Jane Austen's Style: Narrative Economy and the Novel's Growth
Cambridge University Press, 3/5/2020
EAN 9781108439404, ISBN10: 1108439403
Paperback, 220 pages, 22.6 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm
Language: English
Jane Austen is renowned for the economy of her art: for the close focus of her romantic plots and the precision of her writing style. Exploring that economy stylistically and structurally, this book traces Austen's keen interest in narrative form. Anne Toner pinpoints techniques that are fundamental to the distinctiveness of Austen's fiction, many of which have been little explored to date. Toner argues that Austen's conciseness in terms of plotting, narrative description and in the depiction of dialogue also contributed to her innovations in representing thought, expanding the novel's capacity to depict consciousness. Narrative and rhetorical features are presented clearly and accessibly and will open up new ways of thinking about prose style with implications for the study of fiction beyond Austen's own.
1. Structure
selection, connection, and the picturesque
2. Language
apophatic Austen (not saying things and saying so)
3. Dialogue
Austen's missing speakers and the case for free direct discourse.