Domestic retrenchment and imperial expansion

Where's the capital? A geographical essay

“…Mansfield Park is often referred to as the quintessential country estate novel through which Austen explores intricate relations of class status, including the symbolism of ‘land’, gender and family, and morality (Tuite ). It is also the novel mostly closely associated with critiques of British imperialism and the relationship between colonial expansion, capital accumulation and the changing shape and representation of class power (Boulukos ).…”

“…As Susan Fraiman has put it, Said offers up ‘Austen as exhibit A in the case for culture's endorsement of empire’ and perhaps the writer ‘who made colonialism thinkable by constructing the West as center, home, and norm, while pushing everything else to the margins’ (1995: 809). But, Austen, Fraiman goes on to claim, is more subtle than Said appeared to realize and needs to be treated not as a source to be mined for facts, apropos Capital , but as a critical commentator on the connections between property, class and imperial power (also Tuite ). Indeed, a closer reading of Mansfield Park reveals a novel that rests on a sub‐plot of social and political consciousness, and is suggestive of social and economic instability.…”

“…Indeed, although Sir Bertram is positioned by Austen as super rich – his income is estimated from the text as £5,000 which would put him well within the top 0.1 per cent of British society at the time – there are plenty of clues in Mansfield Park that he and his family may have felt vulnerable to this new culture. Tuite () argues, for example, that Mansfield Park and other texts sketch the instability of class and the ‘diminution’ of the aristocracy. Intriguingly, Sir Thomas is written by Austen as a baronet, hence a member of the ruling class but not part of the nobility, and perhaps no more than one generation away from a fortune based on ‘trade’.…”