Letters and Correspondence in Austens Emma Essay -- Jane Austen

Letters and Correspondence in Austens EmmaEmma as the next step in the epistolary novelJane Austens novel Emma was written at a time when the epistolary novel had just passed its peak (Cousineau, 32). Not solo do earn and correspondence feature heavily in the novel, further according to April Alliston, elements characteristic of novels of womens correspondence recur in Austen (221). rough examples of these elements that Alliston provides are the existence of young marriageable heroines deceased mothers, or heavy ones which, in Austens novels, have become merely negligent and fill-in mothers who pass advice on to the daughter (221).As epistolary novels were comprised entirely of garners, archeozoic novelists could assert the pretended truth of their work rather than label it as fiction (Cousineau, 28). However, one disadvantage to this practice is that artefacts such as letters are inscribed in doubleness and contradiction (Cousineau, 14). Letters serve as a medium between the letter-writers and the reader, a medium which has the potential to belie the truth according to the private and unknown whims of the writers. By adopting an omniscient tale of her characters thoughts instead, Austen focussed the readers gaze on the private space from which the heroine gazes out, and then fixing her more than squarely in its exemplary frame than letter fiction ever could (Alliston, 234). Although this method of narration sacrifices the documentary status that eighteenth century fiction strove to achieve (Alliston, 236), Austens novels allow us to assemble directly into a characters thoughts. This both promises a more reliable version of truth by enabling the reader to attain a characters genuine motivation, an... ...aults Correspondences in Eighteenth-Century British and cut Womens Fiction. Stanford, California Stanford University Press, 1996. 219-241.Austen, Jane. Emma. New York Oxford University Press Inc., 2003.Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Hertfordsh ire Wordsworth Editions, 1997.Cousineau, Diane. Letters and the bit Office Epistolary Exchange in Jane Austens Emma. Letters and Labyrinths. Cranbury, NJ Associated University Press, 1997. 13-51.Knoepflmacher, U. C. 2. The Importance of Being Frank Character and Letter-Writing in Emma. Studies in face Literature, 1500-1900, 1967. JSTOR 7 April 2007. Wheeler, David. The British Postal Service, Privacy, and Jane Austens Emma. South Atlantic Review, 1998. JSTOR. 7 April 2007.