ABSTRACT
This chapter explains Sue Thomas's concept of worlding to analyze the culture and politics of the American rise tale and the way Jane Eyre is incorporated into this narrative tradition. It later examines the mythic development of Brontë and the heroic Jane Eyre. Ironically, the heroic triumph of Jane Eyre, a character invested with regional British associations, generated a transatlantic microcosm that is intertwined with narratives of American individualism. The individualism of the young liberal democratic state was heavily influenced by emerging capitalism, especially by the mid-nineteenth century; it is this specific conjunction of political and economic forces that shaped the distinctive nature of American individualism. The American cultural investment in Jane Eyre demands an expanded transatlantic paradigm. While the nationalistic narrative of the self-made man was validated by the myths of Jackson and Lincoln, the corresponding American Cinderella tale lacked a popular embodiment.
