Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf and Worldly Realism

Austen and Woolf are materialists, this book argues. ‘Things’ in their novels give us entry into some of the most contentious issues of the day. This wholly materialist understanding produces worldly realism, an experimental writing practice which asserts egalitarian continuity between people, thing...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Morris, Pam
Format:	Book
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Austen, Jane, > 1775-1817 Austen, Jane, > 1775-1817 > Criticism and interpretation Biography, Literature and Literary studies Book Industry Communication Idealism Individualism Jane Austen Language & Literature LITERARY CRITICISM Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers Literature Literature & literary studies Literature: history & criticism Literature: history and criticism Philosophical realism Realism in literature thema EDItEUR Virginia Woolf Women Authors Woolf, Virginia, > 1882-1941 Woolf, Virginia, > 1882-1941 > Criticism and interpretation
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Summary:	Austen and Woolf are materialists, this book argues. ‘Things’ in their novels give us entry into some of the most contentious issues of the day. This wholly materialist understanding produces worldly realism, an experimental writing practice which asserts egalitarian continuity between people, things and the physical world. This radical redistribution of the importance of material objects and biological existence, challenges the traditional idealist hierarchy of mind over matter that has justified gender, class and race subordination. Entering their writing careers at the critical moments of the French Revolution and the First World War respectively, and sharing a political inheritance of Scottish Enlightenment scepticism, Austen’s and Woolf’s rigorous critiques of the dangers of mental vision unchecked by facts is more timely than ever in the current world dominated by fundamentalist neo-liberal, religious and nationalist belief systems.