Fanny Price’s Curation of Lively Things in Mansfield Park

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay looks to the new materialisms to reconceive the material objects with which Fanny Price comes into contact, particularly those in the East Room at Mansfield Park. Though Fanny’s status lies somewhere between insider and outsider at Mansfield Park, by virtue of her curation, she and these objects all gradually gain vitality and agency. As Fanny curates first the Bertrams’ belongings in the East Room and later their lives, her status at Mansfield Park shifts her closer to becoming an insider. Through her care and arrangement, and through her esteem for those who have left their marks on these discarded and forgotten belongings, she reveals new meaning and value for the objects as well as for the Bertrams themselves. And as Fanny gains visibility through self-curation, the Bertrams and the Crawfords begin to take notice of her and to perceive her value. Fanny transforms from an object to be cared for into a lively thing to be cared about. By rethinking the boundaries between bodies and objects and by perceiving material objects as differently alive, this essay is a thought experiment in how a nineteenth-century novel can open up in new ways when read counterintuitively.