Radiator Comics

Description

Jane Austen is a beloved writer, and her scenes of garden strolls, fancy balls, and tea parties have generated a rosy idea of the Regency Era in most people’s minds. However, the plots of many of her books rely on devices only made possible through British colonialism.

Darya Foroohar’s Empire Outside the Frame examines Austen’s Mansfield Park as a key example of how Austen, writing from the metropole, cannot divorce her stories from imperialism and slavery. Darya explores different ways modern retellings of the novel have attempted to shed light on this uncomfortable truth, and posits that perhaps the medium she’s writing in– comics– could be the perfect way to draw attention to colonialism without engaging in guilt-induced navel-gazing.