Jane Austen and Comedy

Edited by Erin Goss

SERIES: Transits: Literature, Thought & Culture, 1650-1850

Bucknell University Press

Jane Austen and Comedy takes for granted two related notions. First, Jane Austen’s books are funny; they induce laughter, and that laughter is worth attending to for a variety of reasons. Second, Jane Austen’s books are comedies, understandable both through the generic form that ends in marriage after the potential hilarity of romantic adversity and through a more general promise of wish fulfillment. In bringing together Austen and comedy, which are both often dismissed as superfluous or irrelevant to a contemporary world, this collection of essays directs attention to the ways we laugh, the ways that Austen may make us do so, and the ways that our laughter is conditioned by the form in which Austen writes: comedy. Jane Austen and Comedy invites reflection not only on her inclusion of laughter and humor, the comic, jokes, wit, and all the other topics that can so readily be grouped under the broad umbrella that is comedy, but also on the idea or form of comedy itself, and on the way that this form may govern our thinking about many things outside the realm of Austen’s work.

Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

Jane Austen and Comedy represents a long-overdue recognition of the sheer importance of Jane Austen's humor to critique her own society––and ours. Contributors to Erin M. Goss's essay collection navigate the tricky terrain of Austen's laughter, inviting readers to take seriously things not always taken seriously. In their nuanced and often sophisticated readings, they argue that her comedy, far from distracting from political reality or promoting insular nostalgia, signals resistance and even survival, for where tragedy forecloses possibility, comedy asserts a future. Jocelyn Harris, author of Satire, Celebrity, and Politics in Jane Austen

'Jane Austen and Comedy takes a fresh and capacious approach to its subject. These engaging contributions range from Eric Lindstrom’s reading of Austen as a philosophical humorist to Misty Krueger’s discussion of Austen’s fandom and contemporary ‘mashups.’ Contributions by Erin Goss, Sean Dempsey, Michael Kramp and David Sigler and others bring together the generic history of comedy, elements of Freudian psychoanalysis, and nuanced readings of Austen’s texts to broaden our understanding of what comedy means in Austen and why it matters today.' Toby Benis, author of Romantic Diasporas

An impressive compilation of erudite, thoughtful and thought-provoking essays, Jane Austen and Comedy is a seminal work of extraordinary scholarship -- and one that is unreservedly recommended for community and academic library literary collections in general, and Jane Austen supplemental curriculum studies lists in particular. Midwest Book Review

Recommended. Choice

Jane Austen and Comedy, a collection of essays edited by Erin M. Goss, encourages us to look at Austen’s comedy, not as relief, but rather as a way of focusing on the serious issues from which we may turn to her fiction for relief. SEL: Studies in English Literature

Jane Austen and Comedy represents a long-overdue recognition of the sheer importance of Jane Austen's humor to critique her own society––and ours. Contributors to Erin M. Goss's essay collection navigate the tricky terrain of Austen's laughter, inviting readers to take seriously things not always taken seriously. In their nuanced and often sophisticated readings, they argue that her comedy, far from distracting from political reality or promoting insular nostalgia, signals resistance and even survival, for where tragedy forecloses possibility, comedy asserts a future. Jocelyn Harris, author of Satire, Celebrity, and Politics in Jane Austen

'Jane Austen and Comedy takes a fresh and capacious approach to its subject. These engaging contributions range from Eric Lindstrom’s reading of Austen as a philosophical humorist to Misty Krueger’s discussion of Austen’s fandom and contemporary ‘mashups.’ Contributions by Erin Goss, Sean Dempsey, Michael Kramp and David Sigler and others bring together the generic history of comedy, elements of Freudian psychoanalysis, and nuanced readings of Austen’s texts to broaden our understanding of what comedy means in Austen and why it matters today.' Toby Benis, author of Romantic Diasporas

An impressive compilation of erudite, thoughtful and thought-provoking essays, Jane Austen and Comedy is a seminal work of extraordinary scholarship -- and one that is unreservedly recommended for community and academic library literary collections in general, and Jane Austen supplemental curriculum studies lists in particular. Midwest Book Review

Recommended. Choice

Jane Austen and Comedy, a collection of essays edited by Erin M. Goss, encourages us to look at Austen’s comedy, not as relief, but rather as a way of focusing on the serious issues from which we may turn to her fiction for relief. SEL: Studies in English Literature

ERIN GOSS is an associate professor of English at Clemson University in South Carolina. She is the author of Revealing Bodies: Anatomy, Allegory, and the Grounds of Knowledge in the Long Eighteenth Century (Bucknell University Press).

Illustrations ... v
Abbreviations ... vi
Introduction: Austen and Comedy ... 1
Erin M. Goss
Part I. Comic Energy and Explosive Humor ... 27
One - Austen, Philosophy, and Comic Stylistics ... 28
Eric Lindstrom
Two - Jane Austen: Comedy Against Happiness ... 62
David Sigler
Three - “Open-Hearted”: Persuasion and the Cultivation of Good Humor ... 95
Sean Dempsey
Part II. (Emma’s) Laughter with a Purpose ... 121
Four - After the Laughter: Seeking Perfect Happiness in Emma ... 122
Soha Chung
Five - The Comic Visions of Emma Woodhouse ... 148
Timothy Erwin
Part III. Comedic Form, Comedic Effect ... 186
Six - On Austen, Comedy, and Future Possibility ... 187
Erin M. Goss
Seven - Lost in the Comedy: Austen’s Paternalistic Men and the Problem of Accountability ...218
Michael Kramp
Eight - Sense, Sensibility, Sea Monsters, and Carnivalesque Caricature ... 248
Misty Krueger
Acknowledgments ... 272
Bibliography ... 273
Index ... 301
About the Contributors ... 302

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