In-person: WF 12:00-1:15
Course Description
This class will introduce you to the fiction of Jane Austen and the social issues of the early nineteenth century in England. We will situate Austen’s novels in their rich cultural and literary context by considering how her work is shaped by and responds to developments such as the rise of women writers and readers in the Romantic era, the rise and development of the British novel, the French Revolution and working-class movements in England, marriage and gender ideologies, British slavery and the slave trade, and the growth of the British Empire. Alongside our novels, we’ll read a selection of primary sources from the 18th and 19th century, as well as critical sources on Jane Austen’s fiction. Throughout the semester we will also think about how Austen’s novels continue to be adapted in both film and literature. To do so, we will watch a selection of film adaptations, and we’ll end with a very literary recent adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, C.K. Chau’s Good Fortune (2023).
Potential assignments will include both critical and creative writing; students will practice their analytical skills through shorter writings, such as a literary analysis that engages with critical readings, and analyses of our adaptations, but will also have the opportunity to imagine their own Jane Austen adaptation.
Required Texts (please purchase the Penguin editions of our Austen novels)
- Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (1817)
- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
- Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (1814)
- Jane Austen, Emma (1815)
- Jane Austen, Persuasion (1817)
- Broadview Online: Jane Austen in Context (purchase here)
- C.K. Chau, Good Fortune (2023)
Films
- Andrew Ahn, Fire Island (2022)
- Amy Heckerling, Clueless (1995)
- Carrie Cracknell, Persuasion (2022)
Possible Assignments and Requirements
- Short Writings
- Adaptation Analysis
- Creative Adaptation
- Reading Quizzes