MA Thesis: Elegant Females and Rational Creatures - The Flawed and Gifted Heroines in Jane Austen´s Mature Novels (original) (raw)

[Review Essay] Revisiting Three Austen Studies: Close-Reading Morality and Style in Mansfield Park

Fiction and Drama, 2017

In the middle decades of the last century close reading was the reigning literary practice; literary criticism based on that practice goes largely unread now. But, against the grain of the times, close reading had an interestingly “wised up” return in the 1970s and seems now, against the grain of new times, on the cusp of a second return. These returns are “wised up” in the sense that experiences, knowledge, and attitudes collected in the intervening years inform the new close attention given to a text. Jane Austen’s novels were the beneficiaries of illuminating new close readings in the 1970s, readings that address the question of the relation between morality and style, a question that is gaining prominence again in the current “ethical turn” of art, politics, and culture. In their different ways both Stuart Tave and Susan Morgan define the practice and depiction of morality in Austen’s work, and both books deserve to be taken down from library shelves and to be read anew. More recently, against the trend of historicist readings of her work, Austen’s style has received close and thrilling attention from D. A. Miller. His analysis centers on how Austen’s style of narration achieves impersonality to the extent that Austen, with all she knows to say about men, women, and marriage, presents herself—God-like, Neuter—as out of bounds of the reality she narrates. Like any God’s, this style only makes the morality that she rules herself out of absolute. I trace these two returns to close reading with special focus on Mansfield Park, the novel that, long ago, Kingsley Amis condemned as an “immoral book” that could not be saved by the “invigorating coldness” of Jane Austen’s style. This judgment brings up that double question of the curious entanglement of morality and style in Austen’s novel, the question so brilliantly addressed by Tave, Morgan, and Miller.

Jane Austen‘ın Mansfield Parkı’nda Sınıf Engellerine Meydan Okuma

Selçuk Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi

Jane Austen can be regarded as an author renowned for her conventional novels at first glance. Nevertheless, reading Austen in a profound way reveals that there lies a hidden critical voice against the irregularities of society. In this article, the novel, Mansfield Park, is analysed to demonstrate how the author interrogates class as a constructed notion by employing unusual techniques which are reminiscent of postmodernist devices. After the function of ex-centric characters, Fanny Price and James Rushworth, is focused on, the role of the intertextual references employed by Austen in unearthing artificial class distinctions is examined. It is concluded that the author implicitly challenges the class-oriented social system of her age.

THE REAL JANE AUSTEN: AUSTEN'S SHIFTING IMAGE

Cadernos do IL, 2018

ABSTRACT Jane Austen is one of the most important and widely known authors in the English language. Despite her unrelenting fame, very little is known about the actual woman who lived from 1775 to 1816 – her family claimed she led a quiet life and they burned her presumably most compromising letters. Readers and scholars were left with an unfinished sketch by Austen’s sister, Cassandra, later modified to fit the Victorian expectations of what a proper lady ought to be. In 2011, a new portrait was found, one of a mature and independent authoress. This essay aims to look at Austen’s life in order to glimpse at the woman behind the images, understanding how Austen’s image changed alongside her readers, and perhaps because of them. Key-words: Jane Austen, portraits, biography, English Literature.

A QUEST FOR FEMININE IDENTITY IN JANE AUSTEN’S PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

PUNE RESEARCH, 2021

Literature has always acted as a mirror to the society. As the human society evolved slowly and gradually, literary writings, especially the novels played a pivotal role in reflecting and expressing the social scenarios and defining the human psyche. Women are the most integral part of the social discourse. Since centuries, they have strived hard in search of their true identity and worth. Turning through the pages of literary history, we can easily trace the footmarks of the transformation in the position of the females through societies and ages. Women writers and critics have given a glimpse of the social norms and structures prevalent during their times through their writings. Jane Austen is one such poignant writer from the Romantic Period of English Literature who broke apart from the traditionally accepted storyline through her youthful spirits and portrayal of strong female protagonists, who could think for themselves and take their own decisions. Born in a society that hugely discriminated between the rights given to men and women, Austen, since her childhood developed an internal anguish against the unjust social system. This even resulted in her being unmarried throughout her life and continued writing as a profession to be financially independent. Austen always advocated marriage in her novels, but she believed in marriage for love and not for gaining social status. Women during Austen’s times were expected to be submissive and timid. They were considered incapable of thinking wisely and hold own individuality. Her novels parodied the then conventional novel plot of love, marriage and courtship through youthful playfulness and subtle irony. Her female protagonists were the heroes of her novels; they were progressive as well as headstrong. They did not believe in social conformity in the male dominated society.

Jane Austen and her Readers, 1786–1945

2009

‘Jane Austen and her Readers, 1786–1945’ is a study of the history of reading Jane Austen’s novels. It discusses Austen’s own ideas about books and readers, the uses she makes of her reading, and the aspects of her style that are related to the ways in which she has been read. The volume considers the role of editions and criticism in directing readers’ responses, and presents and analyses a variety of source material related to the ordinary readers who read Austen’s works between 1786 and 1945.

Austen: Feminist and Revolutionist - An Annotated Bibliography

2019

Jane Austen portrays her novel heroines as outliers in the patriarchal society of Regency Britain. For example, in "Pride and Prejudice" (1813), Elizabeth Bennet chose to marry for love and not merely in pursuit of economic security, which is a flagrant violation of the standards expected of women. Due to strict inheritance laws, women are not able to inherit their family’s properties and so, must turn towards marriage for dependency (or as some critics argue, independency) and capital guarantee in their future. Families often see this as an opportunity to quickly accumulate wealth and push their daughters to marry a man of fine wealth, shaping the “universally acknowledged truth” that marriage is a critical step for women to survive and succeed unbeknownst of their inner desires for marriage shaped by true love and passion. Anyone who deviates from this norm is considered a radical and the voices of these activists are suppressed by the government. Jane Austen was one of the few critics who openly disagrees with the patriarchal expectation of an ideal woman who is to serve the man. She acquires the views of Mary Wollstonecraft’s version of an accomplished woman – one who is seen to be of a rational equal of men and able to make her own independent decisions. In this annotated bibliography, I will explore the arguments of six different critics of Jane Austen’s works, illustrating the main principles that they believe Austen was trying to push through the portrayal and personality of her characters. Some arguments will overlap and I will point out the similar and contrasting understandings between critics to develop a more comprehensive picture of Jane Austen’s liberal feminist ideas of marriage in the novels’ social environments and the thorough examination of the heroines will show that they represent rather unconventional views of marriage.