Space+Culture=Ideology

Does the Equation Balance?

I was very intrigued by Edward Said's analysis of how physical spaces in Mansfield Park mimic the imperialistic ideology of the English state, to which the characters ascribe.  I felt that he used an interesting technique in taking Austen's description of Fanny's reaction to her Portsmouth house and applying it to the greater English cultural consciousness of the relationships between space, sociability, and awareness.  It is certainly provocative to look at how cultural ideologies are subtly reproduced in the hearts and minds of participants; Said even seems to indicate that Austen herself did not realize the way in which she was reproducing a discourse of imperialism.

As I read this essay, I attempted to apply Said's analysis of space in Mansfield Park to American culture.  Though the recent boom in "McMansion" housing developments has often been explained as the excess of American consumerism, might it also be construed as displaying American attitudes regarding, if not imperialism and globalization, then the seemingly more positive ideologies of universalism or cosmopolitanism?  I might add that the preexisting analysis of "large houses" as "excessive consumerist/capitalist culture" seems to indicate how commonplace this mode of meaning-making has become.

Though I enjoy this kind of literary analysis and am inclined to agree with Said on his point about Austen, I wonder if any of you thought that this was "reading too far into" Austen's descriptions of physical spaces.  He could be accused of straying too far from what is "actually" being said or implied in the text, as Natalie thought about his comments on Austen's beliefs regarding slavery.  Does a discussion such as Said's make too many assumptions about the unconscious manifestations of ideology?  How much can we legitimately argue the text is "saying"?  What considerations ought/ought not be made for the "subjectivity" of the author or her characters in contrast to the greater culture of which they are a part?  Can they be separated from their culture at all?