A few thoughts on Lynch

Deidre Lynch's Economy of Character argues, in contrast to Ian Watt, that complicated characters in novels did not develop in response to the rise of individualism and "democratic revolutions" (125) (Lynch doesn't mention that they were, of course, actually republican revolutions, which would make the individual slightly less significant), but that economics played a role in this phenomenon.

Lynch says that "refined" readers distinguished themselves from "vulgar" readers by their appreciation of characters with more "depth" (127), and that identification with the new round characters allowed people to create themselves as individuals and to "expand their own interior resources of sensibility" (126) .

One of her examples of the new sensibility is the new way of appreciating landscapes, which she describes as one of many "new technologies of the self" (143). I was puzzled by this because I assume that people have always appreciated the beauty of nature. However, I realized later that she was talking about the particular kind of landscape appreciation that caused people to build "ruins" in their yards, like Blaize Castle in Northanger Abbey--the "picturesque" kind of landscape that Tilney teaches Catherine to appreciate. Austen, however, seems to mock Catherine's newly acquired idea that clear blue skies are no good for painting.

Both The Romance of the Forest and Northanger Abbey demonstrate the idea that Lynch discusses, that there was a "right" kind of literature that cultivated people were supposed to enjoy. The narrator of The Romance of the Forest lets us know of a character's goodness several times by telling us that he or she is fond of "elegant" literature, and Theodore and Adeline bond over good literature.

There seems to be an example of the commercialism that Lynch talks about in Tristram Shandy, in the passage describing the characters' learning of Bobby's death. The maid thinks of how upset Mrs. Shandy will be to hear the news, but in thinking of Mrs. Shandy, she thinks of "a green satin night-gown" (252) that belongs to Mrs. Shandy, and then of Mrs. Shandy's "whole wardrobe" of dresses. The dresses are a stand-in for the person. This seems related to Lynch's ideas about a self being created by commercial concerns.

Lynch also mentions the grand tour of the continent that upper-class Englishmen were expected to take. Wealthy men used it to collect experience and knowledge of the rest of the world, sort of like consuming other cultures. Part of the purpose of the grand tour was to teach the gentleman who he was in distinction from the lower classes. There is a sense of that in Tristram's grand tour. There is a passage in Volume 7 when Tristram is on the grand tour and has an argument with a commissary who insists that he pay for the remainder of his travel by carriage, even though he has decided to travel by boat instead. He has this exchange with the commissary:
"My good friend, quoth I--as sure as I am I--and you are you-- --And who are you? said he.-- --Don't puzzle me; said I" (368-9).