Jane Austen In History

Jane Austen is a female writer in English literature legendizd by the mystery of her long-lasting popularity. Though an unknown writer when she was alive, Jane Austen achieved tremendous success during the last two centuries. She is on a par with the great Shakespeare and her novels get into the classic of the English literature. Many a critic shows great interest in the mystery and tries to explain it in different perspectives. Jane Austen's works feature the humorous language and special structure. However, Jane Austen has usually been criticized to lack deepness due to the limited scope in her novels which are full of the people from the middle class without any reference to the great changes in society and the war against the French. Because of this, Jane Austen does not receive what she deserves and her works are not fully explored.What delights us is the introduction of the interdisciplinary analysis into the study of Jane Austen with the development of the literary criticism. In the cultural analysis of Jane Austen under the background of different disciplines, a fuller Jane Austen is given to readers, which opens a wide scope for the further research of Jane Austen in different disciplines.The thesis adopts Emma, the most accomplished work, as the target and analyzes the historicity of the text and the function of Emma to the history by the use of the theory of New Historicism concerning the interdependency between literary text and history. The analysis first produces a conclusion that Emma is the art of negotiation between historical context and the writer. And then gives a further conclusion that Jane Austen not only complies with the history, but cries out her own voice and participates in the construction of history.