Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Arts and Humanities Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Emerging Media In 18th Century Literature: How Jane Austen Invented Facebook, Rebecca Shaver Dec 2012

Emerging Media In 18th Century Literature: How Jane Austen Invented Facebook, Rebecca Shaver

Honors Theses

The focus on the downfalls and misunderstandings of the Austen anthology has allowed critics to ignore her incredible ability to scientifically dissect the intricate workings of social circles and networks comprised of psychologically accurate characters and interactions. For instance, her portrayals of gender roles (heterosocial/sexual and homosocial/sexual) within those circles were so apt that they often still true today. The transcendental human nature of individuals like Emma's Emma Woodhouse and Mansfield Park's Fanny Price causes us to question how Austen amplifies and enlightens our understanding of how modern social networks, like Facebook or Twitter, stem directly from historically complex affective …


Performing Literacy: How Women Read The World In The Late Eighteenth-Century British Novel, Amy Hodges Aug 2012

Performing Literacy: How Women Read The World In The Late Eighteenth-Century British Novel, Amy Hodges

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the intersection of sensibility, Social identity, and literacy practices among representations of women readers in four late eighteenth-century British novels. Through an analysis of the authors' use of identity constructs which shaped and were shaped by reading practices, this study documents the rise of Social identity formation as mutually constitutive with the history of reading. The first chapter reveals how Charlotte Lennox's The Female Quixote uses Arabella's follies as education for readers about the corresponding processes of reading their society and reading novels. The second chapter argues that Frances Burney's Evelina considers women's ability to read others …


The Bitter Relicks Of My Flame: The Embodiment Of Venereal Disease And Prostitution In The Novels Of Jane Austen, Melanie Erin Osborn Jun 2012

The Bitter Relicks Of My Flame: The Embodiment Of Venereal Disease And Prostitution In The Novels Of Jane Austen, Melanie Erin Osborn

Melanie E Osborn

Resembling the mercurial, black beauty mark used as an ornamental concealment of syphilitic sores, Jane Austen’s comedy of manners likewise acted as a superficial cosmetic device that concealed the ubiquity of venereal disease and prostitution hidden within. Through her characters, Austen used veiled narrative to highlight the reality of venereal disease and prostitution in eighteenth-century England. This thesis uncovers the hidden narrative in Jane Austen’s novels, as a means of better understanding the impact venereal disease and prostitution had on sexual issues with women and the female body during the eighteenth century. Beginning with an almost comic reference to venereal …


The Bitter Relicks Of My Flame: The Embodiment Of Venereal Disease And Prostitution In The Novels Of Jane Austen, Melanie Erin Osborn May 2012

The Bitter Relicks Of My Flame: The Embodiment Of Venereal Disease And Prostitution In The Novels Of Jane Austen, Melanie Erin Osborn

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Resembling the mercurial, black beauty mark used as an ornamental concealment of syphilitic sores, Jane Austen’s comedy of manners likewise acted as a superficial cosmetic device that concealed the ubiquity of venereal disease and prostitution hidden within. Through her characters, Austen used veiled narrative to highlight the reality of venereal disease and prostitution in eighteenth-century England. This thesis uncovers the hidden narrative in Jane Austen’s novels, as a means of better understanding the impact venereal disease and prostitution had on sexual issues with women and the female body during the eighteenth century. Beginning with an almost comic reference to venereal …


Jane Austen And Genre: Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, And The Triumph Of The Realistic Novel, Megan E. Hilands Apr 2012

Jane Austen And Genre: Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, And The Triumph Of The Realistic Novel, Megan E. Hilands

Student Publications

This paper analyzes Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey in terms of genre. In particular, it examines the theatrical in Mansfield Park and the Gothic in Northanger Abbey. The production of Elizabeth Inchbald’s Lovers’ Vows and Catherine’s Gothic novel reading are key to the analysis of these genres. However, the use of subgenres goes far beyond the Bertrams’ production and Catherine’s books. Rather, the characters themselves adopt theatrical and Gothic characteristics throughout the novel. Furthermore, when these subgenres appear, they are presented in a manner that is harmful to the main characters. In this sense, Austen invokes the …


The Enlightenment Tradition Of Hume And Smith In Austen: Windows To Understanding, Nicole Coonradt Jan 2012

The Enlightenment Tradition Of Hume And Smith In Austen: Windows To Understanding, Nicole Coonradt

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

In his Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), Adam Smith notes the importance of "little department[s]"-those smaller circles of social contact: "By Nature the events which immediately affect that little department in which we ourselves have some little management and directions, which immediately affect ourselves, our friends, our country, are the events which interest us the most, and which chiefly excite our desires and aversions, our hopes and fears, our joys and sorrows:' Alasdair MacIntyre would agree with this idea of one's sphere of influence, especially in the works of Jane Austen. Clearly, this concern with self, others, and country might …