Public Similarity or Private Difference

Genre, and the Construction of Individual Identity in Jane Austen and Charles Brockden Brown

Authors

  • Evert Jan van Leeuwen Leiden University

Abstract

This essay responds to Richard Handler’s work on individual identity construction in Jane Austen’s novels. Handler describes the mode of identity construction in Austen as a process of public recognition of similarity to others in society, and argues that this was the dominant mode of identity construction in Austen’s time. An analysis of the Gothic novel Wieland, by Austen’s American contemporary Charles Brockden Brown, will show, however, that through his utilisation of the Gothic trope of the mysterious wanderer, the novel is able to offer a dissident model of individual identity construction based on the private recognition of difference to others in society.

Author Biography

  • Evert Jan van Leeuwen, Leiden University

    Evert Jan van Leeuwen, born 11-05-1973, studied English language and literature at Leiden University (1993-1998), specializing in nineteenth-century American fiction. He is currently AIO at Leiden University (2000-2005), writing his PhD dissertation on the androgynous impulse in nineteenth-century American Gothic fiction. In his first year as AIO he studied at Stirling University, Scotland, and successfully completed the M.Phil. in the Gothic Imagination (with distinction).

Downloads

Published

2026-05-03

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 2-3 (2004): Diversen

Section

Main Section

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

van Leeuwen, E. J. (2026). Public Similarity or Private Difference: Genre, and the Construction of Individual Identity in Jane Austen and Charles Brockden Brown. FRAME, Journal of Literary Studies, 17(2-3). https://platform.openjournals.nl/FRAME/article/view/27534