Jane Austen And The Persistent Failure Of The White Imagination
The ‘alt-right’ is just an uglier manifestation of the white supremacy permeating the liberal establishment in Hollywood, academia, media, and other American institutions.
I t is a truth universally acknowledged that a cartoonish president and a platoon of ignorant lemmings marching in lockstep across red states provide the perfect sunset-hued filter to enhance the already very golden self-image of liberals from San Francisco to New York City.
Not only did they vote for a Black man to be President — twice — but they also watched Moonlight, and donned safety pins as self-appointed guardians of the nation.
That’s why there was a gasp of collective, artisanal horror when Nicole Wright, a scholar of Jane Austen — the author who perfected the sharp, snide critique of society’s buffoons (we’re looking at you, Mrs. Bennet) — wrote that Austen’s work has been co-opted by the so called ‘alt-right’ who view her writing as a manifestation of the ideal (read: white) society, sexuality, and culture.
As Wright observed:
“… Austen as an avatar of a superior bygone era is linked not only with fantasies of female retreat from the sexual…
