The creator paratopia of Jane Austen: a feminist writer?

Abstract

Starting from Discourse Analysis of French tradition and based on the notion of creative paratopia formulated by Maingueneau (2006, 2012), we study the features of what is referred as feminist discourse present in the work of English writer Jane Austen. We will focus on three works: "Sense and Sensibility" (1811), "Pride and Prejudice" (1813) and "Persuasion" (1818). Therefore, we must considerate the social context of nineteenth-century England, covering the "First-Wave Feminism", which dealt primarily with voting rights for women and labor and educational rights that have delineated as a necessity during the Industrial Revolution. At this juncture emerges Austen's work, which we seek to address in the perspective of a literary discourse considered as feminist and, further, critical to the period of the society in which it appears.The writer, who published her works under pseudonyms, is still acclaimed by the description she made about English rural society and by the strength of her narrative, highlighting what we call "feminine identity" through the creation of stubborn, independent and bold personalities.What interests us here is to understand the workings of the three instances cited by Dominique Maingueneau as constitutive of authorship: writer, inscritor and person.