Over the last decade, as Jane Austen has moved center-stage in
our culture, onto best-seller lists and into movie houses, another
figure has slipped into the spotlight alongside her. This is the
"Janeite," the zealous reader and fan whose devotion to the novels
has been frequently invoked and often derided by the critical
establishment. Jane Austen has long been considered part of a great
literary tradition, even legitimizing the academic study of novels.
However, the Janeite phenomenon has not until now aroused the
curiosity of scholars interested in the politics of culture. Rather
than lament the fact that Austen today shares the headlines with
her readers, the contributors to this collection inquire into why
this is the case, ask what Janeites do, and explore the myriad
appropriations of Austen--adaptations, reviews, rewritings, and
appreciations--that have been produced since her lifetime.
The articles move from the nineteenth-century lending library to
the modern cineplex and discuss how novelists as diverse as Cooper,
Woolf, James, and Kipling have claimed or repudiated their
Austenian inheritance. As case studies in reception history, they
pose new questions of long-loved novels--as well as new questions
about Austen's relation to Englishness, about the boundaries
between elite and popular cultures and amateur and professional
readerships, and about the cultural work performed by the realist
novel and the marriage plot.
The contributors are Barbara M. Benedict, Mary A. Favret, Susan
Fraiman, William Galperin, Claudia L. Johnson, Deidre Lynch, Mary
Ann O'Farrell, Roger Sales, Katie Trumpener, and Clara Tuite.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!