Literary Criticism Article Research

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“Money in Jane Austen”Robert D. Hume

The Pennsylvania State University

AbstractRecent scholars have demonstrated that Jane Austen does not depict a ‘bourgeois’ world. But the attention paid to socio-economic issues of rank or class in the novels has been accompanied by relatively little specificity about the magnitude and buying power of particular sums, especially incomes. Austen lived a very straitened life in economic terms, and she was, unsurprisingly, hyperconscious of money. Each novel poses economic questions, but the difficulty of determining present-day-equivalent buying power makes it hard to judge the magnitude of the sums involved. While recognizing that ‘retail price’ and ‘average earnings’ may diverge as measures of inflation by a factor of more than thirteen, this essay argues that a multiplier somewhere between 100 and 150 produces a generally plausible equivalent today. It also argues that attention to the size and buying power of the specified incomes of Austen’s principals underlines their elite status. Bingley’s £4000–5000 per annum puts him in the top one-tenth of 1% of the population, and Mr. Bennet’s £2000 falls in the top one-fifth of 1%. Yet Austen makes clear that Mr. Bennet has saved nothing, and will leave his wife and daughters in relatively penury when he dies. Pride and Prejudice can be read as a delightful romance, but properly understood, the romance camouflages a grimly realistic depiction of the dismal position of genteel women in Austen’s society.

© The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press 2012; all rights reserved

Name_________________________________________________________________________________Period_____AP Literature____/10 pts.

Literary Criticism ResearchSince you will be writing a critical analysis essay on one of your AP novels, it will be helpful to look at scholarly literary criticism articles that have already been written about that text or author. Use the websites given to look up literary criticism articles on your chosen novel or author. Choose two articles to read and analyze.Title/Author of AP Novel:____________________________________________________________________________________________________Title/Author of Critical Analysis Article:____________________________________________________________________________________________________Publication Journal & Date:____________________________________________________________________________________________________Main Thesis of the Article:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________At Least Three Main Points in the Article:______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Which critical perspective/s is the writer using in the article? Is their analysis supported with evidence from the text/author and other sources? Is their argument persuasive/valid/well thought out? Explain.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Literary Criticism ResearchSince you will be writing a critical analysis essay on one of your AP novels, it will be helpful to look at scholarly literary criticism articles that have already been written about that text or author. Use the websites given to look up literary criticism articles on your chosen novel or author. Choose two articles to read and analyze.

Title/Author of AP Novel:____________________________________________________________________________________________________Title/Author of Critical Analysis Article:____________________________________________________________________________________________________Publication Journal & Date:____________________________________________________________________________________________________Main Thesis of the Article:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________At Least Three Main Points in the Article:______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Which critical perspective/s is the writer using in the article? Is their analysis supported with evidence from the text/author and other sources? Is their argument persuasive/valid/well thought out? Explain.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________