The Aesthetic Space Extended By Tension--The Analysis Of Austin's Irony Art

Irony is a notable characteristic of Jane Austen's novels, and it is the pivotal factor contributing to Jane Austen's long lasting and ever increasing reputation. Irony penetrates all strata of Austen's novels, the narrative language, characters, scenes, motifs and structural design. Irony is not just a primary artistic maneuver of Austen's novels, but also a framework in which Austen apperceives the world. This article analyzes the irony of Austen's fictions in two paradigms: rhetoric and ideological, and discusses thoroughly its representation in the stratum of ideology, that is, the deep-seated attitude that imitate the masculine language ostensibly and revolt the patriarchy actually. And the tension between masculine language and feminism stand forms a deeper irony in Austen's novels. This article emphasizes this deeper irony, combining the representation of irony in strata of narrative language, characters, scenes, motifs, etc, to probe into Austen's irony art more roundly and more thoroughly.This article includes three chapters. The first chapter analyses two important concepts: "irony" and "tension", and points out in what sense this article uses this two terms. The second chapter discuss the "rhetorical irony" as a rhetorical means, that is, the representation of Austin's irony in the stratum of rhetoric. This chapter analyzes mainly the application of irony to character description and scene description, and discusses the "tolerant understanding" attitude of Austin. The third chapter is the center of the whole article; it discusses deeply "the rhetoric irony between feminismstand and masculine language". At first, this chapter analyzes that how Austin imitate ostensibly masculine language and obey the patriarchy view of value, then analyzes her virtual revolt, that is, her bright feminism stand which is concealed by masculine language. This chapter analyzes the feminism stand in three aspects: her criticism to patriarchy, the description of sensibility, and the narrative strategy destructing patriarchy. In the end, this article concludes that Austin's irony fills in the whole novel, from language to deep attitude. The irony constructs a tension structure that expands the image scope of reading and extends the aesthetic space of the novel.