Final Project: The Myth of Jane Austen

For your final project, I want you to make a short Powerpoint presentation video (basically, you talking over the slides, as we did in Shakespeare) of no more than 20 minutes in length (you can do less, but that's the maximum). The point of this video will be a introduction to Jane Austen trying to correct the "myth" our culture has about Jane Austen. When people talk about her today, they tend to assume the following:

* She wrote romance novels 

* She was very traditional and conservative

* She only wrote about love and marriage

* She wrote in a very ornate, outdated style 

* The books need to be translated (either in language or content) for people to understand them today

Your video should confront some of all of these myths head-on, and suggest where you think they come from, and why (according to the books themselves) they are inaccurate or simply misrepresentations. QUOTE from the books to show examples that create a truer, fuller portrait of Jane Austen than we often get from movies or second-hand opinions. Help us understand, briefly, who she really was and what really makes her books such masterpieces of English literature, worth reading over 200 years later. 

You DO NOT need to turn in a paper for this presentation. Just the video, which you can e-mail to me no later than Friday, July 30th. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns! 

Final Video for Sanditon & Paper #2

 Here is a final video to introduce the Paper #2 assignment, and your reading of Sanditon. Hope it helps! 

Paper #2: The Author Unmasked

 

INTRO: In many ways, we can regard Persuasion and Sanditon as unfinished drafts of novels, since Persuasion was only published after her death (before she could definitively revise it—other than writing a second ending) and of course Sanditon breaks off after Chapter 12. Many writers tend to be more revealing and emotional in first drafts, and later on, revise and cover up their tracks in revisions. With that in mind, let’s assume that these novels as they stand reveal the ‘real’ Austen, unguarded, and with a minimum of fictional makeup. This is especially true of Sanditon, where the narrator talks directly to the audience and seems to assume center stage, much as we find in the earlier book, Northanger Abbey (which, coincidentally, was also published after her death—so maybe it, too, wasn’t properly finished).

PROMPT: Based on these two ‘unrevised’ books, what can we say about Austen’s character and beliefs? How does she reveal her ideas through her narration and her protagonists? Related to this, why might we assume that Anne Eliot and Charlotte Heywood are stand-ins for Austen herself? Why do the book tempt us to see her through each character? Focus on a few scenes that seem to be specifically transparent and autobiographical, in the sense that they reveal her personal opinions, beliefs, and values. You might also think about how these works develop themes and ideas we’ve seen in earlier works, but maybe in a more overt, and less disguised manner.

REQUIREMENTS:

• At least 3-4 pages, double spaced
• Close reading, as in the previous essay, using MLA guidelines.
• Be sure to introduce each work and provide enough context so we can understand the quotation (no floating quotations, etc.).
• DUE Wednesday, July 20^th by 5pm

Questions for Austen's unfinished novel, Sanditon

As usual, answer THREE of the following for next weekend:  

Q1: Why does Austen devote so much time and space to Mr. Parker’s schemes about Sanditon? Or perhaps a better way of asking this is, why is Austen so interested in these extended sales pitches about a seaside resort? Why does she want the reader to hear everyone of them?

Q2: How does Charlotte compare to Austen’s other heroines that we’ve read, such as Catherine and Anne? What makes her a distinctly Austenian protagonist? Is she as ‘plain’ as those two women, or is she striking from the outset?

Q3: Sir Edward is a great reader (usually a good sign for Austen), but has very strong opinions on what he reads, as he explains to Charlotte: “I am no indiscriminate novel-reader. There mere trash of the common circulating library, I hold in the highest contempt” (Ch.8). Why doesn’t Charlotte, another great reader, share his tastes? What might she find wanting in his opinion of good writing and good novels?

Q4: Sanditon centers largely on the discussion of money and class, much more so than any of her other works (though Persuasion has a bit of this as well). In a world where people grew up accepting class as part of the divine order, how does Austen seem to feel about the class structure and the role of wealth in determining happiness? Do you think she merely accepts things as they are (as many writers did), or would this have been a work that offers a sharp critique of it? Any clues?

Q5: Austen is very critical of the Parker sisters, women who are classic hypochondriacs, and yet conveniently forget their illnesses when it suits them. However, far from dismissing them as idiots, she writes that “The Parkers were no doubt a family of imagination and quick feelings” (Chapter 10). What makes them intelligent yet ridiculous? Sensible and satirical?

Q6: Sanditon (probably not the name Austen would have chosen) not only breaks off at Chapter 12, but reads like an unfinished draft. Despite having so many of Austen’s typical hallmarks, it also has some unusual aspects and ‘flaws.’ What do you think she might have changed, revised, or edited if she had lived longer? What strikes you as the hallmark of a first draft, rather than a finished draft of the novel?

For Next Week: Persuasion (no video!)

 

Answer THREE of the following over Persuasion for next week (Wednesday or Thursday):  

Q1: In Persuasion, we see Jane Austen at the end of her career (though she probably didn’t know this), and very much in a new century—the eighteen teens.  This was just before the publication of Frankenstein but well after the Romantic movement (the poems of Wordsworth and Coleridge, as well as Gothic literature).  How do we see Persuasion influenced by the Romantic movement in British literature?  What new touches in the work signal a ‘Romantic’ sensibility unusual in Austen’s writing?  Consider not only what the narrator focuses on/describes, but what the characters say, read, and expound to others. 

Q2: In a very amusing and fantastic passage on page 27, the narrator describes the Musgrove’s house which is being invaded by a harp and a piano-forte (an old style piano).  The old-fashioned demeanor of the house is offended, as she writes, “Oh! Could the originals of the portraits against the wainscot, could the gentlemen in brown velvet and the ladies in blue satin have seen what was going on, have been conscious of such an overthrow of all order and neatness!  The portraits themselves seemed to be staring in astonishment.”  As this passage suggests, much of the goings-on of Persuasion would shock and astonish the old order.  Where do we see Jane Austen pitting the new world against the old?  What innovations and ideas seem quite at odds with the more traditional, class-based ways of running the world?

Q3: Discuss the education of women in this novel so far, considering characters such as Anne Eliot, Mary Eliot, the Musgrove sisters, and Mrs. Croft in particular.  What does it mean to be ‘educated’ as we move into the 19th century?  Are any of these women ‘ideals’ for Austen?  Or anti-ideals?  Does Anne share some of Catherine’s lack of moral insight and judgment?  Or she a wiser, more sophisticated woman like Austen herself?

Q4: How does Persuasion develop Austen’s theme of mothers and fathers?  We get an usual set of parents in this book, from Sir Walter Eliot, Lady Russell (a surrogate mother), and the two generations of Musgroves.  How does Austen reflect on the duties and sensibilities of parents, and their relationships with their children?  Note that this is the only book thus far that actually has young children in it!  Why do you think Austen focuses so much on the younger generation in this book? 

Q5: In Austen’s original ending of Persuasion, Anne and Wentworth have a long discussion together where they come to terms and he expresses his love. In the revised version, he simply writes her a letter. Why do you think she went backwards into epistolary writing to bring her novel to it’s romantic climax? Do we lose something by not seeing them together? Or is the letter more appropriate to the characters?

Q6: According to the director of the 1995 film, Persuasion is the “first modern love story”.  Did you feel this when reading the book?  What makes this more of a love story than Northanger Abbey (which was published in the same year, 1817)? Was Austen getting more romantic—or idealistically—in middle age? Why might this have been, according to the book itself? Where do we see more hope in this book than in Northanger Abbey or Lady Susan?