Enter the universe of Jane Austen the great English writer born on December 16th 250 years ago means immersing yourself in a world of subtle irony, social criticism and unforgettable love stories. Stories that, although set in the early 1800s, still conquer and captivate readers today. An example of a free and strong-willed woman, both she and her heroines remain, after more than two centuries, examples of free women. But was she really? We talk about it with Carolina Capria, writer and screenwriter as well as author of the interesting (and informative) essay Forever yours. The Endless World of Jane Austen (Gribaudo). «I honestly believe that no woman can define herself as free, not even now, because the constraints that society imposes are still so many and we can hardly escape the imposed roles. Jane Austen certainly managed, however, with the very few means she had, to claim for herself a space that she was not expected to occupy; therefore, even if she was not truly free, she remains an example of determination and great strength”.
Could his life have been one of his novels?
«His life today could certainly be told in a novel, because fortunately in our era there is also room for stories that do not end with marriage and have brilliant women as protagonists. Having never married and having chosen writing as her life partner, however, Jane Austen undertook and pursued a path that would never have been granted to the heroine of a novel from the Georgian era.”
Let’s dispel a myth. Is it right to consider it women’s literature?
«It is certainly wrong to think that there is a type of writing linked to gender, because men and women reflect on every aspect of existence, and therefore create works that aim to speak to all humanity. However, it is certainly true that every author brings their own experience and experience to their writing, a peculiar way of looking at the world. Jane Austen wrote works for everyone, but she certainly chose to talk about what she knew: what it meant to be a girl at the end of the 1700s.”
Jane Austen’s characters are often defined according to an “income”. Yet, in his novels we talk about love…
«Apparently yes, we talk about love, but in reality love is often just a pretext to talk about something else. The distortions of an extremely classist and sexist society, for example, and how important it is for a girl to cultivate sisterly relationships. Money is often at the center of Jane Austen’s narratives, because for her and for girls like her, with neither rank nor wealth, money was objectively much more important than love, because if without love one can survive, without a roof over one’s head and food on the table, no.”
Pride and Prejudice is the best known novel, what makes it still so current?
«Pride and Prejudice is a timeless novel because it tells a timeless story, that of a boy and a girl who manage to look at each other and discover each other beyond their respective prejudices. And then Elizabeth Bennet is perhaps the first true modern heroine, endowed with self-love, intelligence and assertiveness, therefore, a girl in whom even a contemporary sixteen-year-old can recognize aspects of herself.”
Mr. Darcy is the most famous protagonist. But not the only one. What about other men?
«The male protagonists are actually all very different, but what they have in common is the ability to really see the woman in whom they are interested. Darcy, Knightley, Wentworth, Tilney… are men listening, genuinely intrigued by the girl in front of them and ready to welcome her gaze and her words without arrogance or paternalism.”
Parents, children, grandchildren, cousins, uncles. What value does the family she describes in her novels have for Jane Austen?
«Both in novels and in life, family played a very important role for Jane Austen. Without the love of her sister Cassandra, the trust of her father George and the generosity of her brothers, perhaps Jane Austen would not have succeeded in the titanic undertaking of publishing three novels in her lifetime and also achieving moderate success. In the novels – as in life – an idea of family transpires that today we would define as progressive, in which what counts is not so much the blood bond but rather the choice.”
The use of letters to communicate, a beautiful narrative device?
«For us it is certainly a wonderful narrative device, for Jane Austen it was normal. Letters were the only tool that allowed people to stay in touch, and specifically in the lives of women, often relegated to the home, they also represented the only way to maintain ties with distant relatives and friends. Jane Austen often entrusts letters with a very important role in the development of the plot and this also because – in addition to literary mastery – they had a crucial role in her life and allowed her to cultivate on a daily basis the relationship that was most important to her: the one with her sister Cassandra”.
Among the numerous film productions, TV series, spin-offs, adaptations, quotes and much more, which are the most noteworthy?
«It is practically impossible to draw a map of all the works inspired, more or less explicitly, by Jane Austen’s novels. But I remain very attached to the first series I saw taken from Pride and Prejudice, the one produced by the BBC in 1995 and which brought one of the most iconic Mr. Darcys to history, the one played by Colin Firth.”
