February 10

FIRST PAPER on Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, ed. Susan J. Wolfman: due February 10 by 11:59 p.m. 700 words, give or take.

Email me at [email protected] by February 3 the passage you've selected (just give a brief description and the Volume and chapter where it is found, not the entire passage) and, in a few sentences, formulate a provisional idea of what you intend to write so I can either greenlight it (or suggest revisions and you can then resubmit your revised idea so I can greenlight it). Northanger Abbey is such a rich book, I believe you could open it at random and be able to write a paper on any passage belonging to any page you landed on.

I advise you to begin the first paragraph of the paper you submit on February 10 by establishing your topic in one or two sentences and then by stating your thesis in the last sentence of the first paragraph. If you can't state your thesis in one sentence, you don't have a thesis. Remember, you are writing a persuasive essay, not a personal journal entry. So cut all "In my personal opinion" and the like. And use the literary present when discussing the novel: Austen is . . . , not Austen was.

Your paper should be a close reading of a passage that pertains to a question you have about a character, the narrator, free indirect style, genre, or some other formal feature of the novel. Imagine Austen as a creative writer. How does Austen tell her story? What kind of sentences does she write? Why does she tell it in her own particular way? Does she succeed or fail? Or both in different ways? Read the novel as literature, in other words, not as a political tract (of the sort General Tilney reads.) You might elaborate one of your DQs. You could also disagree with one or more of Wolfson's annotations related to the passage with reference. Her annotations, too, deserve to be read closely. Here are a few examples:

Anne Radcliffe, Mysteries of Udolpho, IV: XVII (wax statue). See Wolfson on the novel: notes 2 and 3, p. 107; note 11, p. 110; note 14, page 111; notes 11 and 13, p. 136; notes 8 and 10, p. 218; note 7, p. 222; note 4, p. 229; note 8, pp. 234-35; note 10, p. 235; notes 19 and 20, p. 238;note 18, p. 237; note 24, p. 239.

Wolfson's notes on Henry Tilney in Chapter 14, pp. 180-92: note 4, p. 180; note 16, p. 183; Henry is bullying (you'll need to find the note); he "puffs a pedantry," note 11, p. 181; note 23, p. 187; note 32, p. 189; notes 34 and 36, p. 190; note 39 on p. 192. See also note 12,  page 87 on "sexist joking"; note 6, p. 115; note 6, p. 85; note 21, p. 69 ("the pedantry is polite").

Keep in mind that one of Austen's celebrated achievements is that she does not sort her characters out into good and bad camps.

I offer some suggestions below, but please do not feel limited to them. I have pointed you to some of the most dramatic moments in the novel. But you might also consider how Austen generates suspense out of the weather, as we discussed in class: will it rain or will it not? Choose something that interests you. Write about a passage we have discussed in class only if you have more to say about it. Do not repeat points already made in class.

The critical reception of Northanger Abbey can become a bit heated when Catherine's education by Tilney is considered. (Catherine learns to resist John Thorpe [Vol. 1, Chapter 11 pp.156-60 and Chapter 13, 172] but thinks Mr. Tilney must always be right. [See Chapter 14])

See, just as example, Tilney's dramatic encounter with Catherine in the mother's room, a turning point in the novel (Vol. 2, Chapter 9).

See Vol 2, Chapter 9, note 10, p. 275

See Vol 2, Chapter 10, note 1, p. 276

See the narrator's defense of the novel at the end of chapter 5 and the first sentence of Chapter 2.

Or, see Catherine's decisions not to reply to Isabella, first because Mr. Allen wisely advises her not to, and second when she decides on her own not respond to Isabella's letter (Vol. 2, Chapter 12. p. 295).

Or Isabella's letter (Vol. 2, Chapter 12, p. 293-95).

You could also focus on something small in the novel, like the "new hat" Isabella wants to show Catherine. Or focus on the role of shame in Catherine's maturation at a specific moment.

Or focus on Austen's style or a minor character like Mrs. Allen.

Or . . .

I think the moments Wolfson says require a double reading are particularly interesting, as when a character, say Mr. Tilney, chastises Catherine for thinking his father is a murderer but chastises her with all kinds of qualification (General Tilney may not have murdered his wife, but he treated her badly when they were married. Catherine has intuited something correctly.)

Some general question to ponder: can one "save" the peculiar heroine Catherine from humiliation, shaming, torment, sleeplessness, and eventual "capitulation" to Mr. Tilney as he helps her become a better reader and marriage material and still say she is a Gothic heroine (rebellious), not a sentimental heroine? Does Austen have to make Mr. Tilney a less than ideal hero, perhaps somewhat boring, in order to make clear that he is not a bad man like John Thorpe?