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Catsikis, Phyllis Joyce. ""Unfolding" the letter in Jane Austen's novels." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape11/PQDD_0005/MQ43843.pdf.
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Ki, Wing-chi. "The problem of misrecognition in Jane Austen's novels." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/23072.
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The objective of this thesis is to present a dialectical framework within which to re-read Jane Austen’s novels and to counter the critical dichotomy between a ‘conservative’ Jane (proposed by the containment school of critics) and a ‘radial’ Austen (proposed by the subversive school of critics). It aims at providing a framework that is flexible enough to explain why the two schools are inadequate, but rigorous enough to shed new light on Austen’s complex vision of Enlightenment - namely, her insistence on the ‘positive recognition’, the ‘negative cognition’, and the ‘cynical misrecognition’ as essential moments in the development of the subject. My term ‘positive recognition’ refers to the valorisation of rational recognition that Austen’s novels share with Hegel’s enlightenment vision. Austen’s Bildungsroman echoes the Hegelian notion of Bildung to highlight not only the possibility of education, but the formation of new values. Eventually, the Austenian subjects recognize their mistakes, assimilate the content of their society and reconcile with the world. Her ‘negative cognition’ is likened to Lacan’s response to Hegel : the subject’s innate Otherness can only heightened its disunity and foreground the subject’s state of permanent ‘lack’ in the center. The subject’s new awareness pushes it to problematize the hegemonic, unifying discourse of the patriarch, and it results in a subsequent attempt to re-build a more open, processual discourse to confront the subject’s alienated condition. Austen postulates that disillusionment and negation should not prevent her subjects from enjoying themselves in an unprogressive, patriarchal society. After a painful process of awakening, the Austenian subjects willingly re-join the gentry class, and insist on reconciling with the patriarchs - even if the reconcilement is false. It is in this sense that Austen’s novels anticipate Zizek’s critical view of Lacan and Hegel in acknowledging the onset of ‘cynical misrecognition’. Cynicism is the ‘enlightened false consciousness’ that allows the modern subject to subvert the system with a sneer, and put up with it for the sake of prosperous self-preservation. It is a systematic misrecognition with a certain organization of affirmations and denials, to which the subject is attached. In this way, Austen’s ‘dialectics of recognition’ point neither towards docile conformism nor revolutionary struggle, but an on-going spirit of critique in the midst of misrecognition.
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Wood, Sarah. "The American Reception of Jane Austen's Novels from 1800 to 1900." Thesis, North Texas State University, 1987. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc500351/.
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This thesis considers Jane Austen's reception in America from 1800 to 1900 and concludes that her novels were not generally recognized for the first half of the century. In that period, she and her family adversely affected her fame by seeking her obscurity. From mid century to the publication of J.E. Austen-Leigh's Memoir in 1870, appreciation of Austen grew, partly due to the decline of romanticism, and partly due to the focusing of critical theory for fiction, which caused her novels to be valued more highly. From 1870 to 1900 Austen's novels gained popularity. The critics were divided as to those who admired her art, and those who found her novels to be dull.
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Himes, Amanda E. "Looking for comfort: heroines, readers, and Jane Austen's novels." Texas A&M University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/4929.
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ComfortâÂÂwith its various connotations of physical ease, wealth, independence,
and serviceâÂÂis an important concept to Jane Austen, who uses comfort in her novels to
both affirm and challenge accepted womenâÂÂs roles and status in her culture. In the late
eighteenth century, new ideas of physical comfort emerged out of luxury along with a
growing middle class, to become something both English people and foreigners
identified with English culture. The perceived ability of the English to comfort well gave
them a reason for national pride during a time of great anxieties about FranceâÂÂs cultural
and military might, and Austen participates in her cultureâÂÂs struggle to define itself
against France. AustenâÂÂs âÂÂcomfortâ is the term she frequently associates with women,
home, and Englishness in her works.
AustenâÂÂs depiction of female protagonists engaged in the work of comforting
solaces modern readers, who often long for the comfort, good manners, and leisure
presented in the novels. Surveys of two sample groups, 139 members of the Jane Austen
Society of North America and 40 members of the online Republic of Pemberley, elicit
data confirming how current readers of Austen turn to her works for comfort during
times of stress or depression. Although some readers describe using AustenâÂÂs novels as a form of escapism, others view their reading as instructive for dealing with human
failings, for gaining perspective on personal difficulties, and for stimulating their
intellects. AustenâÂÂs fiction grapples with disturbing possibilities, such as the liminal
position of powerless single women at the mercy of the marriage market and fickle
family wishes, as much as it provides comforting answers. Comforts (decent housing,
love in marriage, social interaction) are such a powerful draw in AustenâÂÂs works because
womenâÂÂs discomfort is so visible, and for many, so likely. Thus, AustenâÂÂs comfort
challenges as much as it reassures her audience.
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Ailwood, Sarah Louise. ""What men ought to be" masculinities in Jane Austen's novels /." Access electronically, 2008. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/124.
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Erdoğan, Gökçen. "Control of the readers in Jane Austen's novels Emma and sense and sensibility." Ankara : METU, 2003. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/1218098/index.pdf.
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Shaffer, Julie A. "Confronting conventions of the marriage plot : the dialogic discourse of Jane Austen's novels /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/9420.
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Cossy, Valerie. "A study of the early French translations of Jane Austen's novels in Switzerland (1813-1830)." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.319070.
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Murphy, Olivia. "Jane Austen's critical art of the novel." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.547781.
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Antone, Margaret K. "The mutual development in James, Henry, and Jane Austen's early writings." Cleveland, Ohio : Cleveland State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1274402437.
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Thesis (M.A.)--Cleveland State University, 2010.Abstract. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on June 3, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 46-47). Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center and also available in print.
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Karlsson, Elina. "Modernizing Jane Austen : An investigation of the process of turning her novels into films." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-27612.
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For us to appreciate Austen's work it needs to be altered. We are only comfortable with it if it mirrors our expectations of it; the picturesque English countryside, elegant males and beautiful women in period clothing, living in impressive stone mansions. We want stories of strong, feminist ladies, who throw the men into raptures with their beauty and their ability to engage in passionate, snappy verbal exchanges. We want the held-back emotions, the intimacy of the near touch, the relief of liberating, emotionally charged confessions of admiration and love. The purpose of this essay is to examine two of Jane Austen's popular novels Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility with their respective latest film adaptations. When Jane Austen is interpreted in modern film her point-of-view is altered into our own. These changes celebrate, not Austen’s social writing, but our modern idea of romance. The themes in her novels are themes that are timeless and they are themes which our modern lives are filled with as well.
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Dobosiewicz, Ilona Harris Victoria Frenkel. "Redefining womanhood multiple roles of female relationships in Jane Austin's novels /." Normal, Ill. Illinois State University, 1993. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ilstu/fullcit?p9323731.
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Thesis (D.A.)--Illinois State University, 1993.Title from title page screen, viewed February 9, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Victoria Frenkel Harris (chair), Richard Dammers, Charles Harris, William Morgan. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 244-255) and abstract. Also available in print.
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Pereira, Bárbara Albuquerque. "Mulheres nas obras de Jane Austen." Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, 2015. http://www.bdtd.uerj.br/tde_busca/arquivo.php?codArquivo=8509.
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Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de JaneiroConsiderando-se o papel representado pela literatura diante da formação de novas subjetividades, esta pesquisa investigou os discursos acerca do feminino presentes em três romances de autoria feminina do século XIX Razão e sensibilidade, Orgulho e Preconceito e Mansfield Park da romancista Jane Austen, uma das escritoras mais aclamadas da Inglaterra. Utilizando-se os personagens femininos desses romances e como eles se posicionam diante das relações afetivas e sociais, buscou-se estabelecer um paralelo entre a literatura e a história das mulheres. Sendo considerada uma das responsáveis pela consolidação do gênero romanesco inglês, Jane Austen insere em seus romances a questão da feminilidade como histórica e socialmente construída, além de ser ela própria também um exemplo da desconstrução dos papéis femininos, já que escreveu num tempo no qual a vida literária não era um espaço que as mulheres deveriam ocupar. No entanto, muitas vezes, tanto a discussão sobre as representações das mulheres nas suas obras, como a própria representatividade da autora para o campo de atuação das mulheres inglesas são negligenciados devido a uma leitura superficial de seus romances. Assim, este trabalho buscou dialogar com a história das mulheres, enriquecendo este campo de estudo, trazendo novos dados e formas de pensar as relações das mulheres na sociedade, através da literatura, além de objetivar dar mais destaque à romancista dentro deste campo de estudo. Não foi intenção fazer uma análise literária das obras, mas uma análise dos discursos existentes por trás dos papéis femininos nos romances escritos por Jane Austen, enquanto possível espelho da visão social da feminilidade, levando-se em consideração o contexto sócio histórico em que foram escritas
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Van, Rensburg Lindsay Juanita. "The idea of the hero in Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice." University of the Western Cape, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/4857.
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Magister Artium - MAIn this thesis I focus on the ways I believe Jane Austen re-imagines the idea of the hero. In popular fiction of her time, such as Samuel Richardson’s Sir Charles Grandison (1753), what we had as a hero figure served as a male monitor, to guide and instruct the female heroine. The hero begins the novel fully formed, and therefore does not go through significant development through the course of the novel. In addition to Sir Charles Grandison, I read two popular novels of Austen’s time, Fanny Burney’s Cecilia and Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda. An examination of Burney’s construction of Delvile and Edgeworth’s construction of Clarence Hervey allows me to engage with popular conceptions of the ideal hero of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Burney and Edgeworth deviate from these ideals in order to accommodate conventions of the new Realist novel. I argue that Austen reimagines her male protagonist so that hero and heroine are well-matched and discuss, similarly, how Burney and Edgeworth create heroes as a complement to their heroines. Austen’s re-imagining of her male protagonist forms part of her contribution to the genre of the Realist novel. Austen suggests the complexity of her hero through metaphors of setting. I discuss the ways in which the descriptions of Pemberley act as a metaphor for Darcy’s character, and explore Austen’s adaptations of the picturesque as metaphors to further plot and character development. I offer a comparative reading of Darcy and Pemberley with Mr Bennet and Longbourn as suggestive in understanding the significance of setting for the heroine’s changing perceptions of the character of the hero. I explore Austen’s use of free indirect discourse and the epistolary mode in conveying “psychological or moral conflict” in relation to Captain Wentworth in Persuasion and Mr Knightley in Emma, offering some comparison to Darcy. This lends itself to a discussion on the ways in which Austen’s heroes may be read as a critique of the teachings of Lord Chesterfield’s Letters to His Son (1774). I conclude the thesis with a discussion of the ways in which Darcy has influenced the stereotype of the modern romance hero. Using two South African romance novels I suggest the ways in which the writers adapt conventions of writing heroes to cater for the new black South African middle class at which the novels are aimed. My reading of Jane Austen’s novels will highlight the significance of Austen’s work in contemporary writing, and will question present-day views that the writing of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries is not relevant to African literature.
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Abdelfattah, Nadya. "“THE DEEPEST BLUSH”: BODILY STATES OF EMOTIONS IN JANE AUSTEN’S NOVELS." Cleveland State University / OhioLINK, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1533837779817506.
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Geng, Li-ping. "Dialectical elements in the novels of Jane Austen." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0015/NQ45698.pdf.
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Eddleman, Stephanie M. "Eye of the beholder : physical beauty in the novels of Jane Austen /." Full text available from ProQuest UM Digital Dissertations, 2009. http://0-proquest.umi.com.umiss.lib.olemiss.edu/pqdweb?index=0&did=1913311851&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=2&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1278695732&clientId=22256.
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Campbell, Ellen Catherine. "Marriage and Class in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction." OpenSIUC, 2013. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1222.
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The connection between social change and marriage is of critical concern for nineteenth century English novelists, and the progression of both class shifts and alterations in marriage are discernable through these novelists' respective works. Due to the Industrial Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, England's social hierarchy began to shift allowing for the rise of a middle class; with the professional class's ascension came the decline of the landed gentry. These social changes blurred class boundaries and created an increasing socially mobile society. Additionally, they coincided with changes to marriage framework, as matrimony was moving towards being based on love rather than the traditional socioeconomic foundation. As both class lines and the love-revolution took place around the same time historically, there was a key change in marriage suitability, making cross-class and love-based marriages more of a reality. Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy are two of the most notable authors from the nineteenth century who chronicle this tension between marriage and class in their respective novels. This thesis focuses specifically on Austen's Persuasion and Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd, arguing that they both visualize a successful marriage that is predicated on both love and socioeconomic status. Their similar image of the sustainable marriage gives value to both the socioeconomic-based and love-based marriages, depicting a realistic conceptualization of marriage.
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Muji, Arbnore. "Gender issues reflected within nature in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk och litteratur, SOL, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-8388.
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This essay will analyse Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice from a feminist point of view, the emphasis being on how the environment and nature can reflect femininity and the relationships between men and women. The nature portrayed within Pride and Prejudice can also be looked at from a gender perspective in order to help understand how Jane Austen used nature to reflect the realities of gender differences in her society.
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Stanley, Kerry. "'The novelist of home' : silence and the theorisation of domesticity in Jane Austen's fiction." Thesis, University of Kent, 2018. https://kar.kent.ac.uk/66697/.
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This thesis offers a re-examination of the nearly two-centuries-old idea that Jane Austen is 'the novelist of home'. How, it asks, can we reconcile the seemingly opposing notions of Austen's famed insular focus on domestic life, with its corresponding restraints upon women, and her clearly non-conservative gender politics? In depicting the lives of young women, Austen by and large excludes matters which were deemed 'unfeminine' or belonging to the public and 'masculine' world from her fiction. Topics such as sexuality and politics might then be considered silences in her novels. This apparent refusal to discuss these subjects was not, however, a sign of Austen's endorsement of the ideal of withdrawn and private female life set out within conservative conduct literature. Instead, I argue, in her isolated focus on domesticity Austen provides forensic studies of the conditions of home life for middle-class women and their psychological impact. Her silences, therefore, are tools used to recreate the state of disconnection in which women exist under the influence of contemporary domestic ideology. In each of her novels, Austen criticises that confinement to, and an education that prepares women for, a life solely in the domestic realm harmfully limits the scope of their knowledge, development and ultimately selfhood. Offering a theorisation of domesticity that develops over the course of her career, Austen set herself apart from her forerunners and contemporaries in domestic fiction. In adapting the novel according to this enterprise of reconceiving domesticity, Austen moreover reimagines the novel itself.
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McCauley, Heather Lynne. "Having an effect, Jane Austen and the novel of apprenticeship." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape15/PQDD_0009/MQ36498.pdf.
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Pallares-Garcia, Elena. "Narrated perception and point of view in the novels of Jane Austen." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2014. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/7448/.
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This thesis is a stylistic analysis of a narrative technique known as ‘narrated perception’ (Cohn 1978: 133-134; Fludernik 1993: 305-309) in the novels of Jane Austen. The analysis looks at the language features that characterise passages containing narrated perception (NP), and connects those features with the construction and interpretation of narrative point of view. NP implicitly portrays the sensory perceptions of a fictional character by describing an object or event as it would look, sound, feel, smell or taste to that character. In the following passage from Austen’s Persuasion (1818), Captain Wentworth has left the room abruptly and Anne is left wondering why. After a few minutes, ‘footsteps were heard returning; the door opened; it was himself’ (Austen 1998 [1818]: 222). It is up to the reader to interpret the description ‘the door opened; it was himself’ as Anne’s visual perception of Wentworth, with the implicit emotional implications this event has for her. A few scholars have studied NP as a distinct form of consciousness representation, but in general it has not received much critical attention. The analysis provides new insights into Austen’s style in the representation of characters’ consciousness, and contributes to a better understanding of NP as a narrative form. The research is primarily based on a qualitative analysis of passages. This is complemented by a quantification of instances of NP, aimed at revealing patterns and relationships between the novels. The analysis shows that NP represents perceptions more mimetically than other techniques; that it can be used with a range of functions and effects, such as irony and suspense; that it has the potential to mislead the reader in the interpretation of fictional events, and reflects the ideas of the time about the connections between sensory perception, attention, knowledge and emotion.
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Moring, Meg Montgomery 1961. "Death and the Concept of Woman's Value in the Novels of Jane Austen." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1996. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc278475/.
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Jane Austen sprinkles deaths throughout her novels as plot devices and character indicators, but she does not tackle death directly. Yet death pervades her novels, in a subtle yet brutal way, in the lives of her female characters. Austen reveals that death was the definition and the destiny of women; it was the driving force behind the social and economic constructs that ruled the eighteenth-century woman's life, manifested in language, literature, religion, art, and even in a woman's doubts about herself.
In Northanger Abbey Catherine Morland discovers that women, like female characters in gothic texts, are written and rewritten by the men whose language dominates them. Catherine herself becomes an example of real gothic when she is silenced and her spirit murdered by Henry Tilney. Marianne Dashwood barely escapes the powerful male constructs of language and literature in Sense and Sensibility. Marianne finds that the literal, maternal, wordless language of women counts for nothing in the social world, where patriarchal,figurative language rules, and in her attempt to channel her literal language into the social language of sensibility, she is placed in a position of more deadly nothingness, cast by society as a scorned woman and expected to die. Fanny Price in Mansfield Park is sacrificed as Eve, but in her death-like existence and in her rise to success she echoes Christ, who is ultimately a maternal figure that encapsulates the knowledge of the goddess, the knowledge that from death will come life. Emma Woodhouse in Emma discovers that her perfection, sanctioned by artistic standards, is really a means by which society eases its fears about death by projecting death onto women as a beautiful ideal. In Persuasion, Anne Elliotfindsthat women endure death while men struggle against it, and this endurance requires more courage than most men possess or understand. Austen's novels expose the undercurrent of death in women's lives, yet hidden in her heroines is the maternal power of women—the power to bear children, to bear language and culture, to bear both life and death.
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BALCONI, PAOLO. "IL ROMANZO EPISTOLARE NELL'INGHILTERRA DEL SETTECENTO: IL CASO DI JANE AUSTEN." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/689.
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La tesi ha per oggetto il romanzo epistolare in Inghilterra nella seconda metà del XVIII secolo, con particolare enfasi sulle opere scritte da donne. Scopo dello studio è dimostrare come Jane Austen, con le sue opere adolescenziali e il suo “Lady Susan”, rappresenti insieme un momento di sintesi e un punto di arrivo del “novel in letters” settecentesco.
In particolare due filoni d’analisi convergeranno verso l’opera austeniana: la prima parte, divisa in tre capitoli, affronta brevemente la storia del romanzo epistolare e della figura della “woman novelist”, analizzando l’importanza dell’opera di Samuel Richardson a metà secolo (cap. 1) e di alcune scrittrici settecentesche quali Sarah Fielding, Charlotte Smith e Frances Burney (cap. 2), per concludersi con l’analisi del “periodo d’oro” del romanzo epistolare inglese, che coincide con gli anni ’80 e ’90 del secolo (cap. 3).
La seconda parte della dissertazione, divisa in quattro capitoli, affronta in modo più specifico la figura di Jane Austen e il modo in cui essa si inserisce all’interno dello sviluppo dello stile e della fortuna del romanzo epistolare. Dopo una breve autobiografia dell’autrice e uno studio dell’epistolario fra lei e la sorella Cassandra (rispettivamente capp. 4 e 5), allo scopo di dare conto dell’importanza che le lettere ricoprirono nella formazione di Jane Austen, il cap. 6 è dedicato agli Juvenilia, vale a dire alle opere scritte fra i 15 e i 20 anni, mentre il cap. 7 affronta in modo più approfondito l’analisi di “Lady Susan”, romanzo che decreta l’abbandono dello stile epistolare da parte della scrittrice di Steventon.The dissertation focuses on the epistolary novel in England in the second half of the eighteenth century, particularly on works written by women. The purpose of this study is to understand how Jane Austen (with her early writings and “Lady Susan”) represents both a synthesis of and a turning point in eighteenth-century novels in letters. In particular, two fields of study will converge into the works by Jane Austen: the first part, divided into three chapters, focuses on the importance of Samuel Richardson at the middle of the century (chapter 1) and of some woman writers such as Sarah Fielding, Charlotte Smith and Frances Burney (chapter 2), whereas chapter 3 is dedicated to the “golden period” of the English epistolary novel during the ‘80s and ‘90s. The second part of the dissertation is divided into four chapters and focuses more specifically on Jane Austen’s role within the development of the style and the fortune of the novel in letters. After a short autobiography of the author and an analysis of the correspondence between her and her sister Cassandra (chapters 4 and 5) in order to underline the importance of letters in Jane Austen’s upbringing, chapter 6 is dedicated to the Juvenilia, that is to say the works written between 15 to 20 years of age, while chapter 7 focuses on “Lady Susan”, a novel which represents the renunciation of the epistolary style by the author.
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Yishen, Gao. "What Makes a Happy Marriage? : A Study of Choice in Four Jane Austen Novels." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för kultur och kommunikation, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-62886.
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The aim of this thesis was to show how important both the outward and inward factors are in decision-making process in relation to marriage in the four novels Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park. The argument was that all Austen’s novels revolve around the balance of all external and internal factors. Individual novels seem to focus more or less on specific factors. Chapter one deals with money factor in the novel Sense and Sensibility. Marianne Dashwood is a symbol with unworldly character that shows no care about money. Unfortunately, her first love John Willoughby chooses a mercenary marriage over true love, and Marianne learns more prudence and realism. It is Elinor, who keeps a good balance between heart and head, which Austen highly praises in the novel. And her happy marriage with Edward Ferrars proves to be a right and wise choice. Chapter two, Emma, concerns the rank issue. Emma Woodhouse makes many mistakes in her match-making interference with Harriet Smith because of her class consciousness and superiority. Her wrong-doings are corrected by Mr. Knightley’s good judgment. On the whole, the novel discourages rejection of class boundaries, but we also see that people from different social class are also able to build a happy marriage, as long as there is equality of minds between them. Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill prove this point. Chapter three and four turn to the inward factors. In Pride and Prejudice, the main focus, as shown in Jane and Frank’s case, is the equality of minds. The two good marriages between Elizabeth and Darcy, and her sister Jane and Bingley, are good examples. The other two female characters, Charlotte and Lydia fail in their choices. The former chooses a mercenary marriage, which only an outward factor, money, is concerned; and the latter a marriage built mainly on sexual attraction, which is onlyan inward factor, yet a wrong one. Thus, neither of them considers equality of minds with her husband, and they both end up in bad marriages. The last Mansfield Park chapter explains the importance of principle in marital choices. The Crawfords have everything but principle. They are intelligent, good-tempered, elegant and both show respect and affection to the cousins, but they do not have good moral judgments and the courage to act accordingly. Therefore, they do not deserve happy endings. In contrast, Fanny Price, who always keeps consistent principles, wins Edmund’s heart and respect, and ends with a happy life ever after. As a realistic novelist, all of these four Austen’s novels deal with realistic issues: money, rank, social status etc. With the in-depth reading and analysis, we realize that there are some romantic thoughts and imaginations in her realistic works. Austen understands the importance of fortune, there is financial security in either good or bad marriages in her novels. This is the social circumstances and trend at her time. But in all her good marriages, the characters value some other factors more. Austen’s ideal marriage consists of true affection, mutual admiration and respect, equality of minds and high moral and principles between a couple, which is not an easy thing to do back to pre-Victorian period. Those bad or less satisfactory marriages explain her disappointment in people who are too realistic and materialistic, or too unrealistic and too unworldly. It is also maybe the reason why she remains single through her entire life. Her expectation in marriage is higher than the social standards, which makes her at the same time a romantic novelist. To sum up, marriage must reflect the social and economical reality of the society. Only when there is a firm base can individual desires be considerable. Money and rank are outward factors which cannot be totally neglected in marital choices. But equality of intelligence, minds and moral principles are more important to determine a happy marriage. These four are Austen’s deeply serious novels, in spite of all the satire, humour, wit and romance portrayed in them. It is worth noting that these particular conditions belong to Austen’s time, but the theme of choice of spouse is universal. Every individual must find one balance between the demands of society, and his or her own desires, emotions and hopes. Hence readers are able to both learn from and enjoy Jane Austen’s novels. Anyhow, realistic or romantic, those factors mentioned in Austen’s novel are also relevant to people’s marital choices in modern society. Many of her good points are still referred to nowadays. This, together with her light humor and witty words, are the reason why there are so many ‘Janeites’ in the world, and why she still occupies a high place in English and world literature.
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Pun-Chuen, Lia Criselda Lim. "Social Disruption in the Gothic Novels of Horace Walpole, Elizabeth Inchbald, and Jane Austen." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2005. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1018.
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The Gothic novel plays on the exaggeration of prescribed sex roles and uses various narrative techniques to produce a social commentary on gender politics and to illustrate the consequences of a destroyed social structure. Through the examination of the construct of the Gothic narrative and its fragmentary style, the novels of Horace Walpole, Elizabeth Inchbald, and Jane Austen reveal similar treatments of the sexuality of their characters. The implementation of key Gothic elements—such as the castle, tyrannical father, and distressed damsel—serve to propel the novels’ questioning of the patriarchal system, the theme of women as commodities, and the economic value of sexuality. In addition to creating bizarre atmospheres of suspense and mystery, the authors artfully weave the fantastic elements of the Gothic into real responses to the changing culture and sexual anxiety of eighteenth-century England.
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Stott, Anthony. "A critical examination of three Jane Austen fragments and their bearing on her completed novels." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22439.
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Whereas the novels have been exhaustively treated, Jane Austen's fragments have suffered neglect. My thesis aims to help remedy this lack of critical emphasis. I examine three pieces from the early, middle and late periods of her life - Catherine or the Bower (1792), The Watsons (1804) and Sanditon (1817). By showing that Northanger Abbey was neither her first attempt at fiction nor Persuasion her last, I argue that a study of these fragments deepens our insight into her creative processes, showing some unexpected shifts of tone and emphasis not immediately apparent in the completed novels. Chapter I discusses the importance of Catherine or the Bower as an early essay in serious fiction, revealing an interest in certain themes, narrative devices and moral imperatives more subtly developed in her mature works. As the most accomplished of the juvenilia, it shows a move away from the epistolary mode and simple parody of Sentimental excesses towards an exploration of realistic social and economic conditions. I have examined this evolution of form and moral stance in her work, along with her use of spatial detail, and her thematic emphasis on meditation, the abuse of power and the efficacy of proper education. Chapter II considers The Watsons as another decisive point in her development as an artist. Grave in tone, the piece locates the heroine in circumstances harsher than those presented in the fiction hitherto. To stress the pain of poverty, loneliness and the prospect of spinsterhood, Jane Austen had to develop new techniques for conveying the thoughts and feelings of a heroine returning to uncongenial home life. Comedy is underplayed to give scope to a celebration of tranquillity and modesty that looks ahead to Mansfield Park, as does the concern with clerical duty. Chapter III focuses upon Sanditon. Coming after the tenderness of Persuasion, this fragment is disconcertingly robust. In its use of caricature, the device of mistaken identity and. mockery of unchecked imagination, it seems like a return to the juvenilia, but new artistic directions are clearly evident. Playing with motifs of speculation, novelty, hypochondria and uncontrolled energy (mental, physical and verbal), Jane Austen condemns the powerful forces of change that threaten traditional life and values. She is less concerned with tracing complex sentiment than with giving prominence to topographical details that stress the impact of change. The study has been conducted in terms of close analysis of passages stressing various thematic and technical concerns, with cross reference to the complete novels where this has seemed pertinent.
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Pimentel, A. Rose. "'The divine voice within us' : the reflective tradition in the novels of Jane Austen and George Eliot." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/2583.
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This thesis argues that a ‘tradition of moral analysis’ between Jane Austen and George Eliot — a common ground which has been identified by critics from F.R. Leavis to Gillian Beer, but never fully explored — can be illuminated by turning to what this thesis calls ‘the reflective tradition’. In the eighteenth century, ideas about reflection provided a new and influential way of thinking about the human mind; about how we come to know ourselves and the world around us through the mind. The belief in the individual to act as his/her own guide through the cultivation of a reflective mind and attentiveness to a reflective voice emerges across a wide range of discourses. This thesis begins with an examination of reflection in the philosophy, children’s literature, novels, poetry, educational tracts and sermons that would have been known to Austen. It then defines Austen’s development of reflective dynamics by looking at her six major novels; finally, it analyzes Middlemarch to define Eliot’s proximity to this aspect of Austen’s art. The thesis documents Eliot’s reading of Austen through the criticism of G. H. Lewes to support a reading of Eliot’s assimilation of an Austenian attention to mental processes in her novels. Reflection is at the heart of moral life and growth for both novelists. This thesis corrects a tendency in Austen’s reception to focus on the mimetic aspect of her art, thereby overlooking the introspective sense of reflection. It offers new insights into Austen’s and Eliot’s work, and it contributes to an understanding of the development of the realist novel and the ethical dimension in the role of the novel reader.
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Derry, Stephen Gerald. "Tradition, imitation and innovation : Jane Austen and the development of the novel, 1740-1818." Thesis, Durham University, 1988. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1536/.
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Menon, Patricia. "New Abelards : the mentor-lover in the novels of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte and George Elliot." Thesis, University of London, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.299888.
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Fancett, Anna. "The exploration of familial myths and motifs in selected novels by Jane Austen and Walter Scott." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2014. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=225725.
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Taking the subject of the exploration of familial tropes in the novels of Walter Scott and Jane Austen, this thesis opens by investigating the literary context in which the two authors worked, as well as offering an explanation of the methodology used, and an exploration of criticism on the topic. An in-depth analysis of the historical state of the family provides this thesis with its social and historic background, and is offered in section two. Section three explores conventional presentations of the family in the novels, and contends that even such conventional interpretations are open to complex and fluid readings. In particular, this section explores the nuances surrounding the role of marriage as a symbol of comedy, and also as the fulfilment of a bildungsroman narrative. It also contends that social virtues are key in establishing the representation of familial roles and in this context inheritance and lineage are also explored. The ways in which familial representation may be employed for subversive or controversial purposes are the subject of section four. This thesis posits that subversive readings do not negate conventional ones but rather that alternate representations of the family create multiple, not hierarchal meanings. Marriage, children, inheritance, lineage, siblingship, incest, illegitimacy and widowhood are all part of section four's investigation. Abstract! Anna Fancett Section five works as a short coda to the thesis and raises questions about the role of the narratorial voice. In particular, it argues that although some critics have assumed that the author's authority is present in any direct, unnamed third-person narrator, the voice of the narrator must never be conflated with that of the author or implied author. This section postulates that the narratorial voice destabilises both the conventional and subversive use of the family in these novels and suggests that the texts generate multiple readings. Overall this thesis demonstrates that the social, cultural and literary pressures which operated on the concept of the family in the Romantic period are manifested in a parallel complexity in the ways in which familial tropes operate in the work of Scott and Austen. However, it also shows that these two authors move beyond a merely representational engagement with social structures to provide a new and dynamic engagement with the idea of the family in the Romantic novel.
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Vasavada, Megan. "Novel Gifts: The Form and Function of Gift Exchange in Nineteenth-century England." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/13240.
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This dissertation draws on studies of gift exchange by cultural anthropologists and social theorists to examine representations of gifts and gift giving in nineteenth-century British novels. While most studies of the economic imagination of nineteenth-century literature rely on and respond to a framework formulated by classical political economy and consequently overlook nonmarket forms of social exchange, I draw on gift theory in order to make visible the alternate, everyday exchanges shaping social relations and identity within the English novel. By analyzing formal and thematic representations of gifting over the course of the nineteenth century, in novels by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and George Eliot, I consider the way that gift exchange relates and responds to the emergence of capitalism and consumer culture. I trace two distinct developments in nineteenth-century gift culture: the first, the emergence of an idealized view of the gift as purely disinterested, spontaneous, and free, and the second, the emergence of a view of charity as demoralizing to the poor. These developments, I contend, were distinct ideological formations of liberal economic society and reveal a desire to make the gift conform to individualism. However, I suggest further that these transformations of the gift proceeded unevenly, for in their attention to the logic and practice of giving, nineteenth-century writers both give voice to and subvert these cultural formations. Alongside the figure of the benevolent philanthropist, the demoralized pauper, and the quintessential image of altruism, the selflessly giving domestic woman, nineteenth-century novels present another view of gift exchange, one that sees the gift as a mix of interest and disinterest, freedom and obligation, and persons and things. Ultimately, by reading the gift relations animating nineteenth-century novels, I draw attention to the competing conceptions of selfhood underlying gift and market forms of exchange in order to offer a broader history of exchange and personhood. In its recognition of expansive conceptions of the self and obligatory gifts, this dissertation recovers a history of the gift that calls into question the ascendency of the autonomous individual and the view of exchange as an anonymous, self-interested transaction.
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Jones, Darryl. "The highest point of extasy : sex and sexuality in the novels of Jane Austen and her predecessors." Thesis, University of York, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.259806.
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Parrott, S. J. E. "Escape from didacticism : art and idea in the novels of Jane Austen, Fanny Burney and Maria Edgeworth." Thesis, University of York, 1993. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/10922/.
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Barker, Anne Darling. "Women and independence in the nineteenth century novel : a study of Austen, Trollope and James." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/2319.
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'Women and independence in the nineteenth century novel : a study of Austen, Trollope and James', begins with the concept of independence and works through the three most common usages of the word. The first, financial independence (not needing to earn one's livelihood) appears to be a necessary prerequisite for the second and third forms of independence, although it is by no means an unequivocal good in any of the novels. The second, intellectual independence (not depending on others for one's opinion or conduct; unwilling to be under obligation to others), is a matter of asserting independence while employing terms which society recognizes. The third, of being independent, is exemplified by an inward struggle for a knowledge of self. In order to trace the development of the idea of self during the nineteenth century, I have chosen a group of novels which seem to be representative of the beginning, the middle, and the end of the period. Particular attention is given to the characterizations of Emma Woodhouse, Glencora Palliser, Isabel Archer, Milly Theale and Maggie Verver. Whereas in Jane Austen's novels the self has a definite shape which the heroine must discover, and in Anthony Trollope's novels the self (reflecting the idea of socially-determined man) must learn to accommodate social and political changes, in Henry James's novels the self determined by external manifestations (hollow man) is posed against the exercise of the free spirit or soul. Jane Austen's novels look backward, as she reacts against late eighteenth century romanticism, and forward, with the development of the heroine who exemplifies intellectual independence. Anthony Trollope's women characters are creatures of social and political adaptation; although they do not derive their reason for being from men, they must accommodate themselves to men's wishes. And Henry James looks backward, wistfully, at Austen's solid, comforting, innocent self and forward, despairingly, to the dark, unknowable self of the twentieth century.
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Taujanskaitė, Aurelija. "Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding: The Situation of Writing a Novel." Bachelor's thesis, Lithuanian Academic Libraries Network (LABT), 2012. http://vddb.laba.lt/obj/LT-eLABa-0001:E.02~2012~D_20120831_092258-48880.
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The object of the research is Austen’s and Fielding’s situation of writing a novel through their works Pride and Prejudice by Austen and Bridget Jones’s Diary by Fielding. Though, these women authors are representatives of the two different epochs of English literature their novels are frequently taken in parallel. In order to carry out the research, the comparative and feminist criticism methods were applied. The comparative methodology was useful in order to analyze the meanings of similarity or distinction in the novels Pride and Prejudice by Austen and Bridget Jones’s Diary by Fielding, also, to compare two different contexts for writing two novels.Tyrimo objektas – Džeinės Austen ir Helenos Fielding romano rašymo situacija remiantis jų kūriniais: Austen Puikybė ir prietarai bei Fielding Bridžitos Džouns dienoraštis. Nors autorės yra skirtingų laikotarpių anglų rašytojos, jų kūriniai yra dažnai lyginami.Bakalauro darbe buvo naudojami lyginamosios bei feministinės kritikos metodai. Lyginamasis metodas buvo taikomas ištirti romanų Puikybė ir prietarai ir Bridžitos Džouns dienoraštis panašumo ar savitumo reikšmes, palyginti kūrinių rašymo kontekstus. Kadangi Austen ir Fielding yra moterys rašytojos, feministinės kritikos metodas buvo naudojamas atskleisti moterų literatūros savitumą.
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Fisher, Dalene. "Marriage and paradoxical Christian agency in the novels of Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen, Anne Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell." Thesis, University of Kent, 2016. https://kar.kent.ac.uk/56688/.
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Between 1790 and 1850, the novel was used widely "for doing God's work," and English female authors, specifically those who identified themselves as Christians, were exploiting the novel's potential to challenge dominant discourse and middle-class gender ideology, particularly in relationship to marriage. I argue in this thesis that Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen, Anne Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell used the novel to construct Christian heroines who, as unlikely agents, make resistive choices shown to be undergirded by faith. All practicing some form of Christianity, Wollstonecraft, Austen, Brontë and Gaskell engage evangelicalism's belief in "transformation of the heart." They construct heroines who are specifically shown to question the value of a narrative that assumes wayward husbands would somehow be transformed as a result of the marriage union. The heroines in this study come to resist such reforming schemes. Instead, they paradoxically leverage the very Christian faith that dominant discourse would use to subjugate them in unequal unions.
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Leahy, Veronica Webb. "Neither angel nor ass : a study of the novels of Jane Austen, eighteenth-century conduct literature, and eighteenth-century feminism." Connect to resource, 1990. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1239982767.
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Kearney, J. A. "A comparative study in the novels of Jane Austen and George Eliot : reason and feeling as components of moral choice." Thesis, University of York, 1985. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.356153.
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Kan, Ka Ian. "Translation networks in Republican China : four novels by British women, 'Cranford', 'Jane Eyre', 'Silas Marner' and 'Pride and Prejudice'." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/23487.
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This thesis examines four translations and retranslations of novels by British female writers. They are Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, George Eliot’s Silas Marner, and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. The translations and retranslations, eight target texts in total, are mapped onto the sociopolitical and sociocultural milieu of China from the late 1920s to 1930s. During the span of time when the eight translations were published, China was undergoing a special period of political turbulence intertwined with literary vibrancy. With the literary field of China segmented into various literary societies or political organizations subscribing to their respective doctrines and principles, Chinese intellectuals including translators from various backgrounds produced literature and translation within the agenda of their respective literary or political societies. The heart of this thesis’s theoretical framework is the role of agents of translation involved the practice of translation production. The interaction amongst the human and nonhuman agents: translators, patrons, intellectuals, literary institutions, publishers and more, are examined in order to identify the translation motivations of the translators. The seven translators covered in the present study are categorized into three distinctive groups: the leftists, the humanists and the commercial translators. A collective analysis of the translators’ behaviour should shed light on the general understanding of the intended social functions of these translated novels written by British female writers published during Republican China.
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Huang, Pei-Ching Sophia. "Women in their worlds of objects : construction of female agency through things in the novels of Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell." Thesis, University of Hull, 2015. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:13224.
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This thesis argues that Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell employ textually important objects to explore women’s demeaning status in patriarchal societies and their construction of agency in such circumstances. In their novels, both Austen and Gaskell portray female characters as interacting in various ways with material things: the characters experience objects through their five senses, create them, recycle them, inhabit them, or purchase and possess them. It is true that not every item connected with the novels’ heroines bears the same significance, but those that play a prominent part in the plot or receive unusual descriptive attention convey messages that the novels do not express explicitly. This thesis follows thing theorists’ call for a reading that begins with objects, in particular the paradigm Elaine Freedgood offers of recovering literary objects’ materiality and socio-historical backgrounds before incorporating those veiled meanings into novelistic interpretation. Nevertheless, this work also differs from the thing theory studies by which it is informed in that it is centred upon the perception that the meanings of things are gendered and relies heavily on the narrative framework of a text in its choice of objects for discussion. In my five chapters, I investigate each of the two novelists’ object worlds and focus on things with which their female characters directly engage, mainly domestic interiors and luxuries. My examination follows a rough chronological order, beginning with Austen’s six major works before moving on to Gaskell’s novels. This thesis suggests that Austen and Gaskell, despite the separation of three decades, use objects in their writing to explore an issue that is relevant not only to their female characters but also to women in general: the construction of agency within the existing patriarchal structure.
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Lochrie, Eleanor Ann. "Debates on female education : constructing the middle ground in eighteenth century women's magazines and the novels of Fanny Burney and Jane Austen." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 2010. http://oleg.lib.strath.ac.uk:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=13204.
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This thesis investigates the various strands of the female education debate which emerge from eighteenth-century conduct books, women's magazines and the novels of Fanny Burney and Jane Austen. Across this body of work the main objective is to advise the middle-class woman about appropriate conduct in society. A surprising amount of consensus is shown to exist on this subject, even between conservative and radical writers. However, questions about gender equality placed conservative conduct-book writers and proto-feminists in ideologically opposed positions. In contrast, Burney, Austen and the authors of eighteenth-century magazines were unwilling either to demand gender equality or accept the inherent inferiority of the female sex. Taking a moderate stance in the female education debate, they either avoid extreme views or negotiate between them, often reaching contradictory conclusions. It will be argued, that the wide range of material and variety of opinions incorporated within these works, particularly the women's magazines, actively enabled the construction of a middle ground. This position was by no means stable and the parameters of what was considered acceptable and respectable for women were subject to continual modification. Central to the characterisation of the magazines as moderate works is the potential, built into the structure and integral to the content of these texts, for individual readers to resist meaning or interpret it in different ways. The novels portray the consequences of education through the integral detail of their heroines' lives. These works assume that domestic duties should be a priority for women, but they show that the education available to the female sex was inadequate for its purposes. Moderate writers are shown to adapt a variety of strategies in order to question the aims and objectives of female education without challenging the status quo.
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Volz, Jessica A. "Vision, fiction and depiction : the forms and functions of visuality in the novels of Jane Austen, Ann Radcliffe, Maria Edgeworth and Fanny Burney." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/4438.
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There are many factors that contributed to the proliferation of visual codes, metaphors and references to the gendered gaze in women's fiction of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. This thesis argues that the visual details in women's novels published between 1778 and 1815 are more significant than scholars have previously acknowledged. My analysis of the oeuvres of Jane Austen, Ann Radcliffe, Maria Edgeworth and Fanny Burney shows that visuality — the nexus between the verbal and visual communication — provided them with a language within language capable of circumventing the cultural strictures on female expression in a way that allowed for concealed resistance. It conveyed the actual ways in which women ‘should' see and appear in a society in which the reputation was image-based. My analysis journeys through physiognomic, psychological, theatrical and codified forms of visuality to highlight the multiplicity of its functions. I engage with scholarly critiques drawn from literature, art, optics, psychology, philosophy and anthropology to assert visuality's multidisciplinary influences and diplomatic potential. I show that in fiction and in actuality, women had to negotiate four scopic forces that determined their ‘looks' and manners of looking: the impartial spectator, the male gaze, the public eye and the disenfranchised female gaze. In a society dominated by ‘frustrated utterance,' penetrating gazes and the perpetual threat of misinterpretation, women novelists used references to the visible and the invisible to comment on emotions, socio-economic conditions and patriarchal abuses. This thesis thus offers new insights into verbal economy by reassessing expression and perception from an unconventional point-of-view.
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Ogden, Rebecca Lee Jensen. "Merit Beyond Any Already Published: Austen and Authorship in the Romantic Age." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2010. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2417.
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In recent decades there have been many attempts to pull Austen into the fold of high Romantic literature. On one level, these thematic comparisons are useful, for Austen has long been anachronistically treated as separate from the Romantic tradition. In the past, her writings have essentially straddled Romantic classification, labeled either as hangers-on in the satiric eighteenth-century literary tradition or as early artifacts of a kind of proto-Victorianism. To a large extent, scholars have described Austen as a writer departing from, rather than embracing, the literary trends of the Romantic era. Yet, while recent publications depicting a “Romantic Austen” yield impressive insights into the timeliness of her fiction, they haven't fully addressed Austen's participation in some of the most crucial literary debates of her time. Thus, it is my intention in this essay to extend the discussion of Austen as a Romantic to her participation in Romantic-era debates over emergent literary categories of authorship and realism. I argue that we can best contextualize Austen by examining how her model of authorship differs from those that surfaced in literary conversations of the time, particularly those relating to the high Romantic myth of the solitary genius. Likewise, as questions of solitary authorship often overlap with discussions of realism and romance in literature, it is important to reexamine how Austen responds to these categories, particularly in the context of a strictly Romantic engagement with these terms. I find that, though Austen's writing has long been implicated in the emergence of realism in literature, little has been written to link this impulse to the earlier emergence of Romantic-era categories of authorship and literary creativity. I contend that Austen's self-projection (as both an author and realist) engages with Romantic-era literary debates over these categories; likewise, I argue that her response to these emergent concerns is more complex and nuanced than has heretofore been accounted for in literary scholarship.
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Ferguson, Olivia Mary. "Literary forms of caricature in the early-nineteenth-century novel." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/31529.
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This thesis examines the status of caricature in the literary culture of early-nineteenth- century Britain, with a focus on the novel. It shows how the early-nineteenth- century novel developed a variety of literary forms that negotiated and remade caricature for the bourgeois literary sphere. Case studies are drawn primarily from the published writings and manuscript drafts of Thomas Love Peacock, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and Walter Scott. The first chapter elucidates the various meanings and uses of 'caricature' in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when the term was more ambiguous and broadly applied than literary criticism and print history have acknowledged. I counter the assumption that the single-sheet satirical print was central to conceptions and practices of caricature in this period, giving examples of the textual, dramatic, and real-life 'caricatures' that were more often under discussion. The second and third chapters consider the unstable distinction between textual caricature and satirical characterisation in early-nineteenth-century literary culture. They explain how the literary construction of textual caricature developed from two sources: Augustan rulings against publishing satires on individuals, and caricature portraits as a pastime beloved of genteel British society. I argue that Peacock and Austen adapted forms of 'caricaturistic writing' that were conscious of the satirical literary work's relation to caricature. Subsequent chapters turn to the thematic uses of caricature in the early-nineteenth- century novel. In the fourth chapter, I uncover the significance of caricature to deformity in Mary Shelley's fiction, presenting evidence that her monsters' disproportion was inherited from the 'real-life' caricatures diagnosed in philosophical and medical texts of the eighteenth century. The final chapter traces ideas about caricature through the writings of Walter Scott, and finds that Scott conceived of exemplary graphic and textual caricatures as artefacts of antiquarian interest.
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Denford, Joanna Rachel. "Tidy minds and untidy lives, the intertextual relationship between Stella Gibbons' Cold comfort farm and the novels of Jane Austen and Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp04/mq22523.pdf.
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Distel, Kristin M. "Gendered Shame, Female Subjectivity, and the Rise of the Eighteenth-Century Novel." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1604057648041618.
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Hooker, Jennifer. "From paternalism to individualism : representations of women in the nineteenth century English novel." Scholarly Commons, 2000. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/546.
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Three of the most notable English women authors, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and George Eliot, explore similar themes of the individual, particularly the young woman, in relation to a hierarchical, patriarchal society, more specifically a crumbling paternalist society. My focus is on three Victorian novels' representations of society's transformation from a paternalistic nature to one of greater individualism; and in particular, I explore how women defined for themselves positions of power within these structures. So this study is twofold, one on representations of gender and the other of class; for the two are inseparable in discussing power relationships of Victorian women. Austen, Bronte, and Eliot understood and, to some degree, accepted the pervasive paternal values. Their novels, however, do not advocate radical social change; rather, their heroines willingly turn to domesticity. I aim to argue that each author, although dissatisfied with aspects of society, did not desire to radically alter women's role within society. The fictitious lives they created became both a representation and a critique of the ideologies surrounding them. The texts of Emma, Jane Eyre, and Middlemarch are representative of traditional social norms and yet question some of the culture's dominant codes, especially in relation to paternalism and gender. What strikes me about these novels is that although the female characters are limited by society, they are not ineffectual. Rather the authors portray women in control of their lives and able to make choices for themselves within the framework of society. My research includes social, philosophical, and political attitudes of the decades in which each novel was written, as well as personal philosophies held by Austen, Bronte, and Eliot in relation to gender and class and the influence of these philosophies in their art. Finally, my reading of the texts explicates evidences of the culture's and author's attitudes in relation to paternalism and gender.
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Freitas, Patrícia Maciel de. "From novel to film : the transposition of some character roles in Emma Thompson's screenplay of Sense and Sensibility." reponame:Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFRGS, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10183/72749.
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Sense and Sensibility (1811), o primeiro romance publicado de Jane Austen, foi transposto para o cinema em 1995, conferindo seis prêmios de melhor diretor a Ang Lee e dezenove a Emma Thompson, oito como melhor atriz e onze pelo melhor roteiro adaptado. Nesta dissertação eu apresento minha leitura da transposição feita por Emma Thompson do romance de Jane Austen, focando especialmente na maneira em que os personagens principais são transpostos para a tela. Para isso, utilizo três apoios, o texto do roteiro, os diários de Thompson e as performances dos atores. Em cada um desses eixos foram feitas escolhas que merecem ser investigadas, revelando o processo pelo qual o trabalho original se molda às regras da nova mídia e ao público pretendido. Atenção especial é dada aos recursos usados na transposição dos personagens do romance para o filme. O lastro teórico-crítico da pesquisa se apoia nos estudos de Linda Hutcheon sobre adaptação e nos textos de Gerald Mast e Christian Metz sobre a linguagem cinematográfica. A dissertação vem estruturada em duas partes. A primeira, dividida em três seções, apresenta os elementos de contextualização necessários para a discussão empreendida no trabalho. A primeira seção trata sobre o filme produzido em 1995 e sobre Ang Lee, responsável pela direção do mesmo. A segunda seção retraça alguns referentes do romance Sense and Sensibility e sua autora, Jane Austen. A terceira seção considera o processo de criação e adaptação do roteiro de Emma Thompson. A segunda parte do trabalho enfoca as escolhas de transposição, em especial no que diz respeito ao tratamento dos personagens. Ao término da pesquisa, espero identificar os traços que caracterizam Thompson como leitora diferenciada de Austen, e explicitar fatores que motivam as escolhas favorecidas no processo de transposição analisado.Sense and Sensibility (1811), the first novel published by Jane Austen, was transposed to the movies in 1995, granting six awards to Ang Lee as best director and nineteen to Emma Thompson, eight as best actress and eleven for best adapted screenplay. In this thesis, I present my reading of Emma Thompson´s reading of Jane Austen´s novel, focusing mainly on the way the major characters are transposed into the screen. In order to do that, I direct the analysis from three cornerstones, the text of the screenplay, Thompson’s diaries, and the actors’ performances. In each of these instances choices that deserve to be investigated have been made, which reveal the process through which the original work molds itself to the rules of the new media and to the audience it is intended. Special attention is given to the resources used in the transposition of the characters from the novel into the film. The theoretical support of the research is based on Linda Hutcheon’s studies on adaptation, and on Gerald Mast’s and Christian Metz’s texts about filmic language. This thesis is composed in two parts. Part one comes divided into three sections, and presents the contextualization necessary for the discussion held in the work. The first section introduces the film produced in 1995, and Ang Lee, responsible for its direction. The second retraces some referents from the novel Sense and Sensibility and its author, Jane Austen. The third considers Emma Thompson´s process of creation and adaptation of the screenplay. Part two focuses on the choices made in the transposition, especially the ones regarding the treatment of the characters. At the end of this research, I hope to identify the traces that characterize Thompson as a differentiated reader of Austen, and show the factors that motivate the favored choices in the analyzed transposition process.
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Nyffenegger, Sara Deborah. "In Defense of Ugly Women." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2007. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1178.
Full textAbstract:
My thesis explores why beauty became so much more important in nineteenth-century Britain, especially for marriageable young women in the upper and middle class. My argument addresses the consequences of that change in the status of beauty for plain or ugly women, how this social shift is reflected in the novel, and how authors respond to the issue of plainer women and issues of their marriageability. I look at how these authorial attitudes shifted over the century, observing that the issue of plain women and their marriageability was dramatized by nineteenth-century authors, whose efforts to heighten the audience's awareness of the plight of plainer women can be traced by contrasting novels written early in the century with novels written mid-century. I argue that beauty gained more significance for young women in nineteenth-century England because the marriage ideal shifted, a shift which especially influenced the upper and middle class. The eighteenth century brought into marriage concepts such as Rousseau's "wife-farm principle" the idea that a man chooses a significantly younger child-bride, mentoring and molding her into the woman he needs. But by the end of the century the ideal of marriage moved to the companionate ideal, which opted for an equal partnership. That ideal was based on the conception that marriage was based on personal happiness hence should be founded on compatibility and love. The companionate ideal became more influential as individuality reigned among the Romantics. The new ideal of companionate marriage limited parents' influence on their children's choice of spouse to the extent that the choice lay now largely with young men. Yet that choice was constrained because young men and women were restricted by social conventions, their social interaction limited. Thus, according to my reading of nineteenth-century authors, the companionate ideal was a charade, as young men were not able to get to know women well enough to determine whether or not they were compatible. So instead of getting to know a young woman's character and her personality, they distinguished potential brides mainly on the basis of appearance.