Review: To find great female novelists, stop looking in Jane Austen’s shadow
Some of these early novelists wrote for themselves or private audiences, but a surprisingly large number turned out to have published their work to a wider readership, only to have it forgotten. The task of recovering them is telegraphed in the title of Dale Spender’s “” . Austen’s genius remained a given, but the reality that many “good” predecessors had been sidelined by sexism was laid bare. Nevertheless, no other early works of fiction by women have yet been bumped up from “good” to “great.
Shouldn’t we have discovered more Austens and Brontës — or even another writer as singular as Mary Shelley — among these pioneering hundreds by now? A cynic might answer that we haven’t because there aren’t any others. To this way of thinking, three female geniuses survived because a meritocracy of authorship worked out perfectly.A more optimistically patient person might answer that, even after all these years of feminist archaeology, we still haven’t looked hard enough.
It’s the same way of reading that often leads today’s audiences of Austen-inspired film and television adaptations to experience deep frustration. The widespreadis a case in point, with many complaining that the film got the heroine wrong, instead of watching it on its own revised comic terms. The film disappointed Austen-aware viewers because it was deemed a bad copy — a mode of interpretation by no means limited to screen adaptations.
In fact, this turns out to be a very old problem. The dangers of copying Austen, and reading with Austen in mind, date back to the first years after she died in 1817. It’s a little-known fact, even among experts, that many other novelists began to imitate her almost immediately. One reviewer complained in 1828, in an essay in the Atlas titled “Novels: Plagiarisms From Miss Austen,” that fiction of the day was rife with unacknowledged pilfering from her “admirable mine for prudent plagiarism.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Alpina B4 Gran Coupe (2022) review: the well-mannered M3 alternativeCAR Magazine UK's review of the Alpina B4 Gran Coupe, a slightly softer BMW M3 alternative
Read more »
Review: Christmas movies galore decorate streaming servicesJustin Hartley, Lindsay Lohan and Freddie Prinze Jr. headline Netflix holiday lineup; Peter Billingsley returns as Ralphie in 'A Christmas Story Christmas' on HBO Max
Read more »
True Review! The Hooked Protocol Project | HackerNoonPositioning from shit and sticks. Hooked Protocol is going to introduce people to Web 3.0. - crypto launchpad
Read more »
Review: The 2023 Kia Niro Hybrid is rationality on wheelsThe 2023 Kia Niro Hybrid delivers up to 53 mpg in a package that's roomy, practical and provides a quiet and comfortable ride for its price and size class.
Read more »
Review: ‘Frozen’ is a big show, even by Disney standardsSay this for “Frozen” — it doesn’t take long to discover that this show is an event for the fired-up, costumed kids with their cushioned booster chairs, ready for some snowy, Disney magic. Th…
Read more »