Chapter 2 - Language

Summary

This chapter demonstrates the pervasive presence of the rhetorical figure of apophasis in Austen’s writing. Guides to rhetoric, in the eighteenth century and earlier, describe apophasis as occurring when a person claims not to speak of something and in saying so, speaks of it. Austen evidently enjoyed the irony of the figure, as her juvenilia especially demonstrates. But she also appreciated its efficiency and tact, touching, but not elaborating, upon subject matter. This chapter argues that Austen saw common statements of inexpressibility as apophatic, as they draw attention to supposedly suppressed material. Many characters in Austen’s fiction claim not to be able to express themselves. Austen transforms an often cliched form of expression into a subtle narrative movement towards what characters do not utter. In this way, apophasis contributes to the development of free indirect discourse, sharing with this technique the dynamic of speaking and not speaking at the same time.