Tuesday, March 5th

Finish reading Longbourn (123 to end)

Excerpts from Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s DiaryPenguin Books, 1996: Scene just after Bridget and Mark’s first conversation (12); two passages associated with the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice(215-216)

Viewing:

Bridget Jones’s Diary. Directed by Sharon Maguire, screenplay by Helen Fielding, Andrew Davies, and Richard Curtis, performances by Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, and Hugh Grant, Miramax and Universal Pictures, 2001.

First two minutes of Pride and Prejudice: a Latter Day Comedy. Directed by Andrew Black, screenplay by Jane Austen (novel) and Anne K. Black, performances by Kam Heskin and Orlando Seale, Bestboy Pictures, 2003.

British Trailer for Bride and Prejudice. Directed by Gurinder Chadha, screenplay by Jane Austen (novel) and Paul Mayeda Berges, performances by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Martin Henderson, Pathé Pictures International and the UK Film Council, 2004.

Book Trailer for Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance — Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!, Quirk Books, 2009.

Trailer for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Directed by Burr Steers, screenplay by Burr Steers (screenplay), Jane Austen (Quirk Books novel), performances by Lily James and Sam Riley, Cross Creek Pictures, 2016.

Thursday, March 7th

Book Club Meeting. Your book review is due by Monday, March 11th.

Kathleen A. Flynn, The Jane Austen Project (2017): Katie K, Hanna, Ellen, and Avery

Soniah Kamal, Unmarriageable (2019): Jeremy, Peter, Lauren, and Georgia

Curtis Sittenfield, Eligible (2016): Rachel, Allison, Kira
Rainey, and Eliza (with Ariel emailing later)

Ibi Zoboi, Pride (2018): Katie G., Hannah, Kaylyn, Grace, and Jacob

We’ll spend half our class time in book club groups. During the second half of class we’ll have a mini writing workshop. I’ll be discussing the material below:

Link to Writing a Literary Essay Presentation

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Monday, March 11th through Friday, March 15th: Spring Break

While on Spring Break, see if you can find the most appalling Austen-themed curios, text, merchandise imaginable; in other words, something you wouldn’t purchase. However, I’m also curious about what you would collect, so what would you acquire?

Tarot of Jane Austen Deck and Jane Austen household products (Georgia Earley)

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Tuesday, March 19th

Reading:

Mansfield Park (Volumes I and II)

What is a ha-ha?

ha-ha

Petworth House, West Sussex

Petworth House, West Sussex

Burghley House, Lincolnshire

Burghley House, Lincolnshire

Ha-ha with gate, Titsey Place, Surrey

Ha-ha with gate, Titsey Place, Surrey

In-Class Writing: Mansfield Park, Volumes I and II. Please support your responses with specific textual evidence.

What continuities did you find between Mansfield Park and other Austen texts read this semester?

In what ways does the novel differ from her earlier works?

Thursday, March 21st

Continue discussion of Mansfield Park, Volumes I and II

Choose one of the following questions. In either case, you must indicate that you have read through Volume II of the novel

  1. Describe the narrative arc of Volume II in relation to Volume I, particularly in regards to Fanny’s status at Mansfield Park.
  2. What is the significance of the necklace that Fanny wears to her “coming out” ball at Mansfield Park?

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Tuesday, March 26th

Reading:

Mansfield Park (Volume III)

Auerbach, “Jane Austen’s Dangerous Charm: Feeling as One Ought about Fanny Price” (Norton)

Claudia Johnson, Mansfield Park: Confusions of Guilt and Revolutions of Mind” (Norton)

View clips from Mansfield Park adaptations

Thursday, March 28th

Continue discussion Mansfield Park

Critical Reading:

Edward Said, “Jane Austen and Empire” (Norton)

Brian Southam,  “The Silence of the Bertrams” (Norton)

Joseph Lew, “’That Abominable Traffic’: Mansfield Park and the Dynamics of Slavery” (Norton)

Claudia Johnson, Run Mad, But do Not Faint: The Authentic Audacity of Rozema’s Mansfield Park”  originally written for the Times Literary Supplement, December 31, 1999, pg. 16.

Viewing:

Mansfield Park. Directed by Patricia Rozema, screenplay by Patricia Rozema, performances by Frances O’Connor, Jonny Lee Miller, and Harold PinterBBC and Miramax, 1999. (1 hour, 52 minutes)

Book Club Reviews are now posted!

Schedule for April