Jane Austen and the Arts
Subtitle: Elegance, Propriety, and Harmony
Publisher: Lehigh University Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Bethlehem, PA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 234
ISBN-13: 9781611461374
Description: The essays collected in this novel examine Austen's understanding of the arts, her aesthetic philosophy, and her role as artist. Together, they explore Austen's connections with Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Madame de Staël, Joanna Baillie, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, and other writers engaged in debates on the sensuous experience and the intellectual judgment of art. The contributors look at Austen's engagement with diverse art forms, such as painting, ballet, drama, poetry, and music, investigating their topic within historically grounded and theoretically nuanced essays. They represent Austen as a writer-thinker reflecting on the nature and practice of artistic creation and considering the social, moral, psychological, and theoretical functions of art in her fiction. Natasha Duquette and Elisabeth Lenckos suggest that Austen knew, modified, and transformed the dominant aesthetic discourses of her era, at times ironically, to her own artistic ends. As a result, a new and compelling image of Austen emerges, a "portrait of a lady artist," confidently promoting a distinctly post-Enlightenment aesthetic system of her own.
Table of contents: title: Contents; title: Acknowledgments; title: Preface: Jane Austen’s Critique of Aesthetic Judgment by Vivasvan Soni; title: Introduction by Natasha Duquette and Elisabeth Lenckos; title: I. The Fine Arts in Austen’s World: Music, Dance, and Portraiture; title: "Daily Practice, Musical Accomplishment, and the Example of Jane Austen”; title: Kathryn Libin; title: Chapter 2 – "A ‘Reputation for Accomplishment’: Marianne Dashwood and Emma Woodhouse as Artistic Performers" by Kelly McDonald; title: Chapter 3 – "Miss Bingley’s Walk: The Aesthetics of Movement in Pride and Prejudice" by Erin Smith; title: Chapter 4 – "The Sister Artist: Cassandra Austen’s Portraits of Jane Austen in Art-Historical Context" by Jeffrey Nigro; title: II. Austen and Romanticism: Female Genius, Gothicism, and Sublimity; title: Chapter 5 – "Portrait of a Lady (Artist): Jane Austen’s Anne Elliot, Madame de Staël’s Corrine, and the Woman of Genius Novel" by Elisabeth Lenckos; title: Chapter 6 – "Jane Austen’s Comic Heroines and the Controversial Pleasures of Wit" by Belisa Monteiro; title: Chapter 7 – "An Adaptable Aesthetic: Eighteenth-Century Landscapes, Ann Radcliffe, and Jane Austen” by Alice Davenport; title: Chapter 8 – "Exploring the Transformative Power of Literature: Joanna Baillie, Jane Austen and the Aesthetics of Moral Reform" by Christine Colón; title: Chapter 9 – "Jane Austen’s Influence on Stephenie Meyer" by Deborah Kennedy; title: III. Austen in Political, Social, and Theological Context; title: Chapter 10 – "Aesthetics, Politics, and the Interpretation of Mansfield Park" by Russell Perkin; title: Chapter 11 – "Reflections on Mirrors: Austen, Rousseau, and Socio-Politics" by Melora Vandersluis; title: Chapter 12 – "‘So much novelty and beauty!’: Spacious Reception through an Aesthetic of Restraint in Persuasion" by Jessica Brown; title: Chapter 13 –"Augustinian Aesthetics in Jane Austen’s World: God as Artist" by Diane Capitani; title: Chapter 14 –"‘Delicacy of Taste’ Redeemed: The Aesthetic Judgments of Austen’s Clergymen Heroes" by Fred and Natasha Duquette