Jane Austen in the Context of Abolition
'a fling at the slave trade'
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Palgrave USA
Published:29th Nov '05
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
GABRIELLE D.V. WHITE teaches philosophy at the University of Leeds, UK and the Open University, UK. She was previously an English Teacher in Secondary Schools and is a former researcher at the University of Leeds and the British Library, UK.
This wide-ranging and convincingly argued study looks at the issues of and attitudes towards slavery in Jane Austen's later novels and culture, and argues against Edward Said's critique of Jane Austen as a supporter of colonialism and slavery.This wide-ranging and convincingly argued study looks at the issues of and attitudes towards slavery in Jane Austen's later novels and culture, and argues against Edward Said's critique of Jane Austen as a supporter of colonialism and slavery. White suggests that Austen is both concerned and engaged with the issue, and that novels such as Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion not only presuppose the British outlawing of the transatlantic slave trade but also undermine the status quo of chattel slavery, slavery's most extreme form.
' Jane Austen in the Context of Abolition is a wide-ranging, nearly exhaustive study of attitudes toward slavery in Austen's late novels. Arguing against Edward Said and others who have seen Austen as upholding colonialism and slavery, Gabrielle White shows, through provocative, convincing readings of Mansfield Park , Emma , and Persuasion , the subtle and direct ways that Austen's fiction instead supports abolition. White's fascinating study addresses one of today's most heated debates over this much beloved author. This book may permanently change the ways in which we read Austen.' - Devoney Looser, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA 'Gabrielle White has written an almost marvellous book...for those who would like a better understanding of the influences on Jane Austen's writing at this troubled time of Britain's history or for those who would like to understand more broadly the debates of the period, this is one for the bookshelves.' - Penny Nash, Sensibilities (The Jane Austen Society of Australia)
ISBN: 9781403991218
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 460g
231 pages
2006 ed.