The Contemplative Eleanor Tilney | Natasha Duquette

How did Jane Austen define contemplation? In her novel Persuasion, Sir Walter Elliot narcissistically contemplates his own name in the baronetage, but his daughter Anne pensively contemplates the sea. In Northanger Abbey, the novel bound together with Persuasion in 1817, Eleanor Tilney, like Anne Elliot, contemplates landscapes with thoughtful reflection. We will consider how Eleanor’s contemplative practices are shaped by her reading, which ranges from novelist Ann Radcliffe to philosopher David Hume.

​​Natasha Duquette’s current research focuses on the reciprocal relationship between theological contemplation and poetics. She has presented her work at meetings of the Jane Austen Society of North America, as well as in the UK, for the British Association of Romantic Studies, and in public lectures at the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland, and Gladstone’s Library, in Wales. Fellowships at Chawton House led to her books 30-Day Journey with Jane Austen (2020) and Veiled Intent: Dissenting Women’s…