Thesis
Jane Austen's open secret: same-sex love in Pride and prejudice, Emma, and Persuasion
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2011
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/102572
Abstract
I argue that Austen's famously heteronormative novels do not actually begin with compulsory heterosexuality: they arrive there gradually, contingently, and only by first carving out an authorized space in which queer relations may, or indeed must, take hold. Engaging intimacies between both men and women within Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, and Emma, I explore how Austen constructs a heteronormativity that is itself premised upon queer desire and the progressive implications this casts upon Austen as a female writer within Regency England. In each of my three chapters, I look at how samesex intimacies are cultivated in the following social spheres: the realm of illness within Persuasion, the realm of Regency courtship within Pride and Prejudice, and the realm of domesticity within Emma. I argue that Austen conforms to patriarchal sanctions for female authorship while simultaneously undermining this sanction by depicting same-sex desire. Through depicting a same-sex desire that lays the very foundation of each novel's culminated heteronormativity, Austen redefines desire and, in the process, redefines herself as a progressive author. I suggest that Austen follows the lead of famous romantics such as Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, and promotes the progressive notion of homosexuality as a universal state through her subtle depictions of same-sex intimacies in her famously heteronormative novels. I engage D.A. Miller's theory of open secrets, Steven Cohan's analysis of helper figures, Eve Sedgwick's logic of closeted homosexuality, Freud's theory of jealousy, Michael Warner and Lauren Berlant's engagement of public and private, and Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity.
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Details
- Title
- Jane Austen's open secret
- Creators
- Jennifer Anne Leeds
- Contributors
- Debbie Lee (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- English, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900524808201842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis