Is Jane Austen Really An Author Of Romanticism?

By HawkBirch2001

Hey everyone, I’ve been mulling this over a lot. I’m really into Romantic literature—stuff like Victor Hugo, the Brontës, Byron, etc.—so when I see Jane Austen thrown into “Romanticism” lists, I’m honestly not sure it fits. To me, Romanticism is tied up with medieval vibes, strong feelings, ideas of beauty and childhood, that kind of idealism. Austen feels way more… critical than that. In Northanger Abbey she basically takes shots at Gothic novels, and I just don’t think of Romantic writers as doing much satire like that. It doesn’t feel like the usual emphasis on emotion/idealism, at least not in the way Austen works. And I’m not saying either of them is “bad” or anything—I love both. They just seem different to me. Austen makes me think more of Pope and Swift, which I usually connect with Enlightenment / neoclassical writing. So yeah—what do you all think? Is Jane Austen actually “Romantic,” or is that kind of a stretch?