In recent decades the vision of Austen as a subversive or rebellious
author has appeared most forcefully in the varied scholarship of
feminist literary critics. Some feminists have fashioned an Austen more
closely linked to what Juliet Mitchell has called 'The Longest
Revolution' (the women's movement) than to the French Revolution; others
have vehemently disagreed. Jane Austen and Discourses of Feminism
involves - among other things - a reassessment of these versions of
Austen's relationship to feminisms. By foregrounding issues of artistic
merit, genre, and history, many literary critics have effectively
ignored issues of gender in their studies of Austen; feminist
scholarship provided an important corrective. On the other hand, some
feminist criticism, although it approached Austen's texts in innovative
ways, gave short shrift to issues of history, literary genre, social
context, or artistry. This volume aims implicitly and explicitly to
recap second-wave feminist attention to Austen and to suggest new
directions that criticism on Austen might take.