Readings of Jane Austen tend to be polarised: she is seen either as conformist - the prevalent view - or quietly subversive. Drawing on the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin, this work interrogates academic and popular constructions of Jane Austen, opening up Austen's 'unresolvable dialogues'.
Readings of Jane Austen tend to be polarized: she is seen either as conformist - the prevalent view - or quietly subversive. In General Consent in Jane Austen Barbara Seeber overcomes this critical stalemate, arguing that general consent does not exist as a given in Austen's texts. Instead, her texts reveal the process of manufacturing consent - of achieving ideological dominance by silencing dissent. Drawing on the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin, Seeber interrogates academic and popular constructions of Jane Austen, opening up Austen's "unresolvable dialogues."
