TY - JOUR
T1 - Austen’s late-nineteenth-century afterlives
T2 - 1890s introductions to her novels
AU - Bautz, Annika
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2018/10/2
Y1 - 2018/10/2
N2 - This essay focuses on introductions to editions of Austen’s texts published in the 1890s. By the late nineteenth century, Austen’s popularity and status as an author of canonical texts was beyond doubt. While illustrations to the various competing editions have received critical attention in recent decades, the other main paratext, introductions, have largely gone unacknowledged, yet deserve attention both because of their cultural significance and in their own right as critical engagements with the novels. The introduction writers were men of some standing whose contributions added weight to Austen’s texts. Their emphases on realism and humour in particular, as well as the predominant view of the author as a female genius whose art - especially her satire - had a masculine quality, but without ever seeing her as overstepping female boundaries, would have influenced many thousands of readers’ engagement with Austen’s texts.
AB - This essay focuses on introductions to editions of Austen’s texts published in the 1890s. By the late nineteenth century, Austen’s popularity and status as an author of canonical texts was beyond doubt. While illustrations to the various competing editions have received critical attention in recent decades, the other main paratext, introductions, have largely gone unacknowledged, yet deserve attention both because of their cultural significance and in their own right as critical engagements with the novels. The introduction writers were men of some standing whose contributions added weight to Austen’s texts. Their emphases on realism and humour in particular, as well as the predominant view of the author as a female genius whose art - especially her satire - had a masculine quality, but without ever seeing her as overstepping female boundaries, would have influenced many thousands of readers’ engagement with Austen’s texts.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85060630109&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09699082.2018.1510080
DO - 10.1080/09699082.2018.1510080
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85060630109
SN - 0969-9082
VL - 25
SP - 468
EP - 485
JO - Women's Writing
JF - Women's Writing
IS - 4
ER -