MQR :: Emma’s Father – Dementia?

The newest issue of Michigan Quarterly Review (under the new editorial guidance of Jonathan Freedman, University of Michigan Professor of English and American Culture) includes an article by Margaret Morganroth Gullette: “Annals of Caregiving: Does Emma Woodhouse’s Father Suffer from ‘Dementia’?” For Austen fans, this is a compelling analysis, ready for controversy: “Some readers may deny that Mr. Woodhouse has any form of cognitive impairment, veering back to the simplicities of the ‘polite old man’ characterizations and ignoring the tender manipulations of his caregivers that I have tried to put into relief. Many of us may be diminished in our capacity to connect his condition with our contemporary contest…one of the old people Americans fear most – even, sometimes when they are our own relatives.”