heathcliff”- Brontë Parsonage Museum. https://www.bronte.org.uk/about-us/visions-missions-values/celebrating-a-diverse-history/black-history - “Is Heathcliff White”- Jasmine Vojdani. Vulture. 10th Feb 2026. https://www.vulture.com/article/heathcliff-wuthering-heights-white-jacob-elordi-casting.html - “Oh Heathcliff? Why Must Thou Be White Again?”- Rameesa A. Medium. 27th Nov 2024. https://ramalik.medium.com/oh-heathcliff-why-must-thou-be-white-again-c6cc99997731 - “Race in Wuthering Heights”- The Artifice. Feb 2015. https://the-artifice.com/race-in-wuthering-heights/ FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Instagram ➭ https://www.instagram.com/JessicaOutOfTheCloset TikTok ➭ https://www.tiktok.com/@jessicaoutofthecloset Facebook ➭ https://www.facebook.com/JessicaOutOfTheCloset Threads ➭ https://www.threads.net/@jessicaoutofthecloset Find my filming equipment on my Amazon store: UK ➭ https://amzlink.to/az0yCIyQyduqS US ➭ https://amzlink.to/az0uHJvmBASLD How to JOIN the Kellgren-Fozard Club and SPONSOR this channel ➭ https://www.youtube.com/c/JessicaKellgrenFozard/join If you've enjoyed this video then feel free to buy me a drink to show your support! ➭ https://ko-fi.com/A1814A5T Music by Epidemic Sound ➭ http://share.epidemicsound.com/mvszv