4:00p-5:15p TR (30) 3 cr

TOPIC: JANE AUSTEN AND HER LEGACY

This course will offer a thorough study of the novels of Jane Austen as well as some of her letters and juvenilia. But the guiding questions of the course will be: What is gained or lost by considering Austen's status as a woman writer? What has Austen meant for subsequent, especially women, writers? And what roles has Austen's writing performed for literary, especially feminist, critics? Labeled as both a feminine and a masculine writer, a conservative and a subversive thinker, a defender of imperialism and a critic of authoritarianism, Jane Austen serves as a test case for our assumptions about gender, politics and literature. To pursue these questions we will look at other fiction by women writers, film adaptations, and critical studies of Austen's work. There will be a significant amount of reading required, as well as two long research projects, a midterm and final.