‘An Interesting and Well Written Tale’: Narration, Irony and Gender in Jane Austen’s Juvenilia

Sammanfattning: Jane Austen’s juvenilia, though their originality and sophisticated irony make them fascinating objects of study, have seldom been allowed to be the focus of critical attention. One of the main concerns of Austen’s early works is to deconstruct the workings of narration, but a narratological perspective has never before been applied to them in order to shed light upon their irony. This study investigates the relationships between the attitudes of different personae involved in the narration of Austen’s juvenilia, such as narrators and implied authors, and analyses how the discovered ‘gaps’ between these attitudes contribute to the irony of the works. This is done with particular attention to gender-related issues, as a feminist viewpoint has proved to be a fruitful stance in interpreting the juvenilia. Thus combining one tried and one untried perspective, with focus on the latter, contributes to a deeper understanding of the irony in Austen’s juvenilia.