Fan Phenomena: Jane Austen

FAN PHENOMENA

JANE AUSTEN

EDITED BY

GABRIELLE MALCOLM

Credits

First published in the UK in 2015 by Intellect Books, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK

First published in the USA in 2015 by Intellect Books, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA

Copyright © 2015 Intellect Ltd

Editor: Gabrielle Malcolm

Series Editor and Design: Gabriel Solomons

Typesetting: Stephanie Sarlos

Copy Editor: Emma Rhys

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written consent.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Fan Phenomena Series

ISSN: 2051-4468

eISSN: 2051-4476

Fan Phenomena: Jane Austen

ISBN: 978-1-78320-447-2

eISBN: 978-1-78320-448-9 / 978-1-78320-449-6

Printed and bound by

Bell & Bain Limited, Glasgow

intellect

Contents

Introduction

GABRIELLE MALCOLM

In the Regency Alternate Universe: Jane Austen and Fanfiction Culture

ALEXANDRA EDWARDS

Jane Austen Monster Mash-ups and Supernatural Spin-offs

JENNIFER MALIA

Fan Appreciation no.1

Amanda Grange

Fan Media and Transmedia: Jane Austen in the Digital Age

SCOTT CADDY

Fan Appreciation no.2

Pemberley Digital

A Grand Tour of Pemberley

CARL WILSON

Darcymania

GABRIELLE MALCOLM

Shall I Be Stared at Like a Wild Beast in a Zoo? Images of Austen in Becoming Jane and Miss Austen Regrets

REBECCA WHITE

Who Am I?: Relationships Between Reader and Heroine Explored Through the Popular 'Which Jane Austen Heroine Are You?' Quizzes

LINDSEY SEATTER

Fan Appreciation no.3

Jane Odiwe

Crafting Jane Austen: Handmade Homages and Their Makers

ALLISON THOMPSON

Puzzling Lace: Piecing Together Jane Austen Gifts

JOANNA TURNER

Fan Appreciation no.4

Jackie Herring

Between Tradition and Innovation: Celebrating Jane Austen in Italy Today

ELEONORA CAPRA

‘She’s Everywhere’: Jane Austen in the Blogosphere

CHRIS LOUTITT

General Go Further

Contributor details

Image credits

Acknowledgements

Thanks to E. Anna Claydon (University of Leicester) for the invitation to deliver an ‘Ideograms’ lecture that sparked this study off; thanks to Gabriel Solomons at Intellect, and to Jackie Herring and all the team behind the Jane Austen Festival in Bath. I want to thank all the contributors for their entertaining and inspiring chapters and all those who granted permission for their images and content to be used. A special thanks goes to Bernie Su and the team at Pemberley Digital in LA for their cooperation and insight. The tribe of Janeites is substantial, and has been hugely supportive of this volume, with a special thanks to authors Amanda Grange, Cassandra Grafton, Jane Odiwe, Audrey Harrison and all on Austen Variations. I also want to thank the wonderful Sophie Andrews (Laughing With Lizzie) and Rita Lacerda Watts (at the All Things Jane Austen community).

And thanks to my wonderful Andrew, and our boys Alexander and Antony, who have all come to know Jane as one of the family!

Gabrielle Malcolm, Editor

Introduction

Gabrielle Malcolm

What is the joy of Jane? What is it about her work that keeps readers, and viewers, coming back for more? Is it the Darcy effect? Is it the irony, the wit, the romance? Or is it a combination of all these factors? Many critics and authors have compiled works to analyse this vast and still growing phenomenon of fandom.

John Mullan, Claudia L. Johnson, John Wiltshire, Claire Harman and Deborah Yaffe, amongst others, have asked these questions recently and considered the range of factors from different perspectives. This collection offers material about the fans, for the fans, by the fans, and offers a combination of the popular and the academic. The writers here consider the sometimes very obvious schism between mainstream fan culture and academia, and in reference to fan culture address the questions of quality and criticism, as well as interrogate whether the reception of Austen is more hearts and flowers or biting satire. What are the principal attractions of the works and their many, many spin-offs?

Austen prompts so much devotion, loyalty, and passion in fans that sometimes the critic and editor must tread carefully. The fan culture surrounding Austen can be hearts and flowers, dramatic escapism, and true love resolved in happiness and reconciliation. As the most extraordinary comic novelist, social satirist, and one who displayed the wittiest irony to be found in the pages of literature, she also provokes humour and wit in her imitators. This is her ‘intricate brilliance’, as John Mullan describes it. It is the nuanced simultaneity she achieved, so that her novels are journeys of personal discovery, romantic fulfilment and witty and ironic social satire, which can inspire numerous responses in others.

Austen’s publications appeared at an interesting time: the beginning of a new century when readers were already well-versed in different forms of the novel. There was an appetite for the outright dramatic, gory and the Gothic, such as Matthew Lewis’s The Monk (1796). This was the type of work that articulated society’s anxieties by way of morbid and supernatural subject matter. More philosophical, but no less dramatic, was Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus (1818), in which the young author evolved the story of the scientist who dares to experiment with human life. In between these publications blossomed Austen’s career, for which she exploited the sophistication of Romantic philosophies, the hunger amongst readers for wish-fulfilling romance, and the excitement of the twists and turns of the plot-driven narrative with multiple resolutions.

Austen’s formation of her novels was a hybrid of different types, from the eighteenth century and into the early nineteenth century. She made use of the epistolary form in the second half of Pride and Prejudice (1813); the picaresque form with the titular heroine in Emma (1815);¹ and the domestic melodrama centred upon life in a particular household and location with Northanger Abbey (1817) and Mansfield Park (1814). She was writing at a time when the intersection of different forms saw her compose a highly original set of works. She moved the novel forwards into the new century, and ‘did things with characterisation, with dialogue, with English sentences, that had never been done before’ (Mullan). Chief amongst the driving forces that encouraged her to write were the plays of Richard Sheridan and the novels of Ann Radcliffe.

Therefore, Austen provides substantial bedrock on which other authors and fans develop their creativity and invention, as she developed from her influences. In her chapter Regency Alternative Universe (Regency AUs), Alexandra Edwards examines the fanfiction exploration of a Norse-mythology-comic-book-inspired reworking of Jane Austen’s plots for Sense and Sensibility (1811) and Pride and Prejudice, amongst others, and the characters and situations of Marvel Production’s film of Thor (dir. Kenneth Branagh, 2011). This aligns Austen with Marvel in a narrative collaboration that subverts artistic and social conventions and expectations, and allocates the superior power with the female roles in a ‘matrilineal’ fantasy mythic society. Jennifer Malia considers another alignment of Austen – that of the fashion for mash-ups. In ‘Jane Austen Monster Mashups and Supernatural Spin-offs’, she selects Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009) as the point of departure for this popularity. The hybrid form of the mash-up, combining forms and pushing the boundaries of genre, has had a specific impact on the blending of romance and horror.

Figure 1: Cassandra Grafton, author of A Fair Prospect novel series, in 2013 after the Darcy bust had been reinstated at Chatsworth. Image courtesy of Cassandra Grafton.

Scott Caddy’s chapter on ‘Fan Media and Transmedia: Jane Austen in the Digital Age’, looks at a further strand of Internet fandom: the multiplatform, interactive adaptation in the work of Pemberley Digital on YouTube. He examines the notion of ‘virtual evanescence’ in Austen fan culture; a concept that describes the work spawned by her novels and the outward momentum of it that takes in ‘primary, secondary, and tertiary (and so forth) detail relative to her’, in Claudia Johnson’s words. A good illustration of this is the plot of Pride and Prejudice used by Helen Fielding in Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996), which self-consciously referenced the BBC adaptation of Pride & Prejudice by Andrew Davies in 1995, and the casting of Colin Firth as Darcy. Then, for the 2001 adaptation of Bridget Jones onto the screen, Firth played Mark Darcy, the character that was modelled on his portrayal of Fitzwilliam Darcy – ‘and so forth’. Pemberley Digital has exploited this virtual evanescence in the formation of their adaptations of Austen’s novels. The interviews with the Pemberley Digital writing and transmedia team include one with Alexandra Edwards, whose work involves many facets of fan culture and authorship.

From the virtual community, Carl Wilson takes us into the tangible fan culture of ‘A Grand Tour of Pemberley’; in fact, into a of Pemberleys thanks to the interiors and exteriors of the great houses used as locations for Darcy’s estate. He looks at the involvement of JASUK (Jane Austen Society of the United Kingdom) and discusses with the chair of the Northern Branch, Marilyn Joice, what the interaction of fans on-site has signified, and how stately homes have taken on new identities thanks to film and television adaptations of Austen’s novels. My own chapter examines ‘Darcymania’; the reasons why the archetype of Austen’s romantic hero works so well and why he has provided such an inspiration for other writers and fans across the past two centuries when other heroes have not exerted such a draw. In this chapter I look at the ways in which Austen’s influences are manifest throughout her work. The author of a series of Austenesque fiction, Cassandra Grafton, has shared her views on Darcy’s popularity and included photographs of the resin bust of Darcy, played by Matthew Macfadyen, at Chatsworth. She set up a campaign for the bust to be part of a permanent display at the house.

Figure 2: Beautifully presented costumes at the Masked Ball, Jane Austen Festival, Bath, 2014. Fans aim for authenticity in structure and detail, as well as looking for a character or persona to portray. Image courtesy of the Jane Austen Festival and Owen Benson Visuals, Bath.

Into other versions of Austen and her life, Rebecca White considers the depiction of the author on-screen in ‘Shall I Be Stared at Like a Wild Beast in a Zoo?’ How has Austen, the woman and writer, been rendered in the minds of other writers, directors and actors in the biopic versions of Becoming Jane (dir. Julian Jarrold, 2007) and Miss Austen Regrets (dir. Jeremy Lovering, 2007)? And how is this negotiation of her life influenced by fan culture, and what is its effect on the continuation of that culture? Speculation about the life and character of the author is fascinating, and of equal fascination is speculation about the fan’s identification with the woman and her characters. In ‘Who Am I?: Relationships between Reader and Heroine Explored through the Popular Which Jane Austen Heroine Are You? Quizzes’, Lindsey Seatter explores the proliferation of these online quizzes and the self-selection and casting of fans into their favoured roles.

The lived experience of costume, role play, theatricals and expert recreation of Regency life and times is reflected upon by Jackie Herring, Director of the Jane Austen Festival in Bath. Allison Thompson looks in detail at how tangible artefacts enhance the experience and enjoyment of fans in her chapter ‘Crafting Jane Austen: Handmade Homages and Their Makers’. These fans pursue the meticulously researched article as well as the pastiche, composite or kitsch item that reminds them of their favourite scene or extract from a film or novel. In tandem with this is Joanna Turner’s chapter on ‘Puzzling Lace: Piecing Together Jane Austen Gifts’ that draws in the global market of merchandising for fans and tourists, whether as one-off gifts or as part of a fuller, personal, commemorative experience as a member of the JAS (Jane Austen Society) or other groups.

The global membership of groups, rising in number every year, is the subject of Eleonora Capra’s analysis of the recently formed JAS of Italy and the reception of Austen’s works in that country. She engages with a range of activities, from the receptions and gatherings to the recreations of scenes from the novels in the Italian countryside. Capra assesses how the improvement in translations from the English has encouraged a greater following amongst Italian fans as they appreciate the subtleties of the novels. An increased sophisticated understanding of the works has resulted in an increase in passionate fan followers. Chris Loutitt has had the opportunity to appraise the activity of the online fan communities of the blogosphere. In She’s Everywhere: Jane Austen in the Blogosphere, he charts the development of influential blogs, including important figures such as Margaret C. Sullivan and Vic Sanborn. He also isolates some of the blogging activity of Dutch fans, a ‘late blooming’ phenomenon.

Figure 3: Sharing the joke: Janeites enjoy a witty meme with knowing references to novel and film.

In his book The Pleasure of the Text (1973) Roland Barthes examines the philosophy and meaning of writing and reading. He shifts across the different positions and encounters involved in the reader’s experience of the ‘writerly’ text. This is the sort of novel that requires an active endeavour from the reader and enables them to break out of their familiar position and discover real ‘bliss’ (or ‘jouissance’) with the art form. ‘The pleasure of the text’, he states, resides in ‘hope’ and in ‘knowing the end of the story (novelistic satisfaction)’ (11). The active engagement, including mental re-enactment, as well as the familiarity with the material creates a profound response in the reader, sometimes akin to erotic excitement. This expresses some of the lived and felt experiences across Austen fan culture.

The fans love the way the clever material appeals to their wit and emotions; they enjoy the engagement with the text and the repetition of that via different means and forms. It is the intelligence of Austen’s writing that makes this repeated enjoyment possible. One of the best representations of the fan culture is the sense of society and community that has developed and directly echoes some of the depictions of society in the novels, with the social gatherings, correspondence and knowing-wit within select groups. Fans enjoy the collective engagement and the sharing of the joy and the joke. A great example of this is the interaction that popular blogger Laughing With Lizzie – Sophie Andrews – has with the followers of her site and Facebook page. Also, Rita Lacerda Watts, who runs All Things Jane Austen, that has, as of late 2014, over 10,000 followers on Facebook. These hosts and bloggers operate as a network of friends around the world: Sophie in the United Kingdom and Rita in the United States. They keep one another, and the fans, informed about new works and adaptations, and share conversations, giveaways and new material that comes their way. They collaborate with and publicize the work of writers of Austenesque fiction and spin-offs, many of whom are in the collective online group Austen Variations. Members of this group include Shannon Winslow, Cassandra Grafton, Marilyn Brant and Jane Odiwe. The writers and fans are researchers, historians, activists, artists, scholars and self-starters who share a common interest and vocabulary in All Things Jane Austen.

GO FURTHER

Books

What Matters in Jane Austen

John Mullan

(New York & London: Bloomsbury, 2012)

The Pleasure of the Text

Roland Barthes

(New York: Hill & Wang, 1975)

Notes

1 The picaresque form traditionally involves a lower-class, roguish male protagonist and shows no character development. Emma is an inversion of the form, with the protagonist as an upper-class, well-bred female heroine who has to learn and gain insight.

Chapter 01

In the Regency Alternate Universe: Jane Austen and Fanfiction Culture

Alexandra Edwards

Explorations of Jane Austen fandom and fanworks have proliferated in recent years. Running roughly parallel to but rarely intersecting with the more media-based world of fan studies, pop cultural Austen criticism has examined published pastiche, sequels, fanfiction and more.¹ But what is happening outside the so-called ‘borders’ of Austen fandom itself (as the Republic of Pemberley’s website terms it)?

How are fans of science fiction/fantasy, comic books or other popular authors using Austen’s works to transform their own beloved texts? As this chapter will demonstrate, Austen’s Regency circulates more widely than we have previously noticed. Its tropes are found in use in a variety of fanworks, crossing over and sneaking into popular reimaginings of other media properties. In fanfiction parlance, these stories belong to a subgenre called the Regency Alternate Universe (or AU).

This chapter examines the collection of Regency AUs on the popular fanfiction site Archive of Our Own, using metadata to explore the fandoms that employ Austenian tropes and how these stories might differ from