The reputation of Jane Austen in the twentieth century with an annotated enumerative bibliography of Austen criticism from 1811 to June, 1957

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThe major portion of Part One of the dissertation is a study of the reputation of Jane Austen in the twentieth century. The study is based on an analysis of the books and articles on the subject which appeared between 1913 and June of 1957, and is prefaced by an introduction and a chapter discussing investigations of the novelist's reputation in the nineteenth century (1811-1913). Chapter Two studies the period from 1913 to 1932; Chapter Three, the gradual development of modern criticism of the novels (1933-1948); and Chapter Four, the most recent contributions to the tradition (1949-1957). The final chapter of Part One is a summary. The initial reception of Miss Austen's novels was favorable, but her reputation seems to have declined after her death: many prominent literary figures of succeeding decades expressed their high opinion of her work, but very few critical or biographical articles, and relatively few editions and reprints of the novels, appeared before 1870. The publication of J. E. Austen-Leigh's Memoir in that year, and of Lord Brabourne's edition of the letters in 1882, were both causes and results of a gradual revival of interest; a revival which led to Miss Austen's being acclaimed as the finest domestic novelist and realist among English novelists, and culminated in the "official" biography of 1913. The years from 1913 to 1932 saw the publication of Robert W. Chapman's editions of the novels, juvenilia, and letters; the bibliographies of Geoffrey Keynes (1929) and others; and numerous books and articles combining a nineteenth-century type of criticism with biography drawn largely from previously published sources. With a few notable exceptions, the criticism may be subsumed under two headings--reviews of and comments on books, articles, and editions; and generally "appreciative" studies of plot, characterization, realism, and humor. One nevertheless discerns in scattered discussions the beginnings of a more thorough and penetrating evaluation of Miss Austen's achievement: the increasing interest in the ontology of art and in the methodology of literary criticism, together with the rising status of the novel, seem in part responsible. In the next period (1933-1948), the conventional criticism of the novels continues (in more modern dress), but is overshadowed by a gradual revaluation of the tradition. Studies of Miss Austen's themes, style, techniques, and artistic development appear with some frequency, and present the interested reader with a body of criticism which substantially contributes to his understanding both of the artistic significance of the novels and of the novel as an art form. Recent criticism (1949-1957) has been increasingly concentrated into academic environments: most of the important studies are dissertations or books and articles based on dissertations. The revaluation continues, and there are signs of an interpretation of Miss Austen's work which balances the virtues of the older criticism with the best insights of the new. At the extremes are the conventional Janeite sentimentalities and the radical, often socio-economic, interpretations of recent years. Part Two of the dissertation lists and annotates, subject to stated limitations, the critical and biographical studies of Jane Austen and her works which have appeared from 1811 through June of 1957. The work was done in an attempt to supplement the inadequate listings in the bibliographies of Keynes (1929) and Chapman (1953), and to provide the scholar with a substantial critical bibliography for further research. The entries are arranged alphabetically by year; the annotation evaluates all items according to their critical or historical importance, and summarizes the significant contributions to the tradition

Jane Austen\u27s use of the epistolary method

There is . . . a prominent use of letters within the novels of Jane Austen. It has been shown that she wao influenced by Samuel Richardson and Fanny Burney and that she had a long experimental period of almost exclusive use of the epistolary method. It is from their influence and from her experimentation that the six major novels evolved; this supreme achievement was to give their creator a prominent place in the history of the English novel. No one factor can be cited as Miss Austen \u27s outstanding contribution, for each novel is a synthesis of many superior qualities. The letters, however, so prominently and effectively used within the novels have been considered here as one substantial reason for her success

Jane Austen's American reputation

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 193

Jane Austen at play : self-consciousness, beginnings, endings

It is because Jane Austen takes her art seriously that she can play. A self-conscious novelist, she delights in playing with reality and illusion, and the conventions of fiction-making. Her ironic perspective on individual consciousness and social interaction explains a lively interest in the comedy of manners. Irony underlines the paradox between her self-consciousness as an artist and her impersonality and control of aesthetic distance. Austen treats art as an expression of what her contemporary, Schiller, termed the "Spieltrieb" or "play drive." Schiller's argument for the need of the "play drive" to unite the "form drive" (associated with man's rational nature) with the "sense drive" (associated with man's sensuous nature) to express the ideal aesthetic experience, provides a useful framework for my study of Austen's playfulness

The Novel as Drama: Staging Theatrical Aspects of the Narrative in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park

Of Jane Austen\u27s full-length novels, Mansfield Park deals most directly with theatrical subjects, yet it is the least frequently adapted for the stage. Plots, themes, and characters in the novel echo those of the popular late eighteenth century play Lovers\u27 Vows, and the first volume includes a performance of that play as part of a home theatrical. ·In 2011, I completed a workshop adaptation and staging of Mansfield Park. I used the method of Chamber Theatre founded by Robert Breen, a technique of literary adaptation that retains the narrative voice by use of an embodied narrative and assignment of narrative passages to characters in direct address with the audience. A physical enactment of the relationship of the narrator to the central figure of Fanny Price revealed a dramatic component at the heart of the narrative point of view and in progression. This method illuminated a performance-based structure to the novel and rendered it remarkably well-suited to theatrical adaptation

Jane Austen's American reputation

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 193

Tradition, imitation and innovation : Jane Austin and the development of the novel.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D87643 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Hoydens, Harridans, and Hyenas in Petticoats : Jane Austen's Juvenilia and their contribution to eighteenth-century feminist debate

This dissertation is a study of Jane Austen's juvenilia, including "Lady Susan" and "Sir Charles Grandison: or the Happy Man", a collection of work undertaken between the years 1787 and 1794. Although often viewed by modem critics as apprentice pièces for the six novels written in maturity, thèse taies also exhibit deep reflection and involvement in the Enlightenment's feminist movement and feminist opinions on female éducation, and économie and marital dependency, issues the mature novels would explore, but in a less obviously transgressive manner. Although Austen acquiesces to public and political pressure later in life in order to achieve her ambitions of publishing, her early works show a palpable dissatisfaction with the situation of women. Most scholarly criticism of the juvenilia concentrâtes on either the parody of sentimental fictioji or its biographical content. Some attention has been paid to her feminist leanings in this literature, but no thorough survey has yet been done that analyses ail of the juvenilia in this light. This dissertation hopes to rectify that situation and shed light on the early feminist views of Jane Austen in ail of the taies belonging to her juvenilia. When considering an interpretive approach to the juvenilia for this dissertation, Harold Bloom's théories of intertextuality and influence were selected. Admittedly Bloom's theory is decidedly sexually biased in that it deals with the six canonical maie Romantic poets, and uses Freudian vocabulary. However, since création (or procréation) is also a female process, and equality in parent-child relationships is not exclusively maie, Bloom's theory can be modified to include female authors in their struggle to find their own créative voices. Another reason for using the Bloomian theory of influence is that Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar refer to him as their model of female authorial development in Madwoman in the Attic, the research that is used as the basis for this dissertation's feminist argument. Their study lays the groundwork for a re-examination of the historical manifestations of self-imaging in literature and how such self-imaging has been based on gendered socialization. The analysis of the juvenilia clearly demonstrates that Austen's early works are not simply parodies of contemporary literature. Instead, they contribute to the feminist debate of the period, aligning Austen with radical feminists like Mary Wollstonecraft