Reading Women in the Works of Austen and Flaubert In Which Three Heroines Learn How to Read, or Die Trying

Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Van Tuyl, Jocelyn

Keywords

Reading, Women Reading, Austen, Jane, Flaubert, Gustave

Area of Concentration

Literature

Abstract

This thesis explores Jane Austen and Gustave Flaubert�s critique of women�s reading practices through their presentation of reading heroines, as well as these female characters� relationships with their reading counterparts of both genders. The first chapter focuses on the development of Catherine Morland, the heroine of Austen�s Northanger Abbey, both as a reader who moves from a literal to a critical reading mode and as a character who grows from ignorance to awareness. The second chapter examines Marianne Dashwood of Austen�s Sense and Sensibility, demonstrating the author�s agenda of promoting the evolution of anti-social, excessively sentimental reading practices into a more acceptable, sense-based reading system. The final chapter centers on Flaubert�s Madame Bovary and the author�s use of the title character�s frustration and disillusionment to critique gender bias in nineteenth-century French reading practices. I conclude that both Austen and Flaubert punish reading practices and social interactions which violate the established system of propriety in their respective societies. Further, I argue that both authors use their critique of problematic reading strategies as a gateway to a greater exploration of late eighteenthand early nineteenth-century England and France in terms of social restrictiveness and lack of educational opportunities for women.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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