Jane Austen and Pedagogy
A Review of “Jane Austen on Love and Pedagogical Power” by Patrick Fessenbecker
The purpose of this essay is to show that Jane Austen’s novels prove, contrary to the belief of recent critics such as Foucault, Hegel, and Benjamin, that pedagogical and romantic relationships are not mutually exclusive. Rather Austen shows that pedagogy and romance need to be put together to create a more successful love relationship. Fessenbecker says that Jane Austen recognized back in her time that it is not until you can acknowledge someone else as an oppositional other that you can begin to love them. “Oppositional other” means someone who challenges the omnipotence of the other. I call this someone who can make their lover open him or herself up to the fact that other people matter outside of your selfish tendencies.
The article glances over points about Emma, Mansfield Park, and Northanger Abbey and brings the focus to Jane Austen’s most well-known and beloved Pride and Prejudice. The characters have to try and fail domination before realizing that mutual recognition of selves is the only way to win. Another way to say this is: each must take on the needs of the other as their own needs. Jack and Jill both want to do things simply because the other wants to. You both have to want the relationship to teach you things and help make create better versions of yourselves. To reach this state, you have to acknowledge that your other has superiorities that you can learn from them.
For example, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth both control the people in their immediate circles, Elizabeth, her family and Darcy the Bingley family with whom he travels. There are no equal relationships in the book until Darcy and Elizabeth realize that they can learn from each other around the time when Darcy proposes to and is rejected by Elizabeth. He allows her to teach him that he can’t control everyone with money and superior birth. She allows him to teach her that she isn’t as morally superior as she had believed herself to be, and that he isn’t as morally inferior as she saw him to be.
In the end, it seems that by Fessenbecker sees Jane Austen as advising that the most successful relationship will be one where you both have superior qualities in different areas of life and let them make you a better couple. It’s all about learning to open yourself up to another person. My favorite line from this article is “common sense tells us that Austen probably knows more about love than either Foucault or Hegel.”
