North and South as Jane Austen Fanfiction: How Gaskell’s Use of Austen’s Characters and Structure Strengthen Her Social Protest Novel

Abstract

The genre of fanfiction has, arguably, existed for centuries, with many well-known
pieces of literature matching the definition of “fanfiction”. While countless classics
meet the requirements of a “fanfiction” text by retelling the stories of classic figures
such as King Arthur or Julius Caesar, others offer more subtle examples of early
fanfiction, using characters and storylines from earlier works. Elizabeth Gaskell’s
North and South, which largely parallels Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is,
arguably, an example of fanfiction writing prior to the official recognition of the
genre in the early 20th century.
This paper explores Gaskell’s use of Jane Austen’s characters (namely, Fitzwilliam
Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, as well as minor archetypal characters) and story
structure in her novel, North and South. I will argue that Gaskell’s amount of
“borrowing” from Austen could potentially categorize North and South as an alternate
universe (AU) fanfiction of Pride and Prejudice, and will explore the ways in which
this severe amount of “borrowed material” from Austen strengthens, rather than
weakens, Gaskell’s novel and serves her politically motivated purposes in
writing North and South.