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This thesis analyses protagonist Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen’s book Pride and Prejudice (1813) and protagonist Bridget Jones in Helen Fielding’s book Bridget Jones' Diary (1996) from a gender theory perspective. I use a comparative method to analyse how two themes are portrayed in the books: family and marriage and education and career.  The study shows that Elizabeth, from a gender perspective, is controlled by the society and her family's expectations that she must marry a man of the right table. Bridget, on the other hand, lives in accordance to the patriarchal norm, but this seems rather appear on a more personal level. Regarding education and career it seems to have gone from seeing this as an important part of being a woman not just for herself personally but also for being more attractive for men, to an objective perspective where education seems to define your work ability instead of the woman herself.  The study, in a didactic point of view, can be useful for teachers to help their pupils to see how gender is constructed and deconstructed from time to time. The syllabus of the subject of Swedish gives opportunities for the pupils to discuss and maybe first and foremost problematize gender and equality in both a literary historical perspective and a personal way.

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In the chapters of my thesis, I explore how "soft" consciousness-raising novels of the first, second and third-waves of feminism practice underground feminism by covertly exposing women's socio-political issues outside of the confines of feminist rhetoric. In moving away from the negative connotations of political language, the authors enable the education of female audiences otherwise out of reach. Working from and extending on various theorists, I construct a theoretical model for what I term underground feminism. Running on the principal of conducting feminist activism without using feminist rhetoric, underground feminism challenges the notion that "subtle" feminism means weak feminism. In illustrating how underground feminism works in novels and in physical activism, I hope to encourage the recognition of the political utility of women's writings that do not fit the strict archetypes of feminist authorship. Analyzing the effectiveness of covert feminist conversion narratives, I discuss one soft consciousness-raising novel for each wave. The novels - Sarah Grand's The Heavenly Twins (1893), Dorothy Bryant's Ella Price's Journal (1972), and Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary (1996) - accused by scholars of employing weak feminist politics, are investigated as feminist literature that disidentifies with the feminist label with the possibility of facilitating a wide spread conversion process in "would be" feminists. After analyzing how the novels place women's issues at the center of discourse by discussing female education, women's voice, and narrative control, I consider how the underground feminism implicit in the texts extends to activism outside of literature. I also end by arguing that these novels enable a more intricate conversation about women's issues in which the voices of both self-identified and non-identified feminists are recognized.

Although two hundred years separate Jane Austen and Helen Fielding and, subsequently, also their portrayals of society, the similarities outweigh the differences. When juxtaposing Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones’s Diary in the light of feminism it is evident that both books provide clear examples of the prevailing situation of women in each time and place. The aspects of the study, which are especially important today, show both the development and some degree of stagnation of women’s rights and identities.

<p>In this essay I compare the notion of the accomplished woman in Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice and Helen Fielding’s novels about Bridget Jones. My claim is that the notion of the accomplished woman that Austen described 200 years ago is still very relevant and not much different today as reflected in Helen Fielding’s narrative in Bridget Jones, but also that both authors satirically describe the pressure that is put on women to reach the ideal of the accomplished woman. I initially discuss feminist literary theory, and then I analyze the following characteristics and ideas which make up the accomplished woman: Physical appearance, Education & Knowledge, Marriage & Having Children, Career and Skills, Status & Class and Manners & Behaviour. This essay shows that the notion of the accomplished woman is still very much present and in some cases, like physical appearance, the pressure on women to reach this ideal has actually gotten worse. Both Jane Austen and Helen Fielding use irony and satirically describe the pressure on young women as a way of actually criticizing their contemporary societies.</p>

In this essay I compare the notion of the accomplished woman in Jane Austen’s Pride &amp; Prejudice and Helen Fielding’s novels about Bridget Jones. My claim is that the notion of the accomplished woman that Austen described 200 years ago is still very relevant and not much different today as reflected in Helen Fielding’s narrative in Bridget Jones, but also that both authors satirically describe the pressure that is put on women to reach the ideal of the accomplished woman. I initially discuss feminist literary theory, and then I analyze the following characteristics and ideas which make up the accomplished woman: Physical appearance, Education &amp; Knowledge, Marriage &amp; Having Children, Career and Skills, Status &amp; Class and Manners &amp; Behaviour. This essay shows that the notion of the accomplished woman is still very much present and in some cases, like physical appearance, the pressure on women to reach this ideal has actually gotten worse. Both Jane Austen and Helen Fielding use irony and satirically describe the pressure on young women as a way of actually criticizing their contemporary societies.

Though feminist scholars criticize Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones series as they feel that Bridget’s diary minimizes her work, close analysis reveals that Bridget’s work is equally important to her as her relationships. The novels charts Bridget’s linear progression toward autonomy and creative freedom, and her work mistakes function as ironic commentary on the creative industries. Though she critiques the entertainment industry, she validates its accessibility to a variety of audiences, particularly through adaptations. Throughout the series, Bridget documents her own life into her diary, and, in the final two novels, adapts her past diaries for a new purpose. The diary form departs from Austen’s more distanced narrator as well as from the traditional scholarship on the diary, which dictates the diary as a way to work through trauma. Fielding alters the diary form, and through her use of interiority, creates a complex protagonist whose success does not make her inaccessible.