Some Focal Issues In The Study Of Jane Austen

For 200 years,men’s flavor of literature has undergone enormous changes,but Jane Austen,as a novelist,enjoys enduring prestige.Nowadays,she is not only praised as ’’Shakespeare in prose’’,but also called ’’the founder of the great tradition in English novels’’.Besides,Jane Austen has a large number of Janeites around the world and is loved by more and more readers.Austen’s novels has evidently been experiencing a canonization.It is through critics’ interpretations and research from generation to generation that she has become an universally acknowledged classical writer from a virtually nameless writer in life.Therefore,to thoroughly study Austen’s novels,we must tease out and review the 200-year remarks on Austen.It is undoubtedly a meaningful academic research and thus it is also the original motive and the objective of this thesis.The objective of this thesis is intended to analyze some focus questions in Austen’s research through teasing out and inspecting the Eastern and Western Austen’s criticism.In other words,guided by ’’the sense of academic history’’,’’the question consciousness’’ and ’’the comparative consciousness’’,this thesis will tease out and comment on some focus questions in the researching history,such as ’’Austen and social,moral and mental problems’’,’’marital problems and money issues in Austen’s novels’’,’’women’s issues in Austen’s novels’’ and ’’Austen and arts issues in novels’’ so as to summarize gain and loss in Austen’s research and contribute to promote Austen`s research in China.On the surface,Austen seems to exclusively write ordinary trifles in everyday life in her novels where she not only neglects the surging Napoleonic Wars at that time,but also avoids the great issues in British society.Then we cannot help wondering what is the relationship among British society of the time,morality and thought.Many scholars’ research indicates that Austen is different from Balzac,Dickens and Tolstoy who depict the spectacular life pictures,but in her novel,the profound social content has been included,and especially British town life has been presented mainly.Austen is also a conscious moralist who sneers at those selfish,cold,snobbish,mercenary and pretentious phenomenon(characters)in her novels.The thesis also summarizes Chinese and foreign scholars’ discussion on Austen and ’’the Battle of Ideas’’,emphasizes the ideology criticism cannot replace the aesthetic evaluation,even cannot neglect the complexity of thoughts in her novel,and simply treat Austen as a ’’reactionary’’ writer.Marriage problems in Austen’s novel have always been one of the focuses of Chinese and foreign academic field.As the research moves along,the critics have uncovered more and more about sociology,history,ethics and psychology behind these love and marriage stories.To start with the comments on Pride and Prejudice,the thesis describes Chinese and foreign scholars’ various opinions of marriage,money and family status in Austen’s novel.Meanwhile taking Mansfield Park as a case study,we have introduced the critics’ discussion on the theme of ’’Cinderella’’.Obviously,as a female writer,Austen not only reflects the real state of women’s marriage at that time,but also relentlessly satirizes taking money and family status as preys of marriage.In her novels,there is no doubt that marriage leads to the promotion of women’s social status and economic status,but virtue and responsibility are those ’’Cinderella’s’’ glass slipper.How does Austen regard women’s issues of the time? The research of Chinese and foreign academic field indicates that Austen is far from a radical feminist,and even to a certain extent,she caters to mainstream culture in the patriarchy society,but she really reflects women’s humiliating status in the society at that time,and even shows the rebellion against traditional views in several problems in her novels.On the other hand,to take Emma as a case study,the thesis discusses the Chinese and foreign critics’ discussions on female development.In other words,the heroines only experience the painful process of growing-up so that they can correct their mistakes made by childish and biases,set up the right life attitudes and code of conduct,and come into happiness future.Since Walter Scott,the various critics,making a high evaluation on the achievement of Austen’s novels,treat her works as the perfect classics in modern British fiction.Although these opinions differ from each other,they can be summarized into the following: some highly praise Austen’s achievement of realism in her novel;some fully recognize her characterization;some highlight her novels are ’’the comedy of manners’’ and their dramatic features;some focus on Austen’s excellent ironical art;and others discuss her superb narrative art by borrowing modern narratology.The thesis centers on ’’Austen and arts of fiction’’,and chooses to describe Chinese and foreign critics’ main views on these issues in order to provide guidance for better understanding Austen’s arts of fiction.