Women and 'value' in Jane Austen's novels : settling, speculating and superfluity / Lynda A. Hall.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hall, Lynda A., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Austen, Jane, 1775-1817.

British--18th century.

British.

Characters and characteristics in literature.

Austen, Jane.

Austen, Jane, 1775-1817--Characters--Women.

Women--Psychology.

Women.

Women--Identity.

Physical Description:

x, 225 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, [2017]

Summary:

This book considers how Jane Austen's minor female characters expose the economic and social realities of British women in the long eighteenth century and reflect the conflict between intrinsic and expressed value within the evolving marketplace, where fluctuations and fictions inherent in the economic and moral value structures are exposed. Just as the newly-minted paper money was struggling to express its value, so do Austen's minor female characters struggle to assert their intrinsic value within a marketplace that expresses their worth as bearers of dowries. Austen's minor female characters expose the plight of women who settle for transactional marriages, become speculators and predators, or become superfluous women who left the marriage market and battle for personal significance and existence. These characters illustrate the ambiguity of value within the marriage market economy, exposing women's limited choices. This book employs a socio-historical framework, considering the rise of a competitive consume economy juxtaposed with affective individualism.

Contents:

Introduction

Money, value, and circulation

Marriage, credit, and a woman's education

Sense and settling

Speculation and predatory behavior

Superfluous, invisible, and invalid

The minor protagonist, or the reluctant heroine.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-218) and index.

ISBN:

3319507354

9783319507354

OCLC:

962902377