Spatial Narration In Persuasion And Austen’s Sense Of Family And Nation

Jane Austen (1775-1817) is an English female novelist in the late18th and theearly19th centuries, and is often known as one of the most widely read writers inEnglish literature. Persuasion, Jane Austen’s last completed and posthumous novel,was published in1818.It is often considered that Austin’s novels focus on minor subject matter andthemes, describing several households’ affairs, such as domesticities and marriagestories. However, differing from the other five novels of Jane Austen, Persuasion isendowed with a specific time background, namely the “the summer of1814”. Theexplicit time frame makes readers pay attention to the historical background ofBritain at that time, and doubts whether Jane Austen begins to involve into a widersocial aspect. In fact, Britain has just experienced the Napoleonic wars in1814andsuffered from the devastation of war. Therefore, Persuasion, written in1815andcompleted in1816, is a vivid postwar novel. In this novel, Jane Austin representsvividly post-war British social status for readers, and shows her unknown sense offamily and nation.This thesis consists of five parts. The first part introduces the “spatial turn” innarratological studies; Jane Austen’s life and work and the researches on Persuasionat home and abroad are introduced and surveyed as well. In Chapter One, this thesisoffers the classification of narrative spaces in Persuasion. By adapting Edward W.Soja’s theory, the narrative spaces in Persuasion is accordingly divided into threeparts, namely, physical space, mental space and social space. Chapter Two discussesthe family values embodied in Persuasion. According to Gaston Bachelard’s theoryof the “felicitous space”, the original shell and dream house are analyzed respectively,and then the heroine Anne’s transformation process of family values is deduced anddiscussed. In Chapter Three, the thesis illustrates the national consciousness inPersuasion. Based on M. M. Bakhtin’s theory of chronotope, the relationship between sense of history and chronotope, as well as social concerns and house image,is discussed. The last part sums up the purpose and significance of this research. Thethesis aims to discover the profound implication and to promote the further studies ofPersuasion.