Erokhina Y.E.

Reception of concepts of Englishness in an author’s conceptual sphere (Jane Austen’s works in Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel Wives and Daughters (1866)). Pp. 166–175.

 

UDC 821.111-31.09«18»

DOI 10.37724/RSU.2026.90.1.017

 

Abstract. This article examines the interpretation of certain concepts of Englishness that constitute the individual conceptual sphere of Jane Austen’s novels in Elizabeth Gaskell’s last work, Wives and Daughters (1866). The relevance of this study stems from the productive and systematic application of conceptual analysis to the artistic worldviews of Victorian writers. This relevance is also driven by the growing processes of globalization in the modern world, which predetermine the blending of ethical attitudes across various social strata and distinct cultures. Victorian women’s fiction, particularly the works of Elizabeth Gaskell and Jane Austen, conveys artistic solutions to significant moral and ethical issues in the context of timeless values.

The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the authors’ specific representations of the concepts of Englishness in the artistic worldviews of Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel Wives and Daughters and their consonance with the structural components of Jane Austen’s individual concept sphere. The subject of research is the artistic images conveying the semantic content of the concepts home, common sense, and sense of humor in the fictional worldview of Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel Wives and Daughters (1866).

The author concludes that Elizabeth Gaskell’s work, as well as the development of women’s fiction throughout the Victorian period, was significantly influenced by the works of Jane Austen. Such components of Austen’s individual concept sphere as home, common sense, and sense of humor are vividly reflected in the artistic images of Gaskell’s final novel. The next research prospects may focus on the representation of the concepts of Englishness in women’s fiction within the historical and literary context of the Victorian era.

 

Keywords: the Victorian era, Jane Austen’s individual concept sphere, concepts of “Englishness”, concepts home, common sense, sense of humor, concepts garden, landscape, Green England, Molly Gibson, Roger Hamley, “learning to love”.

 

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