Letters and Correspondence in Austens Emma Essay -- Jane Austen

Letters and Correspondence in Austens EmmaEmma as the next step in the epistolary novelJane Austens novel Emma was written at a time when the epistolary novel had just passed its peak (Cousineau, 32). Not entirely do earn and correspondence feature heavily in the novel, simply according to April Alliston, elements characteristic of novels of womens correspondence recur in Austen (221). almost examples of these elements that Alliston provides are the existence of young marriageable heroines deceased mothers, or profound ones which, in Austens novels, have become merely negligent and computer backup mothers who pass advice on to the daughter (221).As epistolary novels were comprised entirely of earns, primaeval novelists could assert the pretended truth of their work rather than label it as fiction (Cousineau, 28). However, one disadvantage to this practice is that artefacts such as letters are inscribed in doubleness and contradiction (Cousineau, 14). Letters serve as a medium between the letter-writers and the reader, a medium which has the potential to turn the truth according to the private and unknown whims of the writers. By adopting an omniscient account of her characters thoughts instead, Austen focussed the readers gaze on the private space from which the heroine gazes out, and then fixing her more(prenominal) squarely in its exemplary frame than letter fiction ever could (Alliston, 234). Although this method of narration sacrifices the documentary status that eighteenth century fiction strove to achieve (Alliston, 236), Austens novels allow us to escort directly into a characters thoughts. This both promises a more reliable version of truth by enabling the reader to take care a characters genuine motivation, an... ...aults Correspondences in Eighteenth-Century British and cut Womens Fiction. Stanford, California Stanford University Press, 1996. 219-241.Austen, Jane. Emma. New York Oxford University Press Inc., 2003.Austen, Jane. Pride an d Prejudice. Hertfordshire Wordsworth Editions, 1997.Cousineau, Diane. Letters and the target Office Epistolary Exchange in Jane Austens Emma. Letters and Labyrinths. Cranbury, NJ Associated University Press, 1997. 13-51.Knoepflmacher, U. C. 2. The Importance of Being Frank Character and Letter-Writing in Emma. Studies in side Literature, 1500-1900, 1967. JSTOR 7 April 2007. Wheeler, David. The British Postal Service, Privacy, and Jane Austens Emma. South Atlantic Review, 1998. JSTOR. 7 April 2007.