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Coarseness, Power and Masculinity in Daphne du Maurier’s The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë

This article examines Daphne du Maurier’s use of coarseness as a mode of strategic self-fashioning in her biography The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë (1960). I argue that du Maurier’s representation of Branwell’s coarseness is a crucial part of her attempt to rehabilitate his reputation through empathy and understanding. Coarseness is presented in the biography as a powerful resource for Branwell’s performance of masculinity, in relation to his sisters and his ‘coarse’ friends at Luddenden Foot. I also examine the power of coarseness in enabling Branwell to establish literary and imaginative independence from Charlotte, with whom he created the Angrian kingdom. Finally, I show how Branwell wields coarseness as a weapon when his sisters begin to exclude him from their society during his decline.