Echoes of Empire as Reverberated in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park

Author Name(s):

Resmi R.

Ph.D Research Scholar, Research Centre for Comparative Studies, PG Department of English, Mercy College, Palakkad

Abstract:

In its most broad sense, imperialism refers to the configuration of an empire, and as such has been a characteristic of all periods of history in which one nation has extended its domination over one or several neighbouring nations. Famous postcolonial critic Edward W. Said’s definition of imperialism is one that specifically appeals to the active upshots of culture. Though Said is keen to ascertain how the idea and the practice of imperialism gained the consistency and density of a continuous enterprise, he does not have a systematic theory of imperialism. Said’s aim is to delineate the alliance between culture as imperialism. Nineteenth-century novel had contributed a lot to the imagination of the empire. The text has been reckoned as a vehicle of imperial authority. As is dramatized in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park (1814), in the nineteenth-century novel as in broader society, social status and moral standing, in a word propriety, were contingent upon the possession of property. This paper tries to divulge the imperial traits in Austen’s Mansfield Park with the support of views on imperialism as expressed by Edward Said.

Key words: Imperialism, Authority, Fanny Prize, Civilization, Movements, Antigua

Please cite this article as:

Resmi R (2021). Echoes of Empire as Reverberated in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park . International Journal of Recent Research and Applied Studies, 8, 4(5), 31-34.