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The term Janeite has been both embraced by
devotees
Devotion or Devotions may refer to:
Religion
* Faith, confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept
* Anglican devotions, private prayers and practices used by Anglican Christians
* Buddhist devotion, commitment to religious observance
* Cat ...
of the works of
Jane Austen
Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...
and used as a term of opprobrium. According to Austen scholar
Claudia Johnson ''Janeitism'' is "the self-consciously idolatrous enthusiasm for 'Jane' and every detail relative to her".
[Johnson, 211.]
History
Janeitism did not begin until after the publication of
J. E. Austen-Leigh's ''
A Memoir of Jane Austen
''A Memoir of Jane Austen'' is a biography of the novelist Jane Austen (1775–1817) published in 1869 by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh. A second edition was published in 1871 which included previously unpublished Jane Austen writings. ...
'' in 1870, when the literary elite felt that they had to separate their appreciation of Austen from that of the masses.
The term ''Janeite'' was originally coined by the literary scholar
George Saintsbury
George Edward Bateman Saintsbury, FBA (23 October 1845 – 28 January 1933), was an English critic, literary historian, editor, teacher, and wine connoisseur. He is regarded as a highly influential critic of the late 19th and early 20th centu ...
in his 1894 introduction to a new edition of ''
Pride and Prejudice
''Pride and Prejudice'' is an 1813 novel of manners by Jane Austen. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreci ...
''. As Austen scholar Deidre Lynch explains, "he meant to equip himself with a badge of honor he could jubilantly pin to his own lapel". It has been said that the early twentieth century, Janeitism was "principally a male enthusiasm shared among publishers, professors, and literati".
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
...
even published a
short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
entitled
"The Janeites" about a group of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
soldiers who were secretly fans of Austen's novels. There were, however, late nineteenth and early twentieth-century female devotees of Austen, especially in the New Woman movement and among women's suffrage activists.
During the 1930s and 1940s, when Austen's works were
canonised
Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of ...
and accepted as worthy of academic study, the term began to change meaning. It was used to signify those who appreciated Austen in the "wrong" way and the term, according to Lynch, began to be "used almost exclusively about and against ''other'' people" (emphasis in original). This is no longer necessarily the case, as Austen appreciators have reclaimed the term in books and on social media.
Present day
Modern Janeites are described by their most fervent detractors in the same tones as
Trekkies; academically speaking, the Janeite phenomenon can be seen as the very first "
subculture
A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...
" with all the attendant aspects, including pejorative but also positive. Johnson noted Janeites are "derided and marginalized by dominant cultural institutions bent on legitimizing their own objects and protocols of expertise".
[Johnson, 224.] However, though academics dismiss the Janeites as the literary equivalent to Trekkies, there is a difference in that Austen's works are considered to be high culture unlike ''Star Trek''.
It remains a popular interest however, with publication of such recent books as 2013's ''
Among the Janeites: A Journey through the World of Jane Austen Fandom ''and ''Global Jane Austen: Pleasure, Passion, and Possessiveness in the Jane Austen Community.''
At the same time, Austen remains a topic of serious academic inquiry at top global universities in a way to which very recent subcultures are only just beginning to aspire. The male Janites have often been attacked as unmanly.
[Johnson, 220.] For an example, the British scholar
H. W. Garrod delivered "A Depreciation of Jane Austen" before the Royal Society for Literature in May 1928, which Johnson called extremely misogynistic and homophobic, as he attacked Austen as a writer for no other reason than she was a woman, whose male characters were all "soft", and contemptuously stated that any man who liked Austen was effeminate and not a real man at all.
Johnson argued that attacks such as Garrod's on the Janeites might help explain why the Janeites were once wrongly understood to be predominately female.
Scholars such as Johnson and Lynch study "the ludic enthusiasm of
heamateur reading clubs, whose 'performances' include teas,
costume balls, games, readings, and dramatic representations, staged with a campy
anglophilia
An Anglophile is a person who admires or loves England, its people, its culture, its language, and/or its various accents.
Etymology
The word is derived from the Latin word '' Anglii'' and Ancient Greek word φίλος ''philos'', meaning "frie ...
in North America, and a brisker antiquarian meticulousness in England, and whose interests range from Austenian dramatizations, to fabrics, to genealogies, and to weekend study trips".
[Johnson, 223.] Lynch has described committed Janeites as members of a
cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...
, comparing their travels to places Austen lived or places described in her novels or their adaptations as
pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
s, for example. She argues that such activities provide "a kind of time-travel to the past, because they preserve an all but vanished
Englishness or set of 'traditional' values....This may demonstrate the influence of a sentimental account of Austen's novels that presents them as means by which readers might go home again – to a comfortable, soothingly normal world."
[Lynch, "Cult of Jane Austen", 113–117.] More recently, scholars have been less dismissive of the cultural importance, rich history, and social power of literary
fandom
A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...
s, including Austen's.
Notes
Bibliography
*
Johnson, Claudia L. "Austen cults and cultures". ''The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen''. Eds. Edward Copeland and Juliet McMaster. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. .
*
Looser, Devoney. ''The Making of Jane Austen''. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017
*Luetkenhaus, Holly and Zoe Weinstein.
Austentatious: The Evolving World of Jane Austen Fans'. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2019.
*
Lynch, Deidre. "Cult of Jane Austen". ''Jane Austen In Context''. Ed.
Janet Todd
Janet Margaret Todd OBE (born 10 September 1942) is a British academic and author. She was educated at Cambridge University and the University of Florida, where she undertook a doctorate on the poet John Clare. Much of her work concerns Ma ...
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. .
*Lynch, Deidre. "Introduction: Sharing with Our Neighbors". ''Janeites: Austen's Disciples and Devotees''. Ed. Deidre Lynch. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. .
*Lynch, Deidre. "Sequels". ''Jane Austen In Context''. Ed. Janet Todd. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. .
*MacDonald, Gina and Andrew MacDonald, eds.
Jane Austen on Screen'. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
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