Political and Historical Austen, 1950s–1990s

An important achievement of the second half of the twentieth century was the determination to historicize literature, that is, to explore the social, cultural and aesthetic conditions in which literature is produced. This approach does not treat texts in isolation but places them in a historical context, attempting to recover the textual influences, social phenomena and cultural ideas absorbed by literary texts. In this chapter, I have selected from the abundant criticism of the second half of the twentieth-century interpretations that question the image of an ahistorical Austen or unconscious artist. These interpretations examine the novels’ grappling with hotly debated issues such as class, gender and political revolutions, as well as contemporary philosophical and aesthetic influences.