While we want our project to be accessible to a general audience of new readers, we also want to produce original scholarship that utilizes primary sources in order to contribute to the scholarly conversation on Jane Austen. One way of accomplishing these tasks simultaneously is to call new readers’ attention to the ambiguities present in Northanger Abbey. Specifically, considering Austen’s ambiguous thoughts on gender and politics might work as a good way for us to complicate readers’ understanding of Austen and the novel while using primary sources to give historical and cultural context. In order to do this work, we might want to ask ourselves these questions:
Is Austen a feminist?
Is Northanger Abbey a critique of courtship culture?
Is Austen pro or anti empire? Pro or anti government?
In order to think about these questions, we need to provide readers with the sociopolitical context in which Austen wrote Northanger Abbey. Ideally, primary sources will help us uncover the world Austen wrote in and lead us to think about how she grappled with the political issues of that world.
For example, our understanding of Austen’s “feminism” will rely on a careful consideration of her response to the lives and treatment of women during her own time. Courtship and etiquette manuals, such as the 1811 The Female Instructor, will allow us to determine the gender roles of Austen’s world. We can then bring the information we learn from these sources to bear on Northanger Abbey, creating an argument that considers the ways the novel contributes to or goes against (or both) the cultural attitudes towards women, marriage, and family of Regency England.
Similarly, in order to think about Austen’s stance on the British Empire, we need to first give our audience an understanding of the empire’s operations during Austen’s time. By looking at ship records, the trade of goods, and maps, we may be able to develop a detailed account of the imperial world Austen wrote in. After doing this research, we can think about the various ways Northanger Abbey ambiguously and indirectly responds to the British Empire. For example, Austen’s treatment of commodification in Northanger Abbey may say something about upper class life/fashion and its dependence on imperial imports.
Thinking through the question about Austen and government requires the same research process. We can look at primary resources, such as laws and seditious pamphlets, in order to understand the ways the English government reacted to the rise of British radicalism in the 1790s. After establishing this context, we can look at Austen’s response to government actions.
The Female Instructor; Or, Young Woman’s Companion: Being a Guide to All the Accomplishments Which Adorn the Female Character. Nuttall, Fisher, and Dixon, [1811?]. Nineteenth Century Collections Online, tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/4u7Qn0. Accessed 1 June 2017.