A Revolution Almost Beyond Expression: Jane Austen's PersuasionUniversity of Delaware Press, 2007 - 280 páginas To praise Jane Austen's novels only as stylistic masterpieces is to strip them of the historical, cultural, and literary contexts that might otherwise illuminate them. By focusing primarily on the political, historical, satiric, actively intertextual, and deeply sexualized text of Persuasion, Jocelyn Harris seeks to reconcile the so-called insignificance of her content with her high canonical status, for Austen's interactions with real and imagined worlds prove her to be innovative, even revolutionary. This book answers common assertions that Austen's content is restricted; that being uneducated and a woman, she could only write unconsciously, realistically, and autobiographically of what she knew; that her national and sexual politics were reactionary; and that her novels serve mainly as havens from reality. Such ideas arose from literal readings of Austen's letters, the family's representation of her as a gentle, unlearned genius, and the assumption that she could not write about the Napoleonic Wars. Persuasion is, though, permeated with references to war as well as peace. Harris suggests that Persuasion may respond to Walter Scott's review of Emma, Austen's correspondence with Fanny Knight, hostile reviews of Frances Burney's The Wanderer, contemporary attacks on the novel, and her own defense of fiction in Northanger Abbey. Self-critical in revision, Austen calls on Byron, Shakespeare, Napoleon, and Cook to modify wartime constructions of English masculinity such as Southey's Nelson. Similarly, her critique of Scott's first three novels confirms that her attitude toward class and gender is far from reactionary. |
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... letters , the family's representa- tion of her as a gentle , unlearned genius , and the assumption that she could not write about the Napoleonic Wars . Per- suasion is , though , permeated with refer- ences to war as well as peace . She ...
... letters , her brothers ' representation of her as a gentle , unlearned genius , and the assertion that she did not write about the Napoleonic Wars . Jane Austen herself seems to provide founding documents for the notion of restriction ...
... letters , whose tone is as elusive as that of the novels . Reading these comments in context actually changes their sense , however , for in her first letter , she was advising Anna Austen , an aspir- ing novelist , to restrict her ...
... letters with her niece Fanny Knight , Scott's review of Emma , and the publication of several Lives of Nelson . As I shall show , the surviving manuscript chapters of Persuasion show a writer attentive to nuance and ruthless in revision ...
... letter to Mr. Cheney . My thanks to the University of Otago for research grant support and sabbatical leave ; and to the Royal Society of New Zealand for a handsome and very welcome Marsden Research Grant . 1 Origins for Persuasion JANE ...
Contenido
20 | |
The Reviser at Work MS Chapter 10 to Chapters XXI 1818 | 36 |
At the White Hart MS Chapter 11 to Chapter XII 1818 | 63 |
The History of Buonaparte | 73 |
Domestic Virtues and National Importance | 91 |
A Critique on Walter Scott | 109 |
Prejudice on the Side of Ancestry | 130 |
The Worth of Lyme | 146 |
The White Glare of Bath | 160 |
Meaning to Have Spring Again | 188 |
A Thoughtless Gay Set | 195 |
Notes | 202 |
248 | |
267 | |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
A Revolution Almost Beyond Expression: Jane Austen's Persuasion Jocelyn Harris Vista de fragmentos - 2007 |