Jane Austen and Critical Theory

Name: Jane Austen and Critical Theory
Brand: Taylor & Francis

Taylor & Francis

Jane Austen and Critical Theory is a collection of new essays that addresses the absence of critical theory in Austen studies\u2014an absence that has limited the reach of Austen criticism. The collection brings together innovative scholars who ask new and challenging questions about the efficacy of Austen\u2019s work. This volume confronts mythical understandings of Austen as \""Dear Aunt Jane,\"" the early twentieth-century legacy of Austen as a cultural salve, and the persistent habit of reading her works for advice or instruction. The authors pursue a diversity of methods, encourage us to build new kinds of relationships to Austen and her writings, and demonstrate how these relationships might generate new ideas and possibilities\u2014ideas and possibilities that promise to expand the ways in which we deploy Austen. The book specifically reminds us of the vital importance of Austen and her fiction for central concerns of the humanities, including the place of the individual within .