Also , when Julia Prewitt Brown 's Jane Austen 's Novels : Social Change and Literary Form ( 1979 ) , Margaret Kirkham 's Jane Austen : Feminism and Fiction ( 1983 ) , and Claudia L. Johnson 's Jane Austen : Women , Politics and the Novel ( 1988 ) were printed , scholars were no longer able to argue that Austen was firmly `` apolitical , or ' '' . Moreover , with the publication of Julia Prewitt Brown 's Jane Austen 's Novels : Social Change and Literary Form ( 1979 ) , Margaret Kirkham 's Jane Austen : Feminism and Fiction ( 1983 ) , and Claudia L. Johnson 's Jane Austen : Women , Politics and the Novel ( 1988 ) , scholars were no longer able to easily argue that Austen was `` apolitical , or even unqualifiedly ` conservative ' '' .