Austen vs Radcliffe
·
Austin’s appreciation of contemporary literature, and
her abilities to take its conventions and reinscribe then in her idiosyncratic
form.
·
Morland as the Female
Quixote, perceptions of the world shaped by the literature she reads.
Sensibility learned from reading certain kinds of books. Sentimentalism as a
pose rather than nature.
·
Whereas the Radcliffean heroine requires fortitude to
overcome her sentimental excesses, Austen replaces her fictional poses, such as
sensibility, which a social propriety which itself becomes the correct
definition of feminity.
·
Ruin: Represents the antithesis of Augustan ideal: the
triumph of chaos over, imagination over rationalism, nature over.
·
Typical threats of the Gothic villain: rape, murder,
kidnap, marry for lust and fiscal gain.
·
Montoni’s evil is exaggerated by Emily’s vivid
imagination D’Alambert is closer to the conception depicted by The Monk and Melmoth.
