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Northanger Abbey Chp 11-21 (if it's not the Thorpe masculinity, if…
Northanger Abbey
Chp 11-21
Mr Thorpe: lies to get her into a carriage alone
the politics of carriage rides
sexual threat: "smacked, whip" and the politics of "submit" (104); you can't escape
the optic of being SEEN in public in a space; the scandal of being seen (calls attention to the public policing of sexuality/desire)
the loss of virtuous reputation; the loss of value (in a society that overdetermines a woman's value [moral and monetary] on the concept of virginity); Austen critiques this ordering of women's worth based on virtue/honor (read: virginity)
Catherine's ignorance/naivety: "I am sure if I had known it to be improper" (118-9); uses Catherine's ignorance to highlight the strangeness of these concepts of virtue/public reputation (
"His intentions were such that a child could have noticed" (149): uses innocence to challenge normalcies; Austen's uses ironic misrecognition to critique gendered, sexual, and class normalcy, shows how Catherine doesn't have to orient her life around those things
if it's not the Thorpe masculinity, if it's not the over-presribed rigid class/gender sturctures of fashionable society, then what is appeal, what should we desire?
intellect/wit/creativity?
the dangers of having your emotions over ride your thoughts
the dangers of buying in to Gothic fantasies
other orientations/desires
"highest point of ecstasy" (146); ecstasy as overiding thought
Henry and Catherine's lead up to the Abbey
Henry as author: creating a spooky narrative for Catherine
spooky dead person's room, alone on the other end of the abbey; fear of isolation
perverse intimacy: funeral bed/sexy bed switchpoint; the idea that maybe spooky is sexy/ sex-death; she wants excitement , and the HOW isn't important
use of meta-fiction to talk about audience response/audience pleasures? "just like what one reads about" (161); "This is just like a book!"--sets up expectations
use of INTERTEXTUALITY
references Otranto to call attention to the history of THE NOVEL (162)
asks us to draw parallels between Matilda and Catherine (and the literary history of women and marriage markets/sexuality)
draws connections between Manfred and Thorpe--securing access to women, chasing them down, etc
sets up conversation about the gendered, sexual, and classed nature of space
sets up expectations and then gives us Catherine's disappointment
"grew ashamed of her eagerness" after the Henry as author section; this becomes a shame-fuelled education/lesson?; draws us closer to Catherine
Austen shames us as readers for wanting to get into the Gothic fiction: re-orients our pleasure and calls attention about consuming fiction about torturing women for fun