Mansfield Park, a novel set amongst the landed gentry of Britain, has long been thought by some scholars to essentially endorse a patriarchal status quo. On the contrary, a careful interrogation of the text, informed by an anti-colonialist lens, establishes that Mansfield Park contains a cloaked yet pointed condemnation of imperialism. The current critical conversation, however, does not adequately address Austen's allusions to Ireland.
     Early in the novel, the Bertram girls ask Fanny Price "which way she would go to get to Ireland." Fanny's response that she would "cross to the Isle of Wight," contextualizes the struggle against empire. She is saying that the Bertrams shouldn't go to Ireland at all--but tellingly, she is then derided as "ignorant."
     But this is merely prelude to the Sotherton episode in the novel. On the journey out -- we might almost say "on the expedition" -- Julia Bertram sits beside Henry Crawford on the barouche-box. He "entertains" her with some anecdotes about an "old Irish groom" of his uncle's.  Henry's bigoted remarks are not necessary to move the plot along. Austen could easily have come up with an alternative topic for Henry.  Julia joins in the laughter at the expense of a man who is both an immigrant and a subordinate.     

   While reading Jane Austen: the Secret Radical, I had the irresistible urge to try my own hand at writing a spoof of the type of literary criticism that Helena Kelly employs. It was surprisingly easy -- I had my parodies, published below, written in under an hour. [Update: here is another parody for April Fool's Day]

   Modern literary criticism contains two basic elements: One, drawing connections between disparate things in the book which have no obvious relevance to the plot or the theme to find symbolism where none was intended. This is an especially clever technique because it is non-falsifiable. You can pronounce that some inanimate object in the book is freighted with meaning, and nobody can dig the author up out of her grave to contradict you.

    Secondly, investing classic literature with overtones of modern attitudes towards sex, gender identity, colonialism, imperialism, race and intersectionalism.
    Consider the picnic on Box Hill in Emma. We modern readers can't help thinking about the servants preparing, carrying and setting out the meal, and then waiting respectfully at a distance while the ladies and gentlemen sat and ate it, and then cleaning up after the ladies and gentlemen when they were all finished with their nice al fresco repast. But none of that is mentioned in the novel, only a brief reference to servants and carriages at the end of the passage. To Austen, servants were a fact of life...