Journal of Language and Literary Studies 25 THE PECULIARITIES OF A FEMALE PROTAGONIST IN A. BRONTË’S EPISTOLARY NOVEL Juan de Dios Torralbo Caballero, University of Cordoba, Spain, l22tocaj@uco.es Violeta Janulevičienė, Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania, vjanul@mruni.eu 10.31902/fll.27.2019.2 UDK 821.111.09 Bronte E. Abstract: This paper offers a study of the less known today and less analysed epistolary novel by Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. It focuses on the instances of female protagonist's unconventional behaviour according to the existing societal norms of the Victorian era. The research aims at pointing out the reasons modifying heroine’s behaviour and analysi s of the reactions that the protagonist’s acts of nonconformity elicits in other characters of the novel. The undertaken study is believed to raise awareness of less studied Brontë sisters works in university literature and gender studies courses, as it touches upon the emerging issues of the female strength in the Victorian society. Keywords: Anne Brontë, female protagonist, acts of nonconformity. INTRODUCTION Anne Brontë (1820-1849) was and still is overshadowed by her sisters in the literary analysis and literature studies. Emily and Charlotte Brontës have a well-established status in the English literary canon while Anne’s works are only briefly mentioned if not completely ignored. In the non-English spoken university literature studies, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, Anne Brontë’s works are scarcely analysed, if at all. However, with expressed social changes and gender studies gaining power, the interest in her works has resurged and the need to fill in the gap on all the Brontës creations is considered important. The literary critics (e.g. Berry, Bullock, Colon, Gardner, Gérin) have been revisiting Anne Brontë’s works finding them more complex than has been previously thought, written in a pre-feminist innovative style, consciously different from her sisters’ novels. The latest studies in recent years by S. Ellis (2017) and N. Holland (2016) offer a re-evaluation of A. Brontë’s creations as a writer ahead of her time who has much to say on dignified female strength. The storyline of the second A. Brontë’s book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall has been