8 - Theory-Based Criticism of Austen, 1991–2008

Summary

CRITICISM OF AUSTEN at the end of the twentieth century and for the first decade of the twenty-first continued to follow patterns established during the “revolutionary” 1970s and 1980s. Feminism continued as the dominant ideology informing Austen criticism during the 1990s and 2000s, but other critical methodologies gained in prominence and influence in shaping the novelist's reputation and aiding in understanding her fiction. While the preponderance of criticism written after 1990 reflects new theoretical methodologies, work by critics who practiced what had come to be called traditional methods of inquiry was also published routinely. In fact, however, a good bit of the criticism produced during this period can best be described as hybrid, combining techniques from two or more theoretical approaches to produce significant advances in the understanding and appreciation of Austen's accomplishments as a novelist.

A Snapshot of Feminist Criticism: 1991

To understand the trend in feminist studies, it might be useful to look briefly at work published in 1991, the beginning of a decade that one critic suggests ushered in a third wave of feminist studies which influenced perceptions of Austen's work. Critiques that faulted her for a tendency to succumb to the norms of the patriarchal society in which she lived were routinely balanced by those that found a strong revolutionary strain in her work. Meenakshi Mukherjee's Jane Austen (1991) carries on the feminist tradition of reading Austen's novels, explaining how Austen cleverly if somewhat obliquely rejected the norms of the society she ostensibly sought to uphold.