READING JANE AUSTEN

Focusing on the relationship between Austen and her readers, this course uses a series of close readings from the six major novels to explore Austen's work in the context of her life and times, including subjects such as: Austen's portrayal of gender and power; the influence of war and colonialism in her work; her humor and wit; her sense of theatre and performance; her use of free indirect style; her subversion of the Gothic; and the many adaptations and afterlives of her fiction. Students read excerpts from Austen's major novels alongside her teenage writings, her letters and other works unpublished in her lifetime, paying special attention to Austen's narrative style, which challenges her reader to decipher fact from fiction, opinion from objectivity. Students place the works alongside each other, and they add into the mix the "Austenalia" which has become an essential element of her contemporary reception. This includes contemporary film adaptations and spin-offs, and allow students to investigate the rich intertextual relationship between Austen's core published oeuvre and the many revisionary readings it has inspired.