It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen gets an audience. From Hollywood to Bollywood her novels have been adapted and reworked in cinematic love stories, while Janeites the world over continue to pore over the details of the cuts of dresses, dance steps, and Regency courtship rituals. Literary critics, on the other hand, now tend to focus on Austen’s pioneering narrative technique, and to situate her work in its historical and cultural contexts.
This module will consider Austen’s published fiction (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion) alongside some of her unpublished work. It will think about the way in which the novels explore the relationship between private feeling and the social world, and it will approach Austen as a writer whose work is suffused with politics – especially questions of gender, status, and authority – even as political ‘issues’ in a formal sense are absent from it. Our contextualized reading of Austen’s fiction will be accompanied by a focus on the history of its reception, and towards the end of the course we will consider some examples of recent popular engagements with Austen, in the form of films, television series, and/or fan fiction.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
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A | Semester 1 2024-25 |
The aim of this module is to study the novels of Jane Austen, to situate them in their historical and cultural contexts, and to think about their diverse afterlives.
On successful completion of the module, you should be able to:
Demonstrate an advanced understanding of and engagement with the novels of Austen in their historical and cultural contexts;
Demonstrate an advanced understanding of and engagement with the distinctive features of Austen’s fiction, in particular its narrative innovations;
Evaluate key debates within the relevant critical fields dealing with recent popular engagement with Austen in film, television, and/ or fan fiction.
Produce independent arguments and ideas which demonstrate an advanced proficiency in critical thinking, research, and writing skills.
Task | % of module mark |
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Essay/coursework | 100 |
None
Throughout the module, you will have the opportunity to pitch, road-test, and develop essay ideas. Feedback will be integrated into your seminars or the ‘third hour’ (i.e. the lecture or workshop).
You will submit your summative essay via the VLE during the revision and assessment weeks at the end of the teaching semester (weeks 13-15). Feedback on your summative essay will be uploaded to e:Vision to meet the University’s marking deadlines.
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
Key Texts for this module will include all of Austen’s published novels (Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion).
Other key texts may include: