Jane Austen keywords

To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen, the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies will be hosting a 'Jane Austen keywords' event.

Our title offers a nod to Raymond Williams's celebrated book Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society (1976), which investigates how words from 'aesthetic' to 'work' have been 'formed, altered, redefined, influenced, modified, confused and reinforced as the historical contexts in which they were applied changed to give us their current meaning and significance'.

CECS staff and students will be giving short presentations on some keywords in Austen's fiction ('agitation', 'amiable', 'amusement', 'consolation', 'craft', 'officer', 'tranquillity', and many more), asking how the meanings of these words illuminate her fiction and its relation to the culture in which she wrote.

This event is free of charge and open to anyone with an interest in Austen.