250 years ago was born one of the most influential figure of the British literature panorama: Jane Austen. She is known worldwide for her novels which reproduce with fine irony the social life and customs of the English landed nobility of her time. Many of her works have inspired cinema directors to play them on the big screen, such as Joe Wright, the director of the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen played a remarkable role also in the fight for women’s emancipation, both because of her novels and her life itself.
Life and works
Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, in 1775. She spent her short and uneventful life within the circle of her very close, affectionate family. She was educated at home by her father ,who was the rector of the church, and immediately showed interest in literature and writing. Her earliest works were: Elionor and Marianne, First impressions , Northanger Abbey, which become the basis of her latter projects. Among them: Sense and Sensibility (1811) , Pride and Prejudice (1813) , Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1816), Persuasion (1818). She probably died of Addison’s Disease, a rare long-term endocrine that causes adrenal insufficiency, in 1817 and was buried in Winchester Cathedral.
Her literary contribution to British literature
Jane Austen’s literary contribution to British literature was both fundamental and enduring. Firstly she helped to shift English fiction away form Gothic and sentimental style toward a more realistic narrative. Her novels focused on the everyday life of gentry and middle class, social and family relationship, the nuanced psychological portrayal of characters and emotions. Hereby reasons she is regarded as the master of the novel of manner. A distinctive feature of her style is her subtle irony used to criticise the social convention of her time as well as the limited role available to women. She also adopted an innovative form of indirect discourse, where the reader could observe the inner processes of characters’ minds while still maintaining a narrative distance; this technique had a major impact on later writers, among which Virginia Woolf and Henry James.
A strong feminist writer
Jane Austen lived an unconventional life for the standard of that time. In a masculine world where women were subordinated to men, she chose to not get married and consequently to not depend, neither economically nor socially, on a man. Her concern to women’s condition is a characterised hallmark of her novels. She created some of the most memorable female protagonists in literature, such as Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice) and Emma Woodhouse (Emma), intelligent and independent women with a critical spirit. In general, all her novels enhance the feminine intellect and criticise all those limits imposed to women by a patriarchal society. Although women’s emancipation doesn’t appear explicitly in her stories, Austen deeply influenced the feminist thought, showing that women deserve respect, education and freedom, enough to inspire a group of early 20th century feminists that in her footsteps created a political movement to obtain the universal suffrage.
How is England celebrating Jane Austen
Many events in her honour are been organised in England. The Jane Austen’s House has inaugurated a permanent exhibition, Jane Austen and the Art of Writing, that explores the writer’s creative path. For the first time ever, the house at number 8 of College Street Winchester College, where she spent her last weeks, will be open to the public. The city of Bath – where she lived from t 1801 to 1806- has organised an exhibition within the Jane Austen Centre where it is possible to live like a contemporaneous of the writer. In September there will be a festival on the street of Bath, while from May to December there will be three themed party based mostly on her stories. Exhibition will take place in Southampton too. The one entitled In training for a Heroine exposes her travel desk, a present for her 19th birthday from her father, used to write the first draft of Pride and Prejudice. In A Very Respectable Company, settled in Southampton as well, there will be shown rare paintings, personal items such as letters, books and the precious Austen Family Household Book with recipe and drawings from Jane’s grandmother.
By Bettina Avolio
5^ D Liceo Scientifico