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Winchester Cathedral interior
Winchester Cathedral

Cassandra Austen's grave marker, Chawton
Cassandra Austen's grave, Chawton

Jane Austen's grave marker - Winchester Cathedral
Jane Austen's grave-Winchester Cathedral

Jane Austen's house - on a rainy day
Jane Austen's house - a rainy day

 

Lock of Jane Austen's hair

E199 | Austen | Winter 2008

In describing her own method as a novelist, Austen wrote that she worked on a “little bit (two inches wide) of ivory  . . . with so fine a brush as produces little effect after much labour.”  Sir Walter Scott commented that although he could do “the big Bow-Wow strain” of novels very well, Austen had an “exquisite touch which renders ordinary common-place things and characters interesting.”  Modern critics have written variously of her “regulated hatred,” her conservative propaganda, and her view of social conventions as fictions.  In this E199, we will read four of Austen’s six completed novels in the order of their publication, biographical material on Austen; historical material on the period; and numerous critical works. We will consider many, often conflicting, views of her work and ask questions both about her novelistic practice and about the social problems that her novels engage. 

 
| Paper Page | Mail Archive | Noteboard |

DATE 

SCHEDULE


Week #1
January 11

 
Discussion: Sense & Sensibility (1811)
Edward Copeland, What's a Competence? Jane Austen, Her Sister Novelists, and the 5%'s
Study Questions

 
Week #2
January 19

 
Short paper #1 due: Mary Favret, "Sense and Sensibility: The Letter, Post Factum" (NCE)
Assignment and template for Short Paper #1, due today

 
Week #3
January 26

 
Discussion: Pride and Prejudice (1913)
Short paper#2 due: articles by Alistair Duckworth, Marilyn Butler, and  Claudia Johnson
Study questions

 
Week #4
February 1

 
Pause: Looking back and looking forward
Conversation about paper topics
Read Austen’s letters in NCE.
Start reading Mansfield Park.

 
Week #5
February 8


Discussion: Mansfield Park (1814)
Humphrey Repton on Landscape Gardening (NCE)
Some questions on Edward Said’s and Susan Fraiman’s articles to prepare for Paper #3.

 
Week #6
February 15


Discussion: Mansfield Park
Short paper #3 due.
Please also (before class today) make an entry in your "Paper Thoughts" forum on the noteboard.

 
Week #7
February 22

 
Discussion: Persuasion (1818)
Post Study Questions in the Persuasion forum on the noteboatrd.
Conversation about “Paper Thoughts”

 
Week #8
February 29


Persuasion

Thesis exercise

 
Week #9
March 7


Working on the rough draft

 
Week #10
March 12


Presentation of  papers in preparation for UROP (15 minutes). Discussion

Reflections on Austen

 

Finals Week

 

Paper due with commentary