Over the last decade, as Jane Austen has moved center-stage in our culture, onto best-seller lists and into movie houses, another figure has slipped into the spotlight alongside her. This is the "Janeite," the zealous reader and fan whose devotion to the novels has been frequently invoked and often derided by the critical establishment. Jane Austen has long been considered part of a great literary tradition, even legitimizing the academic study of novels. However, the Janeite phenomenon has not until now aroused the curiosity of scholars interested in the politics of culture. Rather than lament the fact that Austen today shares the headlines with her readers, the contributors to this collection inquire into why this is the case, ask what Janeites do, and explore the myriad appropriations of Austen--adaptations, reviews, rewritings, and appreciations--that have been produced since her lifetime. The articles move from the nineteenth-century lending library to the modern cineplex and discuss how novelists as diverse as Cooper, Woolf, James, and Kipling have claimed or repudiated their Austenian inheritance. As case studies in reception history, they pose new questions of long-loved novels--as well as new questions about Austen's relation to Englishness, about the boundaries between elite and popular cultures and amateur and professional readerships, and about the cultural work performed by the realist novel and the marriage plot. The contributors are Barbara M. Benedict, Mary A. Favret, Susan Fraiman, William Galperin, Claudia L. Johnson, Deidre Lynch, Mary Ann O'Farrell, Roger Sales, Katie Trumpener, and Clara Tuite.

With warmth and humor, lifelong Janeite Deborah Yaffe opens the door on the quirky, thriving subculture of Jane Austen fandom.

Includes "List of books indexed" (published also separately).

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3, University of Passau (Faculty of Philosophy), course: International Cultural and Business Studies, language: English, abstract: This paper focuses on the physical sites which are associated with Jane Austen: the places where she lived and a selection of locations which appear in film adaptations of her novels. Both types attract thousands of visitors from all over the world each year. This leads to some of the following questions: Why do people feel the need to follow in her footsteps? Do they require these physical places in order to remember her? And considering the fact that the locations in question are now part of the tourism industry, how much do they actually still have to do with Jane Austen? In cultural studies, memory is one of the most frequently discussed issues. In the last twenty years alone, there have been numerous publications on the subject. Inspired by the seminal work of Maurice Halbwachs (1877-1945), who was one of the first scholars to regard memory as a social phenomenon, Jan Assmann developed his theory of the ‘cultural memory’ in 1988. Pierre Nora’s concept of the lieux de mémoire, begun in 1984, continues to draw a great deal of attention in academic circles as well. It is the aim of this paper to shed some light on the role the Jane Austen locations play in remembering her. In order to gain an understanding of this issue, certain aspects of Halbwachs’, Nora’s and Assmann’s theories will be connected to Jane Austen tourism. A short summary of their ideas can be found in chapter 2. The criteria by which the locations will be evaluated are listed in chapter 3. Chapter 4 contains an analysis of some of the most prominent Jane Austen-themed locations in contemporary England, including their relevance to Jane Austen’s life. The first part concentrates on places where she actually lived and where she stayed for longer periods of time. These are arranged in chronological order and followed by an analysis of several memorable film locations. In chapter 5, theory and practice will be joined in order to find answers to the questions previously asked. Finally, the paper ends with an overview of the relevant points.

Provides fresh readings of Austen's works and summarizes the critical response to her writings.

A collection of critical essays that discuss the life and work of Jane Austen.