Mansfield Park Research Articles

Austen’s Wordsworth

There is only one direct reference to William Wordsworth in all Jane Austen’s writing. This essay asks why it might be there and what it might mean, weighing up the evidence – stylistic, thematic, journalistic, biographical, naval, and historical – for and against Austen’s possible knowledge of Lyrical Ballads and its author. Their shared ground is discovered in habits of allusion and quotation; in the treatment of memory, forgetting, suffering, damage, and loss; in a commitment to noticing and praising the habitually overlooked; and in transformations of the natural world into a possession of the mind and heart. Mansfield Park, it is argued, proves the most Wordsworthian of Austen’s books.

MAN AND WOMAN - A CREATION FOR RELATION IN AUSTEN’S NOVELS

Jane Austen as a realist writer put genuine efforts to connect her characters with real life situations and circumstances to establish her as recognised socially realistic author. The selected novels of this chapter - Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, & Mansfield Park – are clear representation of real social lives of early 19th century. However, the representations are so knitted that it provides a bliss of reading romantic comedies. The romance, the love affairs, the restrictions for expressing love, expressions of male chauvinism or chivalry, good fortune, decent suitors, maintenance of dignity by the lady, are some of the keys induced by Jane Austen in all her narrations. The purpose remains static and it is make to feel the personal, emotional and social lives of the characters. It is like living the age with the characters and having bonds with their emotional experiences. This is a narrative technique of Jane Austen that makes her novels not only romantically successful, but also identified as socially real entities.

An integrated approach to the analysis of NRSA for translation. Mansfield Park in Spanish and German

In Jane Austen’s novels conversation provides internal evidence of the “moral and social nature of characters” (Morini, 2009, p. 9). Among the interplay of speech presentation forms (Page, 1972/2011), Narrative Report of Speech Acts (Leech & Short, 2007) has drawn less scholarly attention than others, for example Free Indirect Speech. However, NRSA condenses information about two communicative acts and therefore two addressers, namely the reporting narrator and the reported speaker (the character). Investigating this superposition of voices requires an integrative approach combining a speech-act theory analysis of the character’s speech with an analysis of both the character’s and the narrator’s dialogic stance, here set in the system of Engagement in Martin and White (2005). This paper aims to present this approach and to apply it to the description of Mansfield Park and its translations into Spanish and German. A sample of instances of NRSA and their translation solutions is analysed. While the most frequent type is literal translation, with both layers of meaning successfully reproduced, instances of translation shifts have been identified involving illocutionary force (addition, elimination or change of illocutionary features) and/or engagement value, combined with changes in certain cooccurring distancing devices. Such shifts suggest possible distortions to characterization cues.

Religion and Courtship Novels: A Comparison between The Story of the Stone and Mansfield Park in Spiritual Worlds and Secular Lives

This paper compares how the different religious traditions in China and England shaped their courtship narratives in the long eighteenth century respectively. It finds that though the courtship novels in the two countries share the theme of temptation, the hero in The Story of the Stone is tempted by general worldly pleasures, while in Mansfield Park by sexual desire. When constancy plays an important role in the Chinese context, second attachment is central to character development in English courtship narratives. The English marriage plot usually embraces worldly happiness while The Story of the Stone’s tragic ending enables the hero’s experience of enlightenment and becoming a monk. Although Xueqin Cao’s and Jane Austen’s courtship novels address similar theme, the very different Christian and Buddhist-Daoist values in China and England shape their courtship plots decisively. Courtship novels, a popular genre in the long eighteenth century that has been widely recognised as narratives focusing on secular life and marriage practice, are unable to depart from the religious tradition in each country.

The Social Condition of the 19th Century British Society Depicted in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park Novel

This study delves into the nuanced portrayal of 19th-century British society within Jane Austen's novel "Mansfield Park," employing Lucien Goldmann's Genetic Structuralism as a theoretical lens. Through a meticulous examination of themes such as marriage as a financial transaction, educational disparities, social stratification, and implicit references to the institution of slavery, the research sheds light on the intricate layers of societal divisions and cultural norms prevalent in the Regency era. By analyzing textual excerpts and applying critical scrutiny, this article investigates the multifaceted dynamics of social classes, educational gaps, and the subtle yet significant portrayals of economic entanglements with the slave trade. In utilizing Goldmann's theoretical framework, the study brings to the forefront the interplay between societal structures and cultural representations embedded within Austen's literary work. Furthermore, this research seeks to unravel the complex web of interactions shaping the narrative, highlighting the interconnectedness of societal elements within "Mansfield Park." By elucidating the subtle nuances and underlying tensions in Austen's portrayal of British society, the study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the socio-cultural fabric of the time. The exploration of Goldmann's Genetic Structuralism as an analytical tool not only enriches the interpretation of Austen's novel but also underscores the relevance of literary theory in unraveling the intricate layers of meaning inherent in classic literary works.

The Differences in Treatment Received by the Upper and Lower Classes of the 19th Century British Society Shown in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park

This study employs Lucien Goldmann’s Genetic Structuralism approach to dissect the treatment disparities experienced by the upper and lower echelons of society within Jane Austen’s “Mansfield Park.” Utilizing textual analysis, the research scrutinizes instances delineating differential treatment, including condescension and exclusion, towards characters belonging to distinct social strata. The findings delineate the prevalent class-based prejudices, revealing the societal dichotomy ingrained within the novel’s narrative. In examining the treatment disparities within Jane Austen’s “Mansfield Park” through Lucien Goldmann’s Genetic Structuralism approach, this study delves into the intricacies of societal divisions and class-based prejudices. Goldmann’s method allows for a nuanced exploration of the upper and lower echelons of society as depicted in the novel, revealing subtle nuances of condescension and exclusion. Through meticulous textual analysis, the research identifies instances that illuminate the societal dichotomy present in the narrative. By applying this theoretical framework, the study not only brings to light the inherent class biases but also contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between social structures and individual experiences within the world Austen crafted in “Mansfield Park.”

Imagining a Man “More Exactly what He Ought to Be”: Jane Austen’s Revolutionary Masculinities

Jane Austen’s canon has been expertly combed through for its moral implications, whether radically feminist or extremely conservative. Writing during the Napoleonic Wars, Austen was no stranger to politics, the military, or the implications both had on her life and her role in society. In the paper that follows, I posit that Austen channeled many of her opinions on England’s state of affairs through her male characters, who were the acting socio-political agents of the day. Through various caricatures of masculinity, Austen portrays masculine ideals and failures, both of which were rapidly evolving during her time. This research focuses on Austen’s portrayal of the “self-made man,” a form of masculinity which emerged following the American and French Revolutions, and grew to prominence in England following the Napoleonic Wars. These men quickly made places for themselves in society, particularly through the British Navy. They grew to rank and status through their own merit and skills, instead of high birth and landed title. Their increasing prominence threatened the very foundations of British society as Austen knew it. However, as this paper explores, Austen took care to present these men - and the changes they brought - in a positive light, showcasing the value in their revolutionary social movement. In the following essay, I demonstrate how, in doing so, Austen’s later novels, Mansfield Park and Persuasion, act as political tools which reveal how Austen’s opinions about England’s fragile state were revolutionary.

The Weather Is Dirty: Jane Austen’s Use of Nature as a Social Agent

ABSTRACT Throughout her works, Jane Austen utilized weather as a powerful natural phenomenon to facilitate plot action through enabling or inhibiting social interactions. The inclusion of the natural world gives indications of how Austen perceived humans in relation to the environment: that people, their plans, and their social interactions were very much at the mercy of nature. This ecocritical analysis of her work extends beyond the picturesque into broader conceptions of her interests in people and their interconnections with each other and with nature, raising the heretofore unspoken idea that Austen perceived nature as having the ability to both enable and interrupt social engagement. Austen’s use of weather to facilitate character action and plot development could be interpreted as a convention of Romanticism, or as counter to Romanticism, as these very same natural events create kinks in plans, deviating from so-called ideal conditions. This article examines the role of weather as a plot device across a selection of Austen’s novels, including Northanger Abby, Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion. This article offers further ecocritical analysis of her interests in people and their interconnections with each other and with nature.

Narrative Report of Speech Acts as characterization resource in Mansfield Park and its Spanish and German translations

In Jane Austen’s novels conversation provides internal evidence of the nature of characters, both moral and social (Morini, 2009). Among the interplay of speech presentation forms (Bray, 2018; Page, 1972), Narrative Report of Speech Acts (Leech and Short, 2007) is still underresearched (Busse, 2020) as a characterisation resource. Research on speech reports in inquit formulae has focused on illocutionary features (Austin, 1962; Searle and Vanderveken, 1985). However, speech reports also introduce the intersubjective stances adopted by characters and by the narrator, i.e., their receptiveness to disagreeing positions. As engagement resources (Martin and White, 2005), they construct interpersonal styles and offer cues into the narrator’s own stance toward the characters. Such meaning complexes are a challenge for literary translators. For this study, 55 instances of NRSA were sampled from three chapters of Mansfield Park and their correspondences in two Spanish and two German translations. The original text and the translations display remarkable lexical richness, with 36 instances overtly expressing illocutionary force. Characterisation cues appear at the character level of discourse, through the illocutionary features and engagement types attributed to characters (e.g. monoglossic, heteroglossic), and also on the narrator level of discourse, through linguistic co-textual choices weakening the endorsement of the character. All four translations contain shifts affecting the characterisation potential such as changes in a character’s stance, the early disclosure of a character’s attitude, and the insertion of explicit narratorial evaluation of a character. These findings are applicable in stylistics as well as in translation assessment and pedagogy.

“Undiverted Hearts”: Domestic Alienation and Moral Integrity in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park and Henry James’s Washington Square

My aim in this article is to argue that Henry James’s Washington Square (1880) is an unacknowledged reworking of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park (1814). To this purpose, I have analyzed both narratives as fictions of domestic alienation in which the heroines refuse to allow their individuality to be subdued by; (a) patriarchal authority and parental mismanagement; (b) the interferences and meddlings of their manipulative aunts; or (c) the libertine corruption of their deceitful suitors. Although they have been subjected to coercion and manipulation, Fanny Price and Catherine Sloper rebel against the pressures of parental authority and emerge as the true preservers of moral integrity.

The peculiarity of the marriages in “Mansfield Park” by Jane Austen

The article focuses on the novel “Mansfield Park”, which explores the category of «Englishness» through the prism of the concept of marriage. In the novel by Jane Austen marriages are presented through the opposition of Englishness/ Britishness, authenticity/simulation, and are also through the concepts of endogamy and exogamy. In the novel by Jane Austen only one marriage between Edmund Bertram and Fanny Price can be considered as the embodiment of genuine Englishness and, accordingly, endogamy. This becomes possible primarily due to the image of Fanny, whose pastoral essence, connected with the motive of authenticity, turns out to be very important for understanding “Englishness”.

The Promise and Problem of Habit in Austen's Mansfield Park

Jane Austen uses “habit” and its variants four times as often in Mansfield Park as she does in her previous novel, Pride and Prejudice. In what seems, then, to be a deliberate exploration of habit, the novel repeatedly recalls Aristotle's views on habit, which could well have been conveyed to Austen through eighteenth-century divines who saw them as compatible with their Anglican theology. Like Aristotle, Austen emphasizes habit as crucial to an ethic that defines virtue not as self-denial, but as fulfillment within a well-governed polis, or, in her case, within an idealized estate. But as Austen explores the promise of habit in Mansfield Park, she also reveals the problems it can create. Most prominently, Austen's novel reminds us that the conditions for cultivating virtue through habituation can also function to cultivate vice or, what is more insidious, virtue understood as resignation and passivity rather than as active principle.

The Writings of City in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park is the work of Jane Austen, a prominent 18th century female writer. In this novel, Austen depicts the city of London in an indirect way, thus expressing her concern for urban problems in the context of industrialization. Austen portrays two siblings from London, self-serving Crawfords, who neglect morality, and follow the philosophy of money, indirectly reflecting many of the city’s problems. In addition, the urban values gradually penetrate the country represented by Mansfield Park, and the characters in the novel are also affected, such as Maria eloping with Mr. Crawford and thus getting into a scandal, and the Bertram siblings and others staging degrading theatricals at home. And the novel’s heroine, Fanny Price, is the only character in the novel who resists the temptation of urban values. Austen sees her as a representative of the country culture, and her noble behavior represents the resistance of the country culture to the city values. Austen’s writing about the city in Mansfield Park also reflects her intention to try to correct the problems caused by urban development.

Responding to People in Pain with Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park

Abstract Eliminating pain is problematic when it comes to caring for people with disabilities or chronic pain. This paper locates the drive to completely eliminate pain as a project of the Enlightenment and contrasts it with the tradition of interpreting suffering throughout the Christian tradition. I introduce Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park as a way to continue the tradition of interpretative suffering after the Enlightenment. Using textual analysis of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, I demonstrate how the novel’s heroine, Fanny Price, is able to resist the drive to eliminate pain through her contemplative reflection on suffering which allows her to participate in right relationships with others and God. Finally, I offer twenty-first century applications of Mansfield Park by addressing changes we can make in the church and the clinic to understand better the role pain plays in Christian life and community.

The Unwritten History of the Woman of Genius (Austen, Staël, Siddons): What She Says, Goes

Jane Austen, Clifford Siskin once proposed, was for a long time the sole exception to the ‘Great Forgetting’: the only female author from a period when women in fact dominated the literary marketplace whom English-language readers still remembered a century later. The better to recover Austen’s own thinking about the memorability and durability of female achievement, this article puts Austen’s third novel, Mansfield Park (1814) into conversation with the Swiss-French novelist Germaine de Staël’s Corinne, or Italy (1807). It traces Austen’s response to Stael’s influential storyline of female genius, as well as the allusions to the English tragedienne Sarah Siddons that form another link between the two novels. In Staël’s story of a brilliant but doomed improvisatrice, the glamour of the female genius is associated, poignantly, with a vocality that eludes archiving in written marks or signs. Yet the premise that what the woman of genius says, goes, and that her words are fated to vanish into thin air, also becomes within Corinne the foundation for Stael’s investigation of cultural transmission and of the limitations of written forms as archives of transient aural experiences. With its commentaries on performance, memory, and ephemerality, Mansfield Park continues this project of media theory.

Imperialism in the Mansfield Park

The works of Jane Austen mostly focus on the emotional entanglements of characters and it seems that they never get involved in social ideology and political consciousness. Her novel Mansfield Park focuses on the growth of the heroine Fanny Price: from a neglected young girl to be adopted to finally marry the second young master of the estate, Edmund Bertram, and become the spiritual mistress of the Park. However, in fact, this story contains Jane Austen’s strong imperialist ideology. The heroine Fanny’s growth process is also the process of continuous assimilation by the imperial ideology. Antigua provides the economic support for Mansfield Park and helps the people at the manor to establish the superiority of the hierarchy. At the same time, it is with the economic support of Antigua that the two young ladies of the estate are able to marry into wealthy families. This paper focuses on the colonial thoughts of Fanny and the description of locations in the novel.

Yam Grounds and Sugar Time: A Contrapuntal Reading of Mansfield Park

In Mansfield Park, Fanny Price's journey to gentility parallels Sir Thomas Bertram's journey to Antigua. They are, in fact, two sides of the same coin. The plot centers on growth and refining—both in training Fanny to become a marriageable young lady and in addressing sugar production issues on Sir Thomas's Antigua estate. Fanny must undergo a process to become "sweet" (her most common descriptor) just as surely as the plantation sugar cane on which her fortunes depend. This essay offers a contrapuntal reading of Austen's novel, reading Fanny's growth in terms of sugar refining and yam growth in the Caribbean.

Resounding the Sublime: Music in English and German Literature and Aesthetic Theory, 1670–1850

Resounding the Sublime: Music in English and German Literature and Aesthetic Theory, 1670–1850

In Praise of Idling: Johnson, Austen, and Literary Leisure

AbstractThis essay examines the theory of leisure that Samuel Johnson presents in his Idler series and that Jane Austen engages in her novel Mansfield Park. Just as productivity and vigilance are becoming unassailable values, Johnson and Austen publish popular works designed to insert breaks into the culture of ceaseless striving. Their theory of leisure revalues idling as a state of beneficial, albeit transient, mindlessness and develops forms of representation that, instead of cultivating an edifying point of view—of refined knowledge, judgment, or feeling—promotes an occasional letting go. Johnson uses the proliferation and Austen the suspension of points of view to defend the value of reading materials that solicit relaxation and afford cheap pleasures for the many, or at least the many more. Both the Idler and Mansfield Park advocate for the redistribution of leisure in time rather than across classes of persons, thus transforming idling from a characterological deficiency into a periodic respite that is necessary for all and that all are entitled to.

Revising the Eighteenth-Century Novel

Revising the Eighteenth-Century Novel