Description
A remarkably compelling and important book. The brilliance of this collection depends partly on its conception: to demonstrate that at every historical moment since the initial publication of Jane Austen's novels there have been diverse audiences that attached diverse meanings to the texts provided. In a sense, Janeites offers a cautionary tale for critics, reminding us by dramatic exemplification of the degree to which assumptions held determine significance found, and reminding us also, on occasion, of where our assumptions come from. -- Patricia Meyer Spacks, University of Virginia Janeites illuminates the reception of Jane Austen over the past couple of centuries, discovering along the way dimensions quite foreign to the quietest Regency theme park that middlebrow culture has recently made of her. The genealogy of this domesticated Jane is examined by several of the essays, but so are those of many other Janes as well. This collection will be a significant contribution to Austen studies, and it will be important as a history of the vagaries of literary reception, a study of the ways that cultural objects are enlisted to define, differentiate, and displace class and ethnic and sexual identities. -- Jeff Nunokawa, Princeton University
About the Author
Deidre Lynch is Associate Professor of English at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is the author of The Economy of Character: Novels, Market Culture, and the Business of Inner Meaning and the coeditor, with William B. Warner, of Cultural Institutions of the Novel.
Reviews
"Written with much scholarly dedication and good humor ... Accessible, well documented, carefully written generally argot-free, and convincing."--Choice "Although Janeites is written by professionals and thus, perhaps, is not for every amateur enthusiast, anyone who can read Jane Austen's sophisticated prose will be able to read these essays."--James R. Aubrey, Bloomsbury Review "Janeites is a groundbreaking book."--Devoney Looser, Eighteenth-Century Studies "Lynch ... reveals how [Austen] has inspired a wide range of readers, from those seeking a friend to those searching for relief from the horrors of war... [The book is] illuminating and scrupulously researched: readers will be pleased to see a picture of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries brimming with women writers, artists, workers, and entrepreneurs populating and influencing the public sphere."--Jill Heydt-Stevenson, The Wordsworth Circle "Compelling and engaging... [A] significant contribution to Austen studies, and more broadly to cultural studies of the novel."--Amanda Gilroy, Novel
Book Information
ISBN 9780691050065
Author Deidre Lynch
Format Paperback
Page Count 248
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publisher Princeton University Press
Weight(grams) 340g