NARRATIVA

9/2/17
Session 2 - Jane Austen Introduction
#Jane Austen (1775-1815)
Never married, lived with her sister and family the whole time.
Growing a biographical author from scarce biographical materials.
A Jane Austen manuscript specialist, Professor Kathyrn Sutherland reflects on how materials
build a narrative.
She did have a good education not everyone could afford, at home bc she and her sisters got
sick.
Her niece wrote a biography of her bc there was no written texts about Austen. By the
manuscript we know how she worked. We only have the manuscripts she did not finish.
Reviser, Virgina Woolf said Austen was the one that picked small pieces and expanded them.
You learn a lot from a writer by its editions. Writing in small pieces was important for her.
There were lots of women living in the same house, so she did not have a room for her own. We
had a portrait that someone gave it to her niece, not sure it is her. She writes in booklet, in small
pieces of paper - information about how the culture of the book is changing.
Material culture: objects, try to see how objects speak about others, like the manuscripts about
Jane Austen. How narrative moves from objects.

Her novels:
“Sense and Sensibility” (1811, written 1795 as “Eleanor and Marianne”), “Pride and Prejudice”
(1813, written as “First Impressions”), “Mansfield Park” (1814), “Emma” (1815), “Northanger
Abbey” (1818, written 1798-9), “Persuasion” (posthumously published 1818).
Written in late 18th C. She could be a writer even though she was a woman. Wrote one every
single year, one after another. Her texts were published anonymously, but her niece aim was to
recover her name on them.
Women used man’s name bc thought that her novels were not going to be accepted bc they were
women, not have that much of attention, so she did not write her name on them. As a woman
you are not expected to write in a certain manner. How women get every time more confident
about the fact that they can write at the same level as any man.

Main concerns: 1. Class

She is focusing in a group of people in a countryside. Her literature as a corpus, deals with
territorial of the countryside. Not countryside where you see peasants, or labour (not at all).
Conversations void, the world within she is writing in constraint. She is worried about the class
within his period, to what class do I belong in this society? What characterises it? What
possibilities do we have in this capitalism? It is changing this countryside. Focuses on
countryside people, concern about her own gentry. Landed aristocracy: families that had a lot of
property, mostly men (mostly land properties). This countryside with all changed in property,
privatise. You do not produce for yourself but for others (outside countryside), landed families
that every time richer (in Austen).
Signs of a changing economy.
How do these changes affect class mobility?
“Pride and Prejudice”: the aristocracy and the paper money people (rich), people get rich
through other economic activities. Go back to countryside and buy property, the ones that
inherited land and others who come back to buy new one. Class mobility, possibility to become
rich and upper class. Class moves. There are lots of gentlemen. Central concern: what is a
gentleman and how do I become one? Sb who is in this countryside, linked to richness (assumed
you are a gentleman), how they behave? Linked to great expectations of Charles Dickens, in
which the main topic is how to become a gentleman + is nobility possible for uneducated
people?
Point of P&P: how is that you do not lose your money? How do you get rich?
The English gentlemen: there has been a whole process of nationalising gentleman, process to
become Britain.
Lord Jim also talks about what is an English gentleman.

Letter to Anne Austen by Jane Austen on her niece’s novel:

“You are now collecting your People delightfully, getting them exactly into such a spot as is the
delight of my life; - 3 or 4 Families in a Country Village is the very thing to work on” (Friday 9-
Saturday 18 Sept 1814. Chawton)
She defines the scope of her writing of the countryside, how 3 or 4 families form the
problematics within that.

2. Morality: “Sense and Sensibility”

Morality: judgement.
Moral perspective, Eagleton says that her novels are moral: an interrogation on values and their
application in a social context. How moral values shape society?
If you want to judge, what is right and what is wrong, what is the right conduct. Code of
conduct: how we should behave. The title: “sense” = common sense, “sensibility” = rationality,
impulse, emotions, how you feel. Romantic movement that privileges emotions, praising
sensibility as your guide. What do we have to follow? Sense? Sensibility?
Is the question sense AND sensibility? Or sense OR sensibility? This is what Pride and
Prejudice is about.

How Austen reflects on marriage in a letter to Anna Austen: Anna: we are so in love, he has
everything a woman wants in a man, he is a gentleman, has friends, has education… Jane:
replies not to marry him unless she really likes him, not marry without affection. This shows
how complicated that topic was.

3. Gender
Are social conventions defining gender right? Like marriage? Is what society expects for me
right? Are all social conventions moral?
What is the condition of women in society?
How much women decide their own lives? H
Maybe moral and social conventions are not necessarily the same. How much agency do women
have?
Writing is an activity not clear to be linked with woman, Jane did not have a room on her own.
Woolf: reflection what is the role of women, to be in her own within her room, that you need
privacy. Not only material/room privacy but also space, and free your mind.
4. Literary genre: novels and romances
Novels of sensibility and novels of sense: reaching out of Romance and moving to the novel as
a genre.
Again, sense and sensibility? Does she fully discard sensibility?
Does doubt with regards to morality (what is judged as right) have a place in her fiction?
How do her novels contribute to a new conception of the novel? Would the novel starts having
another function beyond entertainment?
Importance in reading and writing in Austen novels. Printing became easier and cheaper.
Impact in what we read and write, as reader you expect to read sth in particular.
What is the status of the novel? (Austen wondered) kind of neglected. Romantic novels
emphasised, sensibility, in your rational own. Popular genre, linked to idea of genre as a
romance. “I am writing novels, I do not care about what you think but I am writing a novel and I
like to do it”. What can novels do for you? For pleasant entertainment but... anything else?
And what kind of novel? She is in terms of genre, criticises sensibility. Linked to morality, bc as
a genre she is asking to the genre of the model, not like you wrote a novel bc do not have
anything else to do.
There’s a lot of irony in Austen. How do the characters consider novels? She rethinks the
concept of the novel.
New impulses to the Novel: Letter to Cassandra by Austen: fact that she is commenting this
new experience of private library (to create a library, buy books and lend them to people).
Women who wants to read literature, do you want to subscribe to it? Books sent to their house
(private), related to gender (women aspect). The Austen’s not ashamed to be novel readers
regardless what people think about it.

5. Narrative style
Austen’s style is sth that has been dealt, that is why she has been popularly read worldwide:
irony.
Critics attention to her because of the irony + free indirect style.
Irony: wonderful technique, she uses it subtle and at the same time strong one. Wayne Booth
wrote The Rhetoric Irony, he talks about stable irony, argues that Austen’s irony are grasp and
how we detect irony as readers. The first thing we do: read it, suspicious (is it that right or is it
me that I see sth different?), how do I read this if it is not an straightforward affirmation? Even
if it looks clear to you, it is built on doubt, on capacity to read it in both ways. On purpose and
stable. Shapes doubt.
Free indirect discourse: new technique cultivation. When you speak in third person, instead of
“I began to...” “She began to…”. Also, indirect because is in 3rd person. Who’s speaking and
through which eyes? A moment in which you start listening to her voice. When there’s an
exclamation “This was dreadful!”. 3rd moment shifts to what she was thinking, we were feeling
it, reproduced in 3rd person. Purpose: get closer to the character, more fluent, feels like there’s
no variation.

14/2/17 chapters 1-18

Austen and te 19th C British context
Is her literature so unconcerned with historical matters?
Two examples raised against this proposition:
 Austen and the British Empire
 The “structure of feelings” (Williams) in the early British society: a space…

Walter Scott and Jane Austen by Terry Eagleton

Main principles of Austen: classical moralist, morality. Compassion, sensitivity and good
manners. Subjectivism and individualism, considered herself as objective person. True
judgement: realism, see things as they are. Realism (objective) opposite romanticism
(subjectivist). Austen: be able to describe things as they are, mundanity, realist. She praises
characters who are able to open themselves to the reality of others.
Main theses Eagleton’s text: morally failing class, gentry. Rural order Jane admired, it was at
risk, finance/commerce/city corrupt this order.
Supporting argument: social mobility was increasing.
Austen: moral conservative, without changing status quo (criticism of Eagleton).
Connection text with novel: keep most values of British version.
Chapter 15: first 5 lines, next paragraph - example of sb who had money inherited, Mr Collins
not a sensible man, deficiency in nature, had little assisted education, most life under guidance
of illiterate father. How sb who does not belong to the class, now is going to wander it.
Praising so much the aristocracy, is it moral? She is not politically involved according to
Eagleton. Morality for Romantics: the marvellous, connection with nature, sth that brought out
of your nature, objective/natural feeling. Morality for Realism: sth that could be growing, like
breeding, Mr Collins was not a gentleman but could end up being.
Contraposition between Gothic (extravagant, shadows in human conduct) and Realism (describe
what is really happening).
“Mr Collins was not a sensible man” = sensible is judgement too, but your feelings as well,
what is your sense about it.
Eagleton: idea she is just confined to morality; she is just a realist. I know morality is about
land, money and social ability but Austen goes beyond that. She talks about morality but not
talking about what happens around, not political (main question). Scott is the contrary to her:
build national history and character, in a political way. Both are the opposite.
Morality according to Austen’s view: Respect, compassion, be able to see what other ppls see.

Morality: how you like sb, for example, how a gentleman should be.he
Praised characters: Bingley, Darcy, Wickham, Jane, Elizabeth
Mr Bingley: ch.4 conversations between Lizzy and Elizabeth after seeing Bingley for the 1st
time, commenting about him. Manners sth you can learn, you cannot learn sensitivity
(sentiment), you can train sense (judgement), good manners, but can’t good humoured.
Nature and (culture) nurture debate: are we the ppl we are bc of nature? How much does nature
condition us? Is morality a matter of nature or nurture? Join good manners with good humour?
Or do we have limitations?
Darcy: at the beginning is despised,
Wickham: ch. 15. 1st impression of him a good one.
Elizabeth: she does not please everybody, she walks to Netherfield, gets there on her own, full
of mud, Bingley’s sisters criticise her bc that is not proper of a lady, she’s wild. She’s too
independent, all these countryside ppl, not well educated. Judging about morality, how things
are up to be and what to think about values. Feels uncomfortable within that society when
taking care about Jane, the sisters pretend to like reading but Elizabeth does like it. She is
praised by her beauty, makes her deserve attention of men. Achieved woman: Jane describes her
when she arrives at the Bingley’s. Morality is about conduct: how you behave.
Issues:
 Description of pride. Anticipate what will happen, Austen wants you to keep it at the
back of your mind for the whole novel. Ch. 5 (end) talk about how Mr Darcy is very
proud. Pride related to Darcy and Elizabeth. Mary takes pride as linked to morality.
Vanity and pride different. There are characters that cherish more vanity than pride.
 Politeness. Morality has a problem with it. How can it be a problem? Relation with
both: if you are not polite, you cannot see what other ppls need, not behaving with
moral standards you are supposed to have. Show respect. Politeness a problem: Mr
Collins looks like has false politeness, he might look like fake, Austen at her most how
she uses irony. Ch. 14 the dinner, he talks about lady Catherine (his patron, rich) he’s
honoured, praising her, she uses lady Catherine’s daughter (Miss de Bourgh), cannot be
presented in society, to show you how much Mr Collins is fake. Pg 59, does not realize
Mr Bennet is laughing at him, vanity, does not get the irony. Allow to protect sb.
Through the irony see polite person can be fake. Code of conduct being polite, bc it is
so strict, no way in which you can judge sb, Darcy impolite. Bc you have this ‘screen’,
in this moral code you are supposed to have inner life (personal life) but not supposed
 to show it: protestant. Not showing how you really feel, this is private. Related to
politeness: you behave in a way, gives you justice, everything is in its place, not
disturbing anybody = screen. Jane concealing her feelings, cannot show that I love him,
not proper, but Elizabeth says she has to bc if not he would not know that she loves
him. Whole discussion how relate feelings with politeness. Concealing one’s feelings
creates misunderstanding between the relationship. Darcy starts liking her but she has
no clue, cannot imagine, hiding in relation to politeness and morality.
Judgement; (MORALITY) about our capacities for judging, we have moral conduct and sort of
a code. This is right/wrong. Easy, related to Eagleton, unstable a moral code is. Elizabeth and
Darcy: she judged him bc he did not want to dance, first impressions she very proud, mean
person, dislike him. Not only her but whole community in a second it was decided has he was
mean. Apart of individual judgement there’s the whole. Conversation Wickham with Elizabeth:
he tells real story of what happened to him with Darcy - he was protégée of Darcy’s father,
promised him a living before he died, Darcy declined that after his father’s death. Wickham
upset with Darcy, he did not respect his father’s will. Conversation Elizabeth and Jane: ch. 17
(pg.75), E says he is really bad but Jane had to accept that bc she always thinks good and E
complains that everybody/not anything is good. Darcy is Mr Bingley’s best friend, disagreement
between 2 sisters, Jane suspends her judgement (I think Bingley is a good man, so I think about
Darcy, opposite to E’s judgement: prejudice, how do you know that if you have
contradictions). E has made her choice, judge properly. Related to 1st sentence of novel: true
universally acknowledge ends up being just a tru within a neighbourhood. How much truth is
there and their judgements that they are making.

(Martina)
14/02/17

- A man’s character:

chapter 4 description good man “what a young man ought to be”. thereby complete:
mixture character, breeding.

- manner is sth you can learn, you can train sense, judgement. you cannot train humour

- nature/nurture: are we the people we are bc of nature?

- “his appearance...”. first impressions, how wrong you can be by first impressions

- Woman’s character:

- how women ought to be.

- Elizabeth: walks to Neatherfields. not proper of a lady, she is wild (ch8). too
independent

- Elizabeth feels uncomfortable in this society. she likes reading, her sisters hate it. they
pretend that read, Elizabeth does read

- discussion about an achieved woman, what an achieved woman might be. (end of ch8)
Miss Bingley pretends to be reading - “oh, certainly” cried his faithful assistant...
dignifies reading

- jane praised for her beauty

- refuses the girls, conduct

- discussion on pride, foreshadowing of upcoming events

- pg15, ch5. Mrs Darcy is very proud “one cannot wonder that so very fine...” classic
comment, bc you have fortune you can be proud

- “pride” observed... pride in relation to 2 people. sth we have to keep in mind.

competing pride competition btw 2 characters. pride

is negative to morality

- “vanity and pride are different” characters in this novel that are cherish vanity

- morality problem with politeness. how can politeness be a problem? relation btw
morality and politeness? politeness shows

respect, way in which we show certain aspects of respect. problem too, is Mr Collins
polite? not in this sense, always “thank you,etc” false politeness. he might act as fake.
how Austen uses irony, irony invites you to think to sth else.

- ch14 dinner. Mr Bennet honour. illness she cannot be presented in society; Austen
uses Lady Catherine in the novel to show how Mr Collins’ politeness is a fake. “makes
the young lady of distinguished...” (praising portrait) “talent of flattering”

- “you judge very properly” “I always wish to give them...” a polite person can be a fake

- bc you have this “screen” you are supposed to have an inner life but you are not
supposed to show it. you are not showing how you really feel, this is private. politeness
has to do with that, you behave in a way that gives you space btw private space and
public. you can conceal your feelings

- “you should show him how do you feel” Elizabeth to jane. discussion of what do you
have to do with your feelings.

- concealing your feelings has to do with misunderstanding of one’s feelings in a

relationship - he silences what he feels. she does not like him bc he hides his feelings

Judgement: capacities for judging

- can we find moments in which judgement is a problem? he has been impolite bc he

has refused to dance with Elizabeth, very beginning. judgement bc physical appearance

- whole neighbourhood who decides?

- real story of what happened to him with Darcy - last chapter17, 2 people judging in
almost opposite ways. divided opinions. Jane/Elizabeth. Jane has a problem in accepting
Elizabeth’s opinion bc she always thinks “good”, can you criticise someone? (says
Elizabeth) Darcy is being Mr Bingley’s best friend. this cannot be possible. divided
opinions bc jane thinks that if he is his friend he cannot be a bad person, PREJUDICE,
pre-judgement. contradicted information, on the one hand one version of the story, you
do not know both versions. jane thinks she has decided properly. jane says “it is difficult
indeed to judge” “I beg you pardon” says Elizabeth.

- First sentence of the novel “it is a truth universally acknowledged...” in the minds of
the surrounding, this truth is finally the truth of just a group of people who live
according to a code.

______________________

State/Moral Law

- Fee (all family inherited the land), fee-simple, fee-tail/entail, strict settlement, Land
property

- fee-simple: everybody wants the capacity to decide what they want to do with the land.
conflict between donor, done

- fee-tail: pg28

- entail: donor loses control upon the land. piece of land, somebody has a piiece of land,
if that person has a fee-simple, then this

donor can give it away to anybody she/he likes. your father could give the land to
anyone else. entail has a condition, the marriage

to whom the entail is given, if they have children and reach 21 years (adult age) this
child can

- mr bennet’s father “I’m going to give you Mrs bennet my property and your wife and
to the male hears that you might have. Mr

bennet is the tenant of this land only by his life and if they have a son, the property will
be his. if they do not have. a son, the

land instead of going to. that son goes to Mrs Collins - Mr bennet cannot sell this land,
the owner does not have control of the land. you have to break the legal entail and then
you go

back to a fee-simple. you must have a son of 21 years old to break the entail

- if they do not have descendence (males) the property goes to the ones determined by
the entailment. women did not possess

anything

- rent:

- buy: connected to
- Darcy pays an annual living pay after marriage. (with Lydia). he does this bc love, bc
he loves Elizabeth and is making a favour to

Elizabeth. Darcy’s benevolence, Darcy’s father wanted to be a little bit part of the
family. it has to do with ethical view or

responsibility. Darcy giving a living to Lydia bc he feels the responsibility of half-

brother. he pretends that has more money than

what he really has. He is not a lander. Duty/Love.

- To what extent are love and duty/sense and sensibility a conflict? for them is more
important to be in a high status rather than love

each other. Mrs bennet worried about status, the fact that she wants her daughters to be
married. all our neighbours are paying to see bennet. worried about if he is interested
with another woman. what is the attitude of bennet’s daughters? they are worried

about “I’m going to like him?”. on the one hand she is part of this society, of going to
balls at the same time when the crucial

moment comes, when she is proposed to be married she says no bc a feeling, Elizabeth
is a complicated character in that aspect.

mrs bennet how is she portrayed? the mother? she is a grotesque character, she is
complaining all the time. moment in which after the

ball, in the dinner at Bingley’s house, after the ball they have the dinner and they are
having a conversation, Elizabeth next to her

mother, Darcy is quite close that he can listen almost everything (ch8) Elizabeth did not
want ot be married with Mr Collins. duty/ love, duty has to do with the fact that you
inherited in the way in which you have some responsibility and feeling is not as
important. on the other hand, ambiguity in this novel bc there is a margin to doubt about
that, at least you see them clash, duty and feeling. marry for duty or love... Elizabeth
does not want to marry him bc this would not allow her feelings come out although this
would be the right thing to do. connections that will last are important.

16/2/17 chapter 19- volume II 1-5

ARTICLE: Sandra Macpherson.

State law vs moral law. Medieval feudal into land property. About how we understand
property.

Fee-> fee –simple -> fee-tail/entail -> strict settlement.

Everybody wants to have the capacity to decide what to do with their land, but the owner
does not have any kind on tendency to choose. Conflict between who gets the power over the
land.

Entail: piece of land who sb has a piece of land, that piece of land if that person has fee-simple,
the donor (Mr. Bennet’s father gives land to MR Bennet and his wife, Mr Bennet is tenant of
that land only for his life time until he has a son, if not it goes to another man, Mr Collins) can
give it to anybody their like puts there in an uncertain position. Entail system, if entail land to
sb, give land to married couple with condition (if that son/daughter has children and they
reach 21, then they acquire it, just the son. Entail is between family. Only decide when they
have a son. Mr Bennet could not sell his land and do not entail to any son, break the legal
entail and go back to fee-simple. Only able to pass the land if you had a son, daughters
dispossessed of everything, widows the ones to get rid of properties.

Novel problematizes feelings. Darcy pays a living to Mr Bennet pretending he gives money to
Lydia after her marriage with Wickham. Wickham Godson of Darcy’s father. Darcy is the one
who pays for Lydia’s living, he does this bc he loves Elisabeth. Wickham is life subjective to
Darcy’s benevolence, sense of duty even if he hates him. Darcy feels this responsibility for
Wickham and Lydia.

Sense and sensibility conflict? To what extent? How personal relations embedded into
economic relations, how it shapes economy, property, land…

Elisabeth part of the society, interested in going to balls and meeting people but rejected
marriage proposal, she is a complicated character. Mrs Bennet complaining all the time, all she
wants is her daughters to get married. After Netherfield’s ball, the dinner, chp. 18. Darcy
complains about Elisabeth’s family, displeased with her mother, desperate and obsessed.
Character more caricaturised: Mrs Bennet. Charlotte Lucas: acting following the code of
conduct, she wants to establish his life bc 27 years old.

Duty is very important, inherit in a way, having responsibilities. Duty and feeling crashes (I
guess bc of Darcy, that he feels the duty of paying a living for Lydia bc of his feelings with E).

Jane goes to her aunts’ supposedly to encounter Bingley but she does not, then Elizabeth visits
the Collins.

Chap. 13: beyond her agency, Mrs Bennet can do nothing about it. Idea of affection, related to
inheritance and property, reactions of daughters and father with this entail and affectionate
reproach, how do they regard: they know there’s nothing they could do, not reproaching Mr
Collins. Language of affection and cruelty (pg. 55). How does Mr Collins present himself to the
family? He writes a letter in order to break the tensions with the family. Guilt and apology, in
relation to land. Bennet and Mr Collins relation of affection, how sorry I feel about it; point of
it: how complicated is ethical code vs system code. How can you apology if you do not have
agency? Mr Collins feels superior bc of her inheritance, have lot to propose to the family, to an
extent he can do sth (revert the entail), no agency but if he married one of the daughters the
family will be happy bc stays in the family. We do not know if, in the future, he will be in the
same situation as Mr Bennet. Marriage can be the only way In which you can get back your
land, but the fact that is so determinant gives you a little agency -> marriage key of this
inheritance system.
Rent vs own. Who rents? Bingley, Netherfield is a renting property. He can make decisions very
quickly bc he rents, agency here is important, if you have business (get money from other
parts) you have more ‘free time’, as Bingley goes to London and does not know when he will
come back. Who owns? Darcy, Pemberley. Also Lady Catherine, represent old families who
inherited land in old way with novel names. Conflict with new rich people vs the old ones. New
rich people, does not own but comes back to the countryside: Mr Collins; also Bingley,
example of social mobility, made money in trade, countryside no peasants anymore. Bingley
rents a nice place in the countryside, he wants to BUY land (it is also purchased, so you are
land owner).

2 ways: inheritance and making a family (family not only given to you but sth you can make).
Representative: price to make a family? Charlotte, marry with Collins to settle her life (she
does not want him, anyway she is happy about marriage).

2 kinds of money, where do you get it and what can you do with it in your situation. You can
find a way to get into countryside and become gentry. Austen shows how within that
neighbourhood and countryside marriage is sth important. Morality is a manner of conduct,
how responsible you feel for people like Darcy for Lydia, sth problematized bc morality manner
of conduct that nurtures from sense (rationality) and code (this is good and this is bad).
Charlotte can decide to marry or not, but for Elisabeth that is not right bc there is no love but
for Mrs Bennet that is a good thing bc he can provide her with establishment.

ºPrototype: MARRIAGE. It is both subjective (me who loves this man and wants to marry him)
but also a contract, economy. Key stone of morality bc has this double side. Sense as conduct
(judgement) and sensibility as affection. If you have a good sense you will choose what is good
for you. What happens when this gets problematic?

People feel things are right or wrong bc they have been raised with that conduct, that you
have to get married to get a good life. It is not that important for moral code for this gentry to
think about social/economic equality. In her time/class believe the moral code was right.
Conditioned by moral code. Discuss but just within those boundaries.

21/02/17 chapters Volume II. 6-14

Elizabeth goes to visit the Collins. Patronage. Daily life within those 6 weeks there, at Lady
Catherine’s: Darcy writes a letter to Elizabeth, he tells the truth about Wickham. Wickham just
wants to marry to become a priest. Later he joints the militia. In the letter there’s sth regarding
Jane and Mr Bingley (Bingley had gone back to London in a rush, saying anything to them,
without justification). William says that his cousin Darcy had to prevent a marriage and then
Elizabeth understood. In Darcy’s letter says he had to create distance between them. Why this
letter to Elizabeth? Bc Collins proposes to her (she says no) and he is in love with Elizabeth.

Article: Thomas Keyner “Narrative”: divided into 3 parts, 3 devices, the most important topics:

- Epistolarity: during Austens period, writing letters was a common fact. That is why
she decided to write a novel containing letters. Influence Richardson “Sir Charles”. She
read that novel, influenced and decided to use 1 st p. sg narrator, 3rd p. narrator and
letters within the novel. Austen fascinated by letters bc they manipulate (3 rd p.
narrator not leaving actions the 2st p narrator was leaving, so this narrator
manipulates, do not take into account reality). There are epistolary voices from writer
 to writer (not all letters are written by same person, depending on the writer and
receiver, the vocabulary and register was different, hard to understand both). Austen
uses letters as transparent windows. Austen influenced by epistolary, decided to
create new way of writing letters using 3 rd p. narrator, but not new way bc some ppl
think it was used before the 17th C.

- Authority: 3rd p. narrator supposed to be authoritarian narrator. There were both

narrators. Ppl thought Austen was the narrator giving her own opinions and others
thought it was a non-personified person. This is not clear. This narrator provides
reader information we need to comprehend the whole story, but we do not know if
that is true or not, whether is just an opinion of that narrator. Some comments it
provides judges the moral way of the characters. Narrator as moralist, according to
Thomas. This narrator is talking about some topics in a comic way but trying to make
us realise that this is not a comic situation, understand this is a problem society had:
that is why Austen used comic within her novel. 3rd p narrator very important in the
novel, way to make us Qs about sth that was left without resolving. Important
narrator, it leaves things to make us question them.

- Free indirect discourse: mixture of 1st p narrator and 3rd p narrator. 3rd p talking
about the 1st p narrator using its own words, through the voice of the 1 st p narrator.
Decision to use this is bc Austen trusts lest to dialogue and more to reflection, this 3 rd p
narrator makes us reflex about the novel. We can find it in speech or within thoughts.
She thought using 3rd p narrator would be easier for her to make comments satirical.
Epistolary fiction very important. Clear innovation, talk about uncertainties about
Elizabeth and her sister.

Narrative style very important. Mixture that makes the novel interesting

SOME KEY CONCEPTS IN NARRATIVE THEORY

STORY and DISCOURSE as in Seymour Chatman). Elements of narrative discourse (mostly in

Gérard Genette, Seymour Chatman, and Mieke Bal):

- Lpt (narrative structure)

- Time
- Space
- Voice
- Perspective

New critics within the US, close reading, analysis of word by word. Strong movement: decoding
of narratology. Provides you concept and tools to analyse the texts. In a novel you have a
story, events that happen + characters with real reference (mimic out of reality). Discourse:
how story is told. In narrative, how events are ordered, narrative time (how it is working).
Voice (what is the source of the works in the narrative discourse, who speaks) and perspective
(which vision which eyes, who sees). Not talking about anything that it is not within your
perspective. No coincidence between voice and perspective, this happens within this novel:
whose eyes do we mostly see? Mostly Elizabeth, you always feel that we don’t see what
Elizabeth does not see. Narrator tells whatever happens within the place Elizabeth is, within
her perspective. Keep perspective of characters. Sometimes we have a 3 rd p narrator who
knows everything, it focalises, speaks through sb’s eyes, like focalisation with Elizabeth.

Who speaks in this novel/narrator? Is it embodied into a character? No, we do not know. It is
out of the story, not a character of it = heterodiegetic. The narrator can sometimes get into
the characters’ thoughts and feelings, we know bc in the whole novel is told by that narrator,
all discourse within the narrator’s frame. Author is a person, narrator is a source we use to get
the discourse. How much does it intervene? It tells the whole action and events, sometimes
there are dialogues between characters. Narrator omniscient(knows everything about the
characters). How Austen uses her narrator is the important thing. Few sentences, then
dialogue. How do we know about what happens? Through the characters, how they feel and
what they say. How do we know Bingley comes into town? Through dialogue, bc Mrs Bennet
heard about that. A lot of the plot is exposed like that, talking “You know I heard about thi/ sb
told me that…”. Other devices to tell the story: letters (one person tells another one what has
happened), dialogues (conversations). They do not come from the narrator, but it uses another
resources to tell the story. When it is through letters/conversations is what you have and is
what you trust, you get into the characters and how they read the world, more immediate. At
same level of the story? No, bc you also have a 3 rd p narrator. You are at the level of the
characters most of the time. Whose perspective do we take as a reader? Elizabeth, through the
indirect style, through her eyes. Darcy’s anger did not last long, he liked her eyes… Narrator
cannot get into anyone’s thoughts but putting yourself into a character you can, through it in
the novel the narrator leaves you to think with Elizabeth, so close to her bc of this free indirect
discourse, you are misled as well, you trust her, she not happy with moral code, has her own
opinions, so we follow her. Jane character you trust. We do not see any Darcy’s thoughts. You
do not have authority, do not know the position of the novel about anything.

We do not know how Elizabeth looks like, we know she has beautiful eyes bc of Darcy.

23/02/17

When Elizabeth visits the Collins, is like them having pride of what they have, showing it. She
receives the big news within the letter she received: her sister went away with Wickham;
expect they are going to be marry. Complicated situation. Funny letter by Mr Collins: telling her
she is in disgrace bc she did not marry him, ‘look what you have lost’.

Article Felicia Bonaparte ‘Conjecturing possibilities: Reading and Misreading Texts in Jane
Austen’s Pride and Prejudice”.

Austen not only teaching Elizabeth but the audience, how to read reality correctly by means of
our sense experience. Characters must rely on their observation if they want to learn what is
word doing. Knowledge and truth must be acquired personally, cannot be achieved through
reason bc it only helps us afterwards like correct false impressions. Elizabeth is the only
character who eventually learns to read the world/reality in a correct manner through her
observation, learns to read it correctly. Those characters who rely on reason to get knowledge
-> achieve prejudice. Elizabeth observes Darcy at the ball, has prejudices by just looking at him,
however she is totally mistaken about Darcy. According to Austen, we can never be sure about
reality or our conclusions that we are getting. Important to rely on our personal thoughts, not
others. Austen rejects to observe reality and rely on universal truth but on our personal ones,
you must use your perception. Guess, presume, observe,… (words that appear in the book)
EMPIRICISM AND CONJECTURE

How do we have access to knowledge in this novel? (Main Q in philosophy) Through

interaction (other people know things), interpretation of behaviour, gossiping.

- Facts, truths, meaning: things you had to live (facts, access to them through other
people, through narrator who provides them). Is knowledge and truth the same? 1 st
sentence very assertive, 2nd sentence ‘HOWEVER’. This novel deals with this universal
truth. Read 1st sentence as ironic bc next sentence is understating. There are kind of
truths that are not easy to gather. Relation between knowledge and meaning? If you
want to know sth you need to get the meaning to interpret. Meaning is sth not
equivalent to fact/truth. Facts are the same but readings are different. You may be
able to understand the facts, difficult. Relation with epistemology (=the way in which
you read the facts, how we learn/know what exists, philosophical), feels like novel
does not Q the facts. We do not know if that facts are true or just inventions. The
ontology (=what exists) about facts is not questioned, how you read them and get to
know them. How much time does it take you to do it, time to get a clear idea of sth,
you need to experience.
- Empiricism vs rationalism (explained above)
- Ontology vs epistemology (explained above)
- Moral codes and social truths (community, structure of feelings): how much true are
moral codes? Civility we know is right bc moral codes say so. How much universal
truths are these truths? Austen not worried about what happens within other classes.
Here is just her world, her countryside gentry, you do not have any opposition to
contrast with. There is a questioning about these moral codes. Problematized. Truth
university acknowledge(1st sentence), lot people reading same things, living within
same world, we have knowledge, we share feelings -> problematized, Conrad very
concern about that.

Formal mechanisms to observe truth: knowledge through characters and the narrator’s
narration of truths and conviction. The 1 st sentence: the voice -> narrator’s, impersonal/3 rd
personal narrator. How does this narrator help/how does it help about him saying it and not
Elizabeth? You would not confuse as a personal view, sth more stated from above, gives
power/authority of Godlike here, sb attached from that and external, not character. Not only
that, gives perspective of community, 2nd sentence -> understating the 1st sentence, irony
narrator, as authority, clear position at the beginning of the novel. Taking ironic perspective
about it, if you did not have this figure, you won’t have opportunity to have this ironic situation
he wants us to observe, critical view (formal mechanism to observe the truth). You are left to
the characters. Have access to this truth through narrator’s irony, authority figure in that
convention.

Reason not the only way to have access to knowledge. Two ways of thinking how to get
knowledge. Sense = logical way, proper way in which through reason understand what is right
and what is wrong. Empiricism in terms of feelings, a lot of presence in the novel. She turns the
debate into philosophical understanding, Austen never thought to be philosophical. Kant ->
critical reason/judgement which deals with morality. Reason as a source of knowledge? We
want to know things bc we want to experience them. Elizabeth feels intimate, has
conversation and we feel she understand, this intimacy makes her understand Darcy’s version.
Conjecture: way to approach novels. You make suppositions, you need to do it bc you do not
have access to real knowledge. People think and experience things differently.

How important is personal experience in the novel? The whole novel deals with how you feel.
We have a constructed moral code which is being repeated. Personal experience and moral
code agree? Sometimes not -> when Wickham perfectly performs moral codes, by deduction
through reason he is the perfect gentleman. Does novel at the end show Wickham as perfect
gentleman? No, he’s not. How do/es we/Elizabeth detect that? Though a letter, a conversation
with William and Darcy. Those truths that enable you to know. Go through own experience to
see how questionable they are. How much Elizabeth’s life relates to the moral codes? We can
try to think her life and choices finally agrees with moral codes or not. Novel has been
criticising that but at the end? How much novel criticises that? You have to have a certain kind
of truths.

- Personal experience as contrasted with moral virtues and codes.

- Your experience and other people’s experiences.
- The problem of personal experience in relation to error. How reliable sources are?
Way which we get to facts, how do we have access to them? Gossip has fascinated a
lot of writers, to know what really happened. Complicate situations. In the 1 st chapter,
end 1st paragraph “Mr Bennet have you heard about Netherfields…?”. Hilarious
passage chapter 3, 4th paragraph “an invitation to dinner …” -> Rumour that Mr Bingley
was going to bring so many ladies and men but ends up just being 5: maybe all that
you heard might be wrong. Error may come from gossip.
-

How do we get to know Elizabeth’s feelings? She explains to Jane, but when she is not there ->
through free indirect style, style in which we start to know her feelings. Difference between
voice (who’s words are these, who speaks) and perspective (3rd person voice). Not narrator
that reports what she feels but sth that is directly reported, narrator not saying ‘she thought
that…’ -> ends up being free, lose sense of many issues. Difference between free indirect style
and narrator saying ‘she thought that…’ : you perceive that, there’s barely distance, enables
you to create immediacy, experience is shown to you not told. If narrator tells you: have
mediation. Get within Elizabeth, sb behind her looking through her. Use indirect style to
narrator get close to character but also to create distance: when Mrs Bennet realises Lydia is
going to get married (her own perspective), getting closer to her.

You have a predetermined moral code. All judgements they do (according to moral codes),
they made conjecture from moral codes and from other people sayings. Opposing,
contradictions: so difficult to judge. Your truths to what you experience (different experiences
according to characters. Trying to reach knowledge, for instance, how Darcy is, to know it you
need to contrast and use all these sources of information, so help in epistemology. Experience
= core of this. Jane mostly thinks according to codes and not feelings (thinks most about others
rather than herself). Prejudice: make judgement beforehand, you may have facts but you need
to make decisions and to that you need to interpret the facts to be able to make the right
decisions. For us who do not know the future, we have to rely on our own experience.
Narration depends so much on characters, on who is who, is a narration in the present time.
Same in the letters, all happens in present time. As in a diary, all entries are in present time.
You can build the novel through conjectures. A second reading of a novel will be different to
the second reading of it. Find a form that says what you want to say.
28/02/17

Session 7. Last about Jane Austen. Chapters III-XIX, Volume III.

Article: Nancy Armstrong “The Rise of Feminine Authority in the Novel”:

Her thesis is, on the one hand, moment late 18 th C in which women start becoming writers and
their works being published, actually signing as a lady. On the other hand, she signs as a lady,
the fact is a woman not a problem in the period bc there were more women writers, felt she
could be recognized. Period: feeling you can bee woman + writer, take it seriously, also the rise
of the novel. Novels: literary genre which has a social function, as Austen said ‘The Austen’s
are not afraid to be novel readers’. They could not have power within politics or economy.
There is an active discrimination, development and growth in England of this discrimination of
women. How do these things fit? Main argument: development genre ideology through which
women considered not inferior but their space of authority is confined to the home, on the
one hand (authority and powerful at home, more authority than men in aspects related to
emotions and morality), on the other hand, men have power in politics and economy. Not
competitive power but complementary power division.by stealing this authority to women ->
gain quality but cannot trespass the politics, diminish social conflict/functioning. Kind of
authority a male/female would have is not part of an ideology but natural. Natural division
creates essentialism, assumed to be natural. Nancy Armstrong says, way in which a structure
of feelings is being created through a lot of discourse, novel being one of them (practices
through which you can implement a gender ideology). By emphasizing a space in a domestic
atmosphere contributing to an ideological power.

We need to recognize the historical ideologies, in a way not to follow and fall into the same
trap. Because they are given this authority (women), also in the novel, through which you will
teach this domesticity, as a woman you will renounce to any political power. Feminine: just to
distinct the gender, applied to women. Historical discourse: do not be so enthusiastic about it
bc you will fall in the same trap.

WHAT IS THE PRESENTATION OF DOMESTICITY?

In terms of the domestic space: relates many issues that are happening at home, sth that will
also appear in Wuthering Heights (but differently). How does people feel at home? We see
most of women are at home, main characters are women, 5 sisters. Gender element is very
clear, mostly they are at home. Sisters. Family. Home. How do they feel at home? A place in
which they do feel comfortable, however in Wuthering Heights is like a prison. In Pride and
Prejudice, family is related to home, private space, association women – home also between
women – private space. At home you are making a separation between private/public space.
Emphasized in the novel, in how action takes place, how people interact: space in which
Elizabeth says to Jane ‘I am your confident, I am going to tell you all my confidences’, space in
which conversations/confessions happen within this private space. Emphasized bc the whole
plot of the novel is related to private conversations (letters…). Intimacy: sisters talking to each
other, what happens outside filtered through the private conversations between characters.
Even the most public spaces are drawn into the private space, from which you get everything.
Space of the narrative is the space in which the narration takes place. Home is the narrative
space. Almost as if you could go into that space and into the conversations, private narration.

How public is the private and the other way around? Balls, take place at home but open to
public space. Letters, are more private but depending on how the receiver reads it (alone or
with someone) it could become public or stay private. Gender transcends, writers stripped of
control. Letters circulating, creating a public space/knowledge but supposedly is private, but
become public somehow. Mixture private and public.

Gender relevant to the families that we have? Access to Mr Bennet or other members of the
family? Not much, he is not really into the conversations, also not interested, he is like an
external observer, not participating into the interpretations of characters (if we able to
interpret them, judge and discuss morality, able to make decisions that have to do with men,
like marriage, is very important-> discuss in terms of feelings/emotions/experience, able to
give meaning to what happens, able to decide). Gender and family not related in the novel, but
father of Bennet’s has not many decisions, how to read people. Not participates into
discussions -> gendered, left to women. He is not free indirect style, not access to passages to
his own feelings. How much access do we have to Darcy’s feelings (not spoken, private)? No,
we don’t. Also a gender discrimination within the novel, access to women’s feelings but not to
male’s. We do have access to Darcy’s feelings through letters, Elizabeth’s interpretations, final
conversation in which he says he has feelings for her. Through private sources. While
unspoken feelings are private, read from within sources.

Power within the family: the Bennets, how is power distributed? It does not work the same
within all families. How much power has Elizabeth to decide? She does have, she rejects Mr
Collins saying she does not like him. She has support of her father to help her to make a final
decision as an approval of his decision. Strong male figure: Darcy. In what sense is Darcy
stronger? Has money and property. He takes care of Elizabeth’s sister. Mr Bennet does not
much for Lydia, is fine that she can marry Mr Wickham. Irony/criticism that Mr Bennet is
always being told that he does nothing for his daughters. Not all characters have the same kind
of power.

Does the novel suggest there is an area of authority that is masculine and another that is
feminine? Armstrong argues that the gender ideology defines area of masculine authority and
another that is feminine. Eagleton “Austen is still a domestic author”. You can read the novel in
Armstrong’s terms, morality and values, space in which they are confident, seems to be space
of feminine authority. Land: essential element of economy in this society that she is
portraying, gender ideology relating women to home… Nobody would think land related to
women, but in the novel is sth the Bennets have problems with. Marriage so problematic bc of
that, gives stability to family but is more than that, it is still a matter of
money/settlement/social status. Narrative is about economy and settlement. Mr Bennet is the
one that takes the final step after Mrs Bennet asks and begs him for him to do certain things.

How do you read the ending? Everything goes fine, happy ending. In terms of gender
relations? Aspirations to marriage: no women is willing to be single, marriage is very much
discussed, but this is how you see novels are written in historical context. Written by a woman,
Jane Austen, who never married -> no questioning that marriage is the proper path of society.
In the novel, most of the characters want to marry for convention, but not Elizabeth. From the
1st sentence feel that marriage is for convention (like Charlotte Lucas). Is that there’s always a
‘but’ after anything: knowledge, yes but careful, you could be mistaken.
How the novel discusses the novel as a genre and its relation to gender? The text itself dicusses
novel, how are they portrayed within the text and who reads them? In a private space, sth you
do to pass time, conduct manners (handbooks), women who do not read novels are criticized.
Elizabeth and Darcy are characters who read, and who support reading, and who think reading
is part of your education. Novels written as means of education is present in this novel. It was
the most powerful instrument when educating women. By reading these novels you become
convinced that the domestic sphere is their place, Armstrong relates how powerful a cultural
artefact can be to convey a very strong gender ideology.