The Anonymous Jane Austen: Duelling Canons

Abstract

This essay initially addresses some theoretical concepts such as adaptation and appropriation. I intend to analyze how Jane Austen herself indulged in her own appropriations from the woman’s canon, in particular through a story entitled Guilt Pursued by Conscience, a tale she found in the “Lady’s Magazine”of 1802. I will show that this tale that claimed Austen’s particular attention was re-appropriated in Emma (although in the broadest sense of parody) and, to a lesser extent, in Sense and Sensibility. The second part of the essay, instead, will move on to analyze how novelists of the generation that followed Austen felt free to import dialogue, characters, and plots from Austen’s works, showing no obligation to their source, just as she had done with the “Lady’s”tale. I will mention and comment on a series of novels, especially from the silver fork school, that draw from Austen’s plot, characters and happenings without acknowledging their legacy to their predecessor.

La prima parte di questo saggio esamina i concetti teorici di adattamento e appropriazione letteraria. L’analisi mostra come la stessa Jane Austen si è appropriata di materiali del canone femminile, in particolare attraverso una narrazione uscita nella rivista “Lady’s Magazine” del 1802: Guilt Pursued by Conscience. Questa storia, che ha attirato l’attenzione della Austen, è stata reimpiegata (nel senso ampio di una parodia) in Emma e in misura minore in Sense and Sensibility. La seconda parte del saggio, invece, prende in considerazione alcuni romanzieri della generazione successiva alla Austen, specialmente quelli della cosiddetta silver fork school, che dalle opere della scrittrice hanno importato liberamente dialoghi, caratteri e trame senza dichiarare la loro fonte, proprio come Austen aveva fatto con la novella del 1802.