Constructing Attachment: Persistent and Elided Speech in Jane Austen's Novels

Abstract This article argues that theorists of the novel have consistently overlooked direct speech even though it proliferates in realist fiction. Using the novels of Jane Austen as a case study, I show how close attention to direct speech can improve our understanding of both major and minor characters as well as the complex relations between characters. Using computational tools alongside close analysis of scenes in Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park, I identify two recurrent features in the representation of direct speech across Austen's novels: what I call “persistent” and “elided” speech. By identifying and analyzing the effects of persistent and elided speech, I provide new answers to long-standing questions about affective responses to literary characters such as: What are the narrative mechanisms that create readerly affect? How is it that readers feel for or about fictional characters? Why do readers dislike or like specific characters?