如有三级标题，可以i. ii. iii. iv. 编写，为简明，建议目录中尽量不要写三级标题，正文中可有三级标题。注意各级标题大小写，确保目录中的标题、页码与正文中的标题、页码保持对应。
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B. A. Thesis of Shandong University of Finance and Economics
注意每段的首行缩进、行距、字体、字号等要保持全文一致
Introduction
Jane Austen (1775~1817), who lived at the turn of the 18th and 19th century, is the most distinguished as well as the most widely read female novelist in British literature. She was born on December 16, 1775, at Steventon rectory in Hampshire, England, and died in Winchester on July 18, 1817, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Austen lives in a large family with six brothers and one sister. Her father, George Austen was a rector for much of his life. Her sister, Cassandra Elizabeth, was her best friend. She was educated primarily by her father and older brothers, and her own reading also helped a lot with her writing. During Austen‘s education and writing life, her father was the most important guide, for he not only provided her with a well-stocked family library, but also supported her writing with much effort. He had created a democratic and easy intellectual atmosphere at home. They often talked about different political or social ideas, and any personal opinions would be accepted and discussed. Jane Austen began to write when she was only about thirteen and the everlasting support of her family was crucial to her development as a professional writer.
Austen‘s personal experiences have a great influence on her writing. ―Of events her life was singularly barren: few changes and no great crisis even broke the smooth current of its course‖ (James 11). Austen‘s works are usually confined to a limited circle. In a letter to her nephew Edward, Austen made comments on her own work as ―[h]ow could I possibly join them on to the little bit of Ivory on which I work with so fine a Brush, as produces little effect after much labor?‖ (Lefroy 160). Liu Bingshan appraised that ―[t]he comparison is true. The ivory surface is small enough, but the woman who made drawings of human life on it is a real artist‖ (309). Some critics accuse Jane Austen of writing with a narrow vision, and that her novels are all about love, marriage, money and rich relations, but Austen‘s works show their values on reflecting the social realities of her day. As Zhang Dingquan and Wu Gang comment in their book that ―her
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B. A. Thesis of Shandong University of Finance and Economics
[Jane Austen‘s] unique sensitivity to human emotions, her careful observation … made her one of the finest novelists of the age‖ (202).
Austen wrote six complete novels during her literary career. They are: Sense and Sensibility (1811); Pride and Prejudice (1813); Mansfield Park (1814); Emma (1816); Northanger Abbey (1818); and Persuasion (1818). Her literary works have been attracting more and more readers from home and abroad since their publication. Jane Austen is considered as ―a genius that appeals to any generation‖ (Qiao iv). The British female writer Virginia Woolf said that ―[o]f all great novelists, Jane Austen is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness‖ (Zhu 5).
The work discussed in this thesis is Northanger Abbey, which tells a story of the naive protagonist with a very over-active imagination, Catherine Morland, a Gothic novel aficionado, who treats herself as the heroine of a Gothic novel, takes stories in Gothic novels as happened in her real life and makes many ridiculous adventures, but finally learns to distinguish between the imaginary life in Gothic novels and her own ordinary life situations. Although Northanger Abbey was the first to be completed by Jane Austen, it had neither been given enough attention nor been adequately studied for some considerable time in the past. In fact, Northanger Abbey has its unique research value, particularly the author‘s attitude towards Gothic novels, which has aroused more and more critical attention and debates in recent years (see Chapter One).
This thesis argues that Northanger Abbey shows Jane Austen‘s anti-Gothicism through her satirical criticism of the prevailing Gothic novels in her times. In addition to Introduction and Conclusion, the thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter briefly introduces Gothic novels, illustrates different viewpoints on the relationship between Northanger Abbey and Gothic novels as discussed by some critics and scholars. The second chapter analyses Jane Austen‘s parodic anti-Gothicism by comparing the plot arrangement and characterization of the novel with that of Gothic novels. The third chapter discusses Jane Austen‘s criticism of Gothic novels through focusing on Catherine‘s ridiculous adventures.
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B. A. Thesis of Shandong University of Finance and Economics
Chapter One
Gothic Novels and Northanger Abbey
Northanger Abbey is a parody of Gothic novels. The first part of this chapter briefly introduces the origin, development and typical features of Gothic novels; the second part mainly illustrates different viewpoints on Austen‘s attitude towards Gothic novels.
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