Jane Austen wrote stories about women, their matches, and the communities they were part of. Despite being labeled as a romance author, there are additional layers to Austen’s work that distinguish her as a commentator on the British Empire and colonialism. All her work contains some commentary; however, Sanditon and Mansfield Park stand out as the most prominent. Despite the differences in both length and story, both compare and discuss domestic England and the British Empire in its entirety. Furthermore, Austen’s letters to her sister, Cassandra, show evidence of Jane Austen’s investment in the colonial aspects of both texts. This evidence ultimately connects to Mansfield Park and Sanditon and their colonial discourses regarding the West Indies and slave-owning parts of society. The fact that Jane Austen belonged to a society and time that colonized and enslaved individuals does not make it self-evident that she favored brutality. The texts argue a sense of domestic pride and identity, demonstrated in her frequent theme of Englishness. Mansfield Park and Sanditon are texts that demonstrate and suggest a sense of resistance and include nuanced elements of Empire that ultimately prove that Austen consciously interacts with Empire. This text aims to demonstrate and discuss the ways that Austen as an author interacts with elements of resistance in Sanditon and Mansfield Park.

Three of the most notable English women authors, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and George Eliot, explore similar themes of the individual, particularly the young woman, in relation to a hierarchical, patriarchal society, more specifically a crumbling paternalist society. My focus is on three Victorian novels' representations of society's transformation from a paternalistic nature to one of greater individualism; and in particular, I explore how women defined for themselves positions of power within these structures. So this study is twofold, one on representations of gender and the other of class; for the two are inseparable in discussing power relationships of Victorian women. Austen, Bronte, and Eliot understood and, to some degree, accepted the pervasive paternal values. Their novels, however, do not advocate radical social change; rather, their heroines willingly turn to domesticity. I aim to argue that each author, although dissatisfied with aspects of society, did not desire to radically alter women's role within society. The fictitious lives they created became both a representation and a critique of the ideologies surrounding them. The texts of Emma, Jane Eyre, and Middlemarch are representative of traditional social norms and yet question some of the culture's dominant codes, especially in relation to paternalism and gender. What strikes me about these novels is that although the female characters are limited by society, they are not ineffectual. Rather the authors portray women in control of their lives and able to make choices for themselves within the framework of society. My research includes social, philosophical, and political attitudes of the decades in which each novel was written, as well as personal philosophies held by Austen, Bronte, and Eliot in relation to gender and class and the influence of these philosophies in their art. Finally, my reading of the texts explicates evidences of the culture's and author's attitudes in relation to paternalism and gender.

The plot twist is a complex narrative surprise in which a revelation retroactively transforms readers’ understanding of the preceding events. Readers discover belatedly that the situation depicted in the narrative had all along been quite different from what they thought. Although the term “plot twist” was first used in the early twentieth century, many of the best-known works of fiction of the nineteenth century were revealed, in retrospect, to be twist narratives. This dissertation studies twist narratives and their readers in the period before the plot twist became a known device. Through case studies of Jane Austen’s Emma, Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” and Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the chapters investigate what kinds of knowledge-making practices readers engage in during first-time readings and rereadings of twist narratives, as well as before and after reading. Across these chapters I make the case that twist narratives demonstrate the crucial and interconnected roles of knowledge and temporality in any narrative experience. What we know, and when, and especially what we don’t (yet) know, is crucial to how narratives work and why we enjoy them.

The aim of this study is to reveal how LBD adheres to postmodern tenets while also being ultimately suspicious of these principles. This suspicion of postmodern principles is reflected in the interaction between the main subject of the videos, Lizzie Bennet, and the audience. This examination invokes the questions of when, where, and how the audience experiences LBD. This illuminates the manner in which LBD functions as a postmodern literary text and how this text is critical of its digital composition. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Sense and Sensibility (1811), o primeiro romance publicado de Jane Austen, foi transposto para o cinema em 1995, conferindo seis prêmios de melhor diretor a Ang Lee e dezenove a Emma Thompson, oito como melhor atriz e onze pelo melhor roteiro adaptado. Nesta dissertação eu apresento minha leitura da transposição feita por Emma Thompson do romance de Jane Austen, focando especialmente na maneira em que os personagens principais são transpostos para a tela. Para isso, utilizo três apoios, o texto do roteiro, os diários de Thompson e as performances dos atores. Em cada um desses eixos foram feitas escolhas que merecem ser investigadas, revelando o processo pelo qual o trabalho original se molda às regras da nova mídia e ao público pretendido. Atenção especial é dada aos recursos usados na transposição dos personagens do romance para o filme. O lastro teórico-crítico da pesquisa se apoia nos estudos de Linda Hutcheon sobre adaptação e nos textos de Gerald Mast e Christian Metz sobre a linguagem cinematográfica. A dissertação vem estruturada em duas partes. A primeira, dividida em três seções, apresenta os elementos de contextualização necessários para a discussão empreendida no trabalho. A primeira seção trata sobre o filme produzido em 1995 e sobre Ang Lee, responsável pela direção do mesmo. A segunda seção retraça alguns referentes do romance Sense and Sensibility e sua autora, Jane Austen. A terceira seção considera o processo de criação e adaptação do roteiro de Emma Thompson. A segunda parte do trabalho enfoca as escolhas de transposição, em especial no que diz respeito ao tratamento dos personagens. Ao término da pesquisa, espero identificar os traços que caracterizam Thompson como leitora diferenciada de Austen, e explicitar fatores que motivam as escolhas favorecidas no processo de transposição analisado. / Sense and Sensibility (1811), the first novel published by Jane Austen, was transposed to the movies in 1995, granting six awards to Ang Lee as best director and nineteen to Emma Thompson, eight as best actress and eleven for best adapted screenplay. In this thesis, I present my reading of Emma Thompson´s reading of Jane Austen´s novel, focusing mainly on the way the major characters are transposed into the screen. In order to do that, I direct the analysis from three cornerstones, the text of the screenplay, Thompson’s diaries, and the actors’ performances. In each of these instances choices that deserve to be investigated have been made, which reveal the process through which the original work molds itself to the rules of the new media and to the audience it is intended. Special attention is given to the resources used in the transposition of the characters from the novel into the film. The theoretical support of the research is based on Linda Hutcheon’s studies on adaptation, and on Gerald Mast’s and Christian Metz’s texts about filmic language. This thesis is composed in two parts. Part one comes divided into three sections, and presents the contextualization necessary for the discussion held in the work. The first section introduces the film produced in 1995, and Ang Lee, responsible for its direction. The second retraces some referents from the novel Sense and Sensibility and its author, Jane Austen. The third considers Emma Thompson´s process of creation and adaptation of the screenplay. Part two focuses on the choices made in the transposition, especially the ones regarding the treatment of the characters. At the end of this research, I hope to identify the traces that characterize Thompson as a differentiated reader of Austen, and show the factors that motivate the favored choices in the analyzed transposition process.

Representations of the Gypsies and their lifestyle were widespread in British culture in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This thesis analyzes the varying literary and artistic responses to the Gypsy figure in the period circa 1780-1870. Addressing not only well-known works by William Wordsworth, Jane Austen, Walter Scott, John Clare, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold and George Eliot, but also lesser-known or neglected works by Gilbert White, Hannah More, George Crabbe and Samuel Rogers, unpublished archival material from Princess Victoria's journals, and a range of articles from the periodical press, this thesis examines how the figure of the Gypsy was used to explore differing conceptions of the landscape, identity and freedom, as well as the authoritative discourses of law, religion and science. The influence of William Cowper's Gypsy episode in Book One of The Task is shown to be profound, and its effect on ensuing literary representations of the Gypsy is an example of my interpretation of Wim Willem's term ‘paper Gypsies': the idea that literary Gypsies are often textual (re)constructions of other writers' work, creating a shared literary, cultural and artistic heritage. A focus on the picturesque and the Gypsies' role within that genre is a strong theme throughout this thesis. The ambiguity of picturesque Gypsy representations challenges the authority of the leisured viewer, provoking complex responses that either seek to contain the Gypsy's disruptive potential or demonstrate the figure's refusal to be controlled. An examination of texts alongside contemporary paintings and sketches of Gypsies by Princess Victoria, George Morland, Thomas Gainsborough, J. M. W. Turner, John Constable and John Everett Millais, elucidates the significance of the Gypsies as ambiguous ciphers in both literature and art.

Sense and Sensibility (1811), o primeiro romance publicado de Jane Austen, foi transposto para o cinema em 1995, conferindo seis prêmios de melhor diretor a Ang Lee e dezenove a Emma Thompson, oito como melhor atriz e onze pelo melhor roteiro adaptado. Nesta dissertação eu apresento minha leitura da transposição feita por Emma Thompson do romance de Jane Austen, focando especialmente na maneira em que os personagens principais são transpostos para a tela. Para isso, utilizo três apoios, o texto do roteiro, os diários de Thompson e as performances dos atores. Em cada um desses eixos foram feitas escolhas que merecem ser investigadas, revelando o processo pelo qual o trabalho original se molda às regras da nova mídia e ao público pretendido. Atenção especial é dada aos recursos usados na transposição dos personagens do romance para o filme. O lastro teórico-crítico da pesquisa se apoia nos estudos de Linda Hutcheon sobre adaptação e nos textos de Gerald Mast e Christian Metz sobre a linguagem cinematográfica. A dissertação vem estruturada em duas partes. A primeira, dividida em três seções, apresenta os elementos de contextualização necessários para a discussão empreendida no trabalho. A primeira seção trata sobre o filme produzido em 1995 e sobre Ang Lee, responsável pela direção do mesmo. A segunda seção retraça alguns referentes do romance Sense and Sensibility e sua autora, Jane Austen. A terceira seção considera o processo de criação e adaptação do roteiro de Emma Thompson. A segunda parte do trabalho enfoca as escolhas de transposição, em especial no que diz respeito ao tratamento dos personagens. Ao término da pesquisa, espero identificar os traços que caracterizam Thompson como leitora diferenciada de Austen, e explicitar fatores que motivam as escolhas favorecidas no processo de transposição analisado. / Sense and Sensibility (1811), the first novel published by Jane Austen, was transposed to the movies in 1995, granting six awards to Ang Lee as best director and nineteen to Emma Thompson, eight as best actress and eleven for best adapted screenplay. In this thesis, I present my reading of Emma Thompson´s reading of Jane Austen´s novel, focusing mainly on the way the major characters are transposed into the screen. In order to do that, I direct the analysis from three cornerstones, the text of the screenplay, Thompson’s diaries, and the actors’ performances. In each of these instances choices that deserve to be investigated have been made, which reveal the process through which the original work molds itself to the rules of the new media and to the audience it is intended. Special attention is given to the resources used in the transposition of the characters from the novel into the film. The theoretical support of the research is based on Linda Hutcheon’s studies on adaptation, and on Gerald Mast’s and Christian Metz’s texts about filmic language. This thesis is composed in two parts. Part one comes divided into three sections, and presents the contextualization necessary for the discussion held in the work. The first section introduces the film produced in 1995, and Ang Lee, responsible for its direction. The second retraces some referents from the novel Sense and Sensibility and its author, Jane Austen. The third considers Emma Thompson´s process of creation and adaptation of the screenplay. Part two focuses on the choices made in the transposition, especially the ones regarding the treatment of the characters. At the end of this research, I hope to identify the traces that characterize Thompson as a differentiated reader of Austen, and show the factors that motivate the favored choices in the analyzed transposition process.

A escritora inglesa Jane Austen possui, além do status de autora canônica, um apelo popular não apenas em função de sua qualidade como escritora, mas também pela força imagética de suas obras quando adaptadas para o cinema. Em Amor e Inocência (2007), o diretor Julian Jarrold apresenta um episódio ocorrido na vida da autora, com base em fatos extraídos da biografia Becoming Jane Austen, escrita em 2003 por Jon Spence. O filme explora um possível envolvimento entre a jovem Jane e o estudante irlandês Tom Lefroy. Essa produção, enquanto apresenta o início da carreira da escritora, sugere que o trauma da relação mal sucedida com Lefroy possa ter sido a fonte temática que inspirou sua obra ficcional posterior. Esta dissertação verifica de que forma o filme articula as questões históricas sobre a vida de Austen com as situações ficcionais apresentadas em seus romances para chegar a um produto final tão coeso e verossímil, embora ficcional. Especial atenção é dada ao estudo da construção da personagem protagonista, que resulta da combinação entre o conteúdo imagético das obras de Austen e os elementos biográficos pesquisados por Spence. Além dessas fusões, há ainda que ser considerado o ícone Jane Austen, que habita o imaginário dos ingleses e dos leitores pelo mundo afora. Na evolução das adaptações fílmicas das obras de Austen testemunhamos a fusão entre as personagens e a própria autora, especialmente no caso de Elizabeth Bennet, em Orgulho e Preconceito (1813). Para realizar esta análise, lanço mão dos conceitos de adaptação e apropriação propostos por Linda Hutcheon, e do conceito de metaficção historiográfica estabelecido pela mesma autora em A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction (1988). Ao término do trabalho, espero que esta discussão investigativa e argumentativa seja útil em três aspectos: contribuindo para o debate sobre autores usados como personagens na ficção derivativa contemporânea; identificando certas necessidades culturais que subjazem ao culto do ícone Jane Austen, conhecido como Austenmania; e verificando até que ponto o conceito de metaficção historiográfica dá conta de propostas narrativas em que a personagem histórica retratada é também uma escritora. / Jane Austen enjoys more than the status of canonical author: she is also popular not only because of her achievements as a writer but also for the cinematic appeal of her novels. In Becoming Jane (2007), director Julian Jarrold presents the story of Jane Austen from an episode occurred early in the author’s life. Based on facts extracted from Jon Spence’s biography Becoming Jane Austen (2003), the film explores a supposed relationship between young Jane and an Irish Law student, Tom Lefroy. In Becoming Jane we witness the beginning of Austen’s writing career, and the film speculates that the trauma of a failed relationship with Lefroy was the inspiration for Austen’s mature novels. This work verifies the ways in which the film articulates the historical aspects of Jane Austen’s life with fictional events as presented in her novels to reach a cohesive and credible – although fictional – result. Special attention is paid to the process of constructing a fictional Jane as main character, combining the images contained in her novels with the biographical elements presented by Spence; it is also considered in this analysis the evolving nature of Jane Austen as an icon that inhabits not only the English imaginary but also that of readers all over the world. In the evolution of Austen filmic adaptations, we witness a fusion between her characters and the author herself, especially Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice (1813), which adds to the intertextual layers of any film analysis. To deal with the questions of film adaptations, I refer to the concepts of adaptation and appropriation as posed by theoretician Linda Hutcheon. For the specific analysis of the phenomenon of author as character, I turn again to Linda Hutcheon and the concept of historiographic metafiction presented in A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction (1988). I hope, by the end of this thesis, that this investigative and argumentative analysis is helpful in three instances: contributing to the discussion of the use of authors as characters in contemporary fiction, be it filmic or literary; identifying the cultural needs of readers and critics that perpetuate the cult of Jane Austen, known as Austenmania; and verifying to what extent historiographic metafiction alone is enough to deal with narratives in which the historical character portrayed is also a writer.

Sense and Sensibility (1811), o primeiro romance publicado de Jane Austen, foi transposto para o cinema em 1995, conferindo seis prêmios de melhor diretor a Ang Lee e dezenove a Emma Thompson, oito como melhor atriz e onze pelo melhor roteiro adaptado. Nesta dissertação eu apresento minha leitura da transposição feita por Emma Thompson do romance de Jane Austen, focando especialmente na maneira em que os personagens principais são transpostos para a tela. Para isso, utilizo três apoios, o texto do roteiro, os diários de Thompson e as performances dos atores. Em cada um desses eixos foram feitas escolhas que merecem ser investigadas, revelando o processo pelo qual o trabalho original se molda às regras da nova mídia e ao público pretendido. Atenção especial é dada aos recursos usados na transposição dos personagens do romance para o filme. O lastro teórico-crítico da pesquisa se apoia nos estudos de Linda Hutcheon sobre adaptação e nos textos de Gerald Mast e Christian Metz sobre a linguagem cinematográfica. A dissertação vem estruturada em duas partes. A primeira, dividida em três seções, apresenta os elementos de contextualização necessários para a discussão empreendida no trabalho. A primeira seção trata sobre o filme produzido em 1995 e sobre Ang Lee, responsável pela direção do mesmo. A segunda seção retraça alguns referentes do romance Sense and Sensibility e sua autora, Jane Austen. A terceira seção considera o processo de criação e adaptação do roteiro de Emma Thompson. A segunda parte do trabalho enfoca as escolhas de transposição, em especial no que diz respeito ao tratamento dos personagens. Ao término da pesquisa, espero identificar os traços que caracterizam Thompson como leitora diferenciada de Austen, e explicitar fatores que motivam as escolhas favorecidas no processo de transposição analisado. / Sense and Sensibility (1811), the first novel published by Jane Austen, was transposed to the movies in 1995, granting six awards to Ang Lee as best director and nineteen to Emma Thompson, eight as best actress and eleven for best adapted screenplay. In this thesis, I present my reading of Emma Thompson´s reading of Jane Austen´s novel, focusing mainly on the way the major characters are transposed into the screen. In order to do that, I direct the analysis from three cornerstones, the text of the screenplay, Thompson’s diaries, and the actors’ performances. In each of these instances choices that deserve to be investigated have been made, which reveal the process through which the original work molds itself to the rules of the new media and to the audience it is intended. Special attention is given to the resources used in the transposition of the characters from the novel into the film. The theoretical support of the research is based on Linda Hutcheon’s studies on adaptation, and on Gerald Mast’s and Christian Metz’s texts about filmic language. This thesis is composed in two parts. Part one comes divided into three sections, and presents the contextualization necessary for the discussion held in the work. The first section introduces the film produced in 1995, and Ang Lee, responsible for its direction. The second retraces some referents from the novel Sense and Sensibility and its author, Jane Austen. The third considers Emma Thompson´s process of creation and adaptation of the screenplay. Part two focuses on the choices made in the transposition, especially the ones regarding the treatment of the characters. At the end of this research, I hope to identify the traces that characterize Thompson as a differentiated reader of Austen, and show the factors that motivate the favored choices in the analyzed transposition process.

A escritora inglesa Jane Austen possui, além do status de autora canônica, um apelo popular não apenas em função de sua qualidade como escritora, mas também pela força imagética de suas obras quando adaptadas para o cinema. Em Amor e Inocência (2007), o diretor Julian Jarrold apresenta um episódio ocorrido na vida da autora, com base em fatos extraídos da biografia Becoming Jane Austen, escrita em 2003 por Jon Spence. O filme explora um possível envolvimento entre a jovem Jane e o estudante irlandês Tom Lefroy. Essa produção, enquanto apresenta o início da carreira da escritora, sugere que o trauma da relação mal sucedida com Lefroy possa ter sido a fonte temática que inspirou sua obra ficcional posterior. Esta dissertação verifica de que forma o filme articula as questões históricas sobre a vida de Austen com as situações ficcionais apresentadas em seus romances para chegar a um produto final tão coeso e verossímil, embora ficcional. Especial atenção é dada ao estudo da construção da personagem protagonista, que resulta da combinação entre o conteúdo imagético das obras de Austen e os elementos biográficos pesquisados por Spence. Além dessas fusões, há ainda que ser considerado o ícone Jane Austen, que habita o imaginário dos ingleses e dos leitores pelo mundo afora. Na evolução das adaptações fílmicas das obras de Austen testemunhamos a fusão entre as personagens e a própria autora, especialmente no caso de Elizabeth Bennet, em Orgulho e Preconceito (1813). Para realizar esta análise, lanço mão dos conceitos de adaptação e apropriação propostos por Linda Hutcheon, e do conceito de metaficção historiográfica estabelecido pela mesma autora em A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction (1988). Ao término do trabalho, espero que esta discussão investigativa e argumentativa seja útil em três aspectos: contribuindo para o debate sobre autores usados como personagens na ficção derivativa contemporânea; identificando certas necessidades culturais que subjazem ao culto do ícone Jane Austen, conhecido como Austenmania; e verificando até que ponto o conceito de metaficção historiográfica dá conta de propostas narrativas em que a personagem histórica retratada é também uma escritora. / Jane Austen enjoys more than the status of canonical author: she is also popular not only because of her achievements as a writer but also for the cinematic appeal of her novels. In Becoming Jane (2007), director Julian Jarrold presents the story of Jane Austen from an episode occurred early in the author’s life. Based on facts extracted from Jon Spence’s biography Becoming Jane Austen (2003), the film explores a supposed relationship between young Jane and an Irish Law student, Tom Lefroy. In Becoming Jane we witness the beginning of Austen’s writing career, and the film speculates that the trauma of a failed relationship with Lefroy was the inspiration for Austen’s mature novels. This work verifies the ways in which the film articulates the historical aspects of Jane Austen’s life with fictional events as presented in her novels to reach a cohesive and credible – although fictional – result. Special attention is paid to the process of constructing a fictional Jane as main character, combining the images contained in her novels with the biographical elements presented by Spence; it is also considered in this analysis the evolving nature of Jane Austen as an icon that inhabits not only the English imaginary but also that of readers all over the world. In the evolution of Austen filmic adaptations, we witness a fusion between her characters and the author herself, especially Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice (1813), which adds to the intertextual layers of any film analysis. To deal with the questions of film adaptations, I refer to the concepts of adaptation and appropriation as posed by theoretician Linda Hutcheon. For the specific analysis of the phenomenon of author as character, I turn again to Linda Hutcheon and the concept of historiographic metafiction presented in A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction (1988). I hope, by the end of this thesis, that this investigative and argumentative analysis is helpful in three instances: contributing to the discussion of the use of authors as characters in contemporary fiction, be it filmic or literary; identifying the cultural needs of readers and critics that perpetuate the cult of Jane Austen, known as Austenmania; and verifying to what extent historiographic metafiction alone is enough to deal with narratives in which the historical character portrayed is also a writer.