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Author
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Comment
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squirrell
Registered User
(9/9/03 8:17 am)
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Jane Austen and Fairy Tales/Enough for a paper?
I am currently enrolled in a class on Jane Austen, but I had never read (or heard of her) until this class. While I'm not familiar with the rest of her novels, I have really enjoyed the one we are reading now, Mansfield Park. Having taken a previous class in German Romanticism, I was struck by the similiarties between fairy tales and MP. I have read a previous post on this board about this topic, and I was delighted to find I wasn't the only one who saw a connection.
I have to do a 20 page research paper for this class and am considering doing it on attempting to establish a common theme running between fairy tales and Austen novels. Does anyone think I could get enough info to fill 20 pages on this? Also, any good suggestions for possible resources? I haven't looked but in a couple places so far, but this is the only place I've seen this idea talked about.
Thanks!
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Gregor9
Registered User
(9/9/03 2:25 pm)
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Jane Asuten as template
For what it's worth (and here I go tooting my own horn), I used Jane Austen--specifically Northanger Abbey--as research material when I was writing FITCHER'S BRIDES. The book is a recasting of the fairy tale of Bluebeard into an 1840s setting, and it was Austen's portrayal of sisters and their relationships that I found incredibly useful in contemplating my own.
I would think there is certainly material there for comparisons with fairy tales about sisters.
Greg
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(9/9/03 5:06 pm)
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Re: Jane Asuten as template
If you read the posts I'm thinking of, you already know we talked about the fairy godmother type characters in Jane Austen's novels and the similarities with the fairy godmothers in the French salon fairy tales. Also, I remember talking about the Mossycoat Cinderella and Mansfield Park.
Don't know if you have enough for a twenty page research paper. It depends a bit on your focus, I suppose.
LauraMc
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Rosemary
Lake
Registered User
(9/9/03 5:38 pm)
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Evidence?
_Northanger Abbey_ from "Blubeard"...? Did Austen say that, in letters etc? Or are the resemblences just very plain? Did she have copies of fairy tale books with her notes in them? IE, how much 'hard evidence' is there?
It seems odd to me, because I think of _Northanger Abbey_ as making fun of 'gothics' popular at the time. Making fun of them by basing on a story where the villainy was real, seems odd. But maybe I'm misremembering the book, and being the village idiot...
_Sense and Sensibility_ and _Pride and Prejudice_ might compare with the kind/unkind sister motif.
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Terri
Registered User
(9/10/03 1:19 am)
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Re: Evidence?
Did you search the archives for all the posts on this topic? We discussed it at length some time ago.
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Gregor9
Registered User
(9/10/03 2:39 pm)
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Northanger
Rosemary,
I didn't mean Austen was drawing a comparison to Bluebeard in any way in _Northanger Abbey_, but that I used that book in particular (yes, it is a parody of gothics) to get a sense of the tone of the period, the voices of and relationships between her sisters, which also could be got via _Pride & Prejudice_, et al. The only point I was making was that for a paper one could easily compare the relationships of sisters in her novels and of sisters in appropriate fairy tales.
The application of said sisters to a Bluebeard motif is my own, not hers.
And as Terri notes, the sisters and godmothers have been discussed under another topic on the board.
Greg
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krismcd
Registered User
(9/11/03 8:42 pm)
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Re: Jane Austen and Fairy Tales/Enough for a paper?
This is my first post -- hi to Terri! Austen was a voracious reader and incorporated many genres into her novels; certainly it would be worthwhile to look at her use of fairytale motifs. Always be sure, though, to account for her sharp ironic tone -- almost none of her source materials are presented straightforwardly. For example, Harriet Smith's story in Emma is certainly a "Cinderella" tale (for that matter, so is Anne Elliot's in Persuasion), but its context is a pretty scathing satire of the tendancy of upper-class women to have unrealistic dreams of rescue-via-marriage. Austen was not particularly sentimental, so her use of fairytales was probably sophisticated if not downright cynical.
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Terri
Registered User
(9/11/03 10:27 pm)
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Re: Jane Austen and Fairy Tales/Enough for a paper?
Hi, Kim! Welcome.
Hey everyone, here's a link to the previous Austen discussion. I'm happy to jump into this one, but let's be sure to expand on the old discussion and not cover the same material twice.
www.surlalunefairytales.com/boardarchives/2001/sep2001/ftthemesinausten.html
And I apologize for all my typos in these older posts, such as the mortal sin of spelling Austen as Austin. I was typing way too fast....
Edited by: Terri at: 9/11/03 10:43 pm
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