Dust off those selfie sticks, Janeites: Winchester Cathedral is moving ahead with its controversial plan to place a statue of Jane Austen on its grounds.
In early July, the cathedral where Austen was buried in 1817 formally applied for permission to erect the statue, with plans to have it in place sometime next year, in time for the celebration of Austen’s 250th birthday. The proposed life-size bronze by prominent British sculptor Martin Jennings depicts Austen standing with one hand on her writing table.
The planning application was submitted some four months after a longtime official of the UK’s Jane Austen Society memorably claimed, during a public meeting, that an Austen statue would turn the cathedral’s tranquil Inner Close into a “Disneyland-on-Itchen” overrun by American tourists.
Since then, those who hate the whole idea have waged a small but valiant struggle in the letters column of the local newspaper. Two local critics have already weighed in on the planning request (sample comment: “a truly awful bronze which looks like a drunk leaning on a table.”)
But with no apparent objections on archaeological, environmental, or historical grounds, it seems likely that the cathedral will get its way—assuming, as officials presumably do, that it won't be hard to raise the required £160,000 (about $205,000), of which about a quarter is already in hand.
The seventeen-page, full-color brochure submitted in support of the application makes a feminist case for commemorating Austen--“Britain’s greatest female novelist” (pipe down, all you Brontë and Eliot fans) and "an inspiration, especially for women and women writers.” The document argues that the Austen statue could serve as the starting-point for a new “Women of Winchester Trail” that would wind up at an existing statue of Licoricia of Winchester, a medieval Jewish businesswoman.
As for the likelihood that the statue will draw visitors—well, that’s the point, as the application makes clear.
The placement of the statue “encourages interaction and engagement from the public, by providing photo opportunities and inviting visitors to get up close,” the brochure explains. “It is unashamedly public art.”
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