Tumblr crosspost (11 January 2021)
Apr. 3rd, 2024 10:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anghrainemoggett responded to this post:
It also seems to utterly ignore how Elizabeth is also supposed to be overcoming her initial incorrect first impression of Darcy. It’s not like Elizabeth is perfect in the text while Darcy changes…
I replied:
Oh, definitely. With fandom, to be fair, you get a mix of that and more balanced takes, but I think academia generally (though not always) tends to resist the equality between them forwarded by P&P’s structure and dynamics.
I think it’s partly because P&P does a really good job of inviting readers to participate in Elizabeth’s perceptions and mistakes while leaving open the possibility of doing otherwise, which is especially uncomfortable for academics of a certain type (who are often not great at accepting being wrong), and all the more so for ones who can’t bring themselves to complicate their initial judgment of Elizabeth as the only truly right-thinking character.
It’s an old piece, but I remember reading an essay about how Darcy’s letter hijacks readerly sympathies that should continue to belong with Elizabeth to the point of provoking resentment from readers. I don’t think it actually does that for most readers (Darcy has always been popular, as Austen intended; when she was worrying about what her beloved niece would think of P&P, Austen wrote, "Her liking Darcy and Eliz[abe]th is enough. She might hate all the others if she would"). But it does have that effect for some people who are often prone to these academic approaches. But it’s—the evidence that Elizabeth’s judgments are skewed by her vanity is pretty copious by the time that Darcy proposes, if you’re willing to see it, and unwillingness to see it or give it ethical weight even upon re-reading is, I think, basically an unwillingness to engage with the novel on its own terms.
Tagged: #/rambles #i genuinely think a lot of academia handwringing over pride and prejudice comes from being unable to accept being wrong #with a side of hugely prioritizing theory to the point of neglecting the details of the text #i don't mean subtle detail either ... it's more of what strier was talking about imo
It also seems to utterly ignore how Elizabeth is also supposed to be overcoming her initial incorrect first impression of Darcy. It’s not like Elizabeth is perfect in the text while Darcy changes…
I replied:
Oh, definitely. With fandom, to be fair, you get a mix of that and more balanced takes, but I think academia generally (though not always) tends to resist the equality between them forwarded by P&P’s structure and dynamics.
I think it’s partly because P&P does a really good job of inviting readers to participate in Elizabeth’s perceptions and mistakes while leaving open the possibility of doing otherwise, which is especially uncomfortable for academics of a certain type (who are often not great at accepting being wrong), and all the more so for ones who can’t bring themselves to complicate their initial judgment of Elizabeth as the only truly right-thinking character.
It’s an old piece, but I remember reading an essay about how Darcy’s letter hijacks readerly sympathies that should continue to belong with Elizabeth to the point of provoking resentment from readers. I don’t think it actually does that for most readers (Darcy has always been popular, as Austen intended; when she was worrying about what her beloved niece would think of P&P, Austen wrote, "Her liking Darcy and Eliz[abe]th is enough. She might hate all the others if she would"). But it does have that effect for some people who are often prone to these academic approaches. But it’s—the evidence that Elizabeth’s judgments are skewed by her vanity is pretty copious by the time that Darcy proposes, if you’re willing to see it, and unwillingness to see it or give it ethical weight even upon re-reading is, I think, basically an unwillingness to engage with the novel on its own terms.
Tagged: #/rambles #i genuinely think a lot of academia handwringing over pride and prejudice comes from being unable to accept being wrong #with a side of hugely prioritizing theory to the point of neglecting the details of the text #i don't mean subtle detail either ... it's more of what strier was talking about imo