Author Identifier
Jessica Taylor: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4897-3392
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Camera Obscura
Volume
39
Issue
2
First Page
41
Last Page
69
Publisher
Duke University Press
School
School of Arts and Humanities
RAS ID
76028
Abstract
This article considers how regret is mobilized within a postfeminist cultural context, taking the 2007 BBC film Miss Austen Regrets (dir. Jeremy Lovering, UK) as its case study. The article proposes that what is regretted in postfeminist culture speaks to the values and tensions that underpin this cultural context and explores how the expression or experience of regret is treated as proof of women's failures of subjectivity and decision-making. Through examining three of the main characters — Jane Austen, Cassandra Austen, and Fanny Austen Knight — and their interactions with regret, this article argues that both normative femininity and feminist perspectives are key sites where notions of “success” and “failure” are negotiated and where the risks for making the “wrong decision” as a postfeminist subject are highest. Through exploring femininity, individualism, and relationality via regret, the article argues that regret offers a new perspective on understanding the affective register of postfeminism. Furthermore, the article suggests that expressions of regret simultaneously shore up conservative postfeminist logics regarding normative femininity and individualism, while also making visible and offering feminist critiques of structural inequalities and relationality.
DOI
10.1215/02705346-11207802
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Duke University Press in Camera Obscura. The published version is available at: https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-11207802
Taylor, J. (2024). Regretting nothing, or regretting everything? Postfeminism, femininity, and regret in Miss Austen Regrets. Camera Obscura, 39(2), 41-69. https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-11207802