During the first few weeks of this course, I had no intentions of studying Jane Austen. I knew I'd have to pick a topic of study and I was sold on studying Wordsworth. In terms of awe, he is the first author to come to mind. So I read and reread his "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" trying to determine my angle in. This post describes a passage from Wordsworth and how Jane Austen became involved. I received a some helpful social proof with this idea on Google +. Amber and Cara both responded to my question: What draws readers to Jane Austen. Both of their remarks backed up my connection to Wordsworth; Austen wrote about the everyday; she took the mundane and transformed it.
I imagine my very first thesis would have gone something like this: The Romantic poets didn't like the silly and inauthentic gothic novels of the era. Austen parodies these novels so she didn't like them either. That makes Austen a Romantic which somehow somewhere connects to awe.
Lots of problems, obviously. To overcome such problems, I decided to focus on modern reception of Austen, and whether fans fed on awe or spectacle in her works. This is my pecha kucha and it shows my thoughts about this subject. At this point, I had not come to a clear definition of awe, so my actual argument is really weak and confusing. Looking back, I realize that these ideas were right on the brink of what I needed to argue--I just spent a long time circling back to it.
This post is my next big moment for my Austen research. At this point, I'd finally come to coherent argument about Austen and awe: she satirizes the language of awe. However, at this point I'd also decided that there is no "true" awe in Austen; she is only satire and all of the people who fawn over her love stories and dark heroes are missing the point. I use Barthes' "The Death of the Author" to explain how the satire of awe is misread as genuine awe. I felt that I had solid research to back this up, but I don't think I actually believed it myself. I have loved Austen since I first read her in middle school and I knew I wasn't just being sucked in by her satire, I just didn't know how to articulate what I loved about Austen.
Eventually, I gave up on really focusing on the "modern day" Austen. There was too much research to do and I really wasn't enjoying it. So this post is my first substantial outline of my argument. Essentially, Austen uses the rhetoric of awe (something we briefly touched on in class) satirically. I knew this was a point I could argue so I decided to go with it, even though my inner love for Austen was getting left behind.
With this as my thesis, I drafted a lot: here and here. I was feeling pretty good about my paper. I had a coherent argument and I had research to back it up.
However, the true magic (for me at least) comes in my final draft. As I worked on finishing my paper, I realized that my argument was missing something. I had been trying for this angle all semester, and I finally had the research and understanding to back it up! There is authentic awe in Austen, despite her satire of the rhetoric of awe. This awe comes from her juxtaposition of realism and romance. Read all about it here in my final paper. :)
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