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EN2J3/EN3J3 Austen in Theory

 austen in piccadilly it's lit

2022-23
Module Convenor: Dr Michael Meeuwis

This module pairs slow and sustained readings of Austen’s primary novels with extended readings in the culture of what we call “theory,” both eighteenth century and contemporary (mostly post-1995). Beginning with Marilyn Butler’s Jane Austen and the War of Ideas (1975), we will situate Austen’s novels securely within intellectual history. A particular focus will be how novels can be sources of freestanding ideas; and then, in turn, how freestanding ideas can give structure to plots and characters within the novel itself.

More information: full-year module, 30 CATS. Seminars meet once a week for 90 minutes.

Assessment:

Intermediate Year students:
100% assessed (2 x 3500-word essay)

Final Year students:
100% assessed (2 x 4000-word essays)

Essays that you develop yourselves as independent research projects.

Term one essay

Term one short essay prompts for Erasmus students

Term two essay

Term two short essay prompts for Erasmus students

Outline Syllabus:

Dear students: Please note that you will be responsible for bringing a legible version of these texts to class with you, and on something larger than a cell phone screen. I would also recommend buying your own copies of the Hume and Smith--these are dense books, which you will need to read slowly and carefully. Locke's Enquiry on a bookshelf will impress visitors to your home for years to come: I recommend the stern-looking Nidditch edition.

Mandatory Primary Texts, recommended editions:

Austen, Jane. Persuasion (OUP, 2004).

---. Mansfield Park (OUP, 2008)

---. Northanger Abbey, Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon (OUP, 2008)

---. Pride and Prejudice (OUP, 2008)

---. Sense and Sensiblity (OUP, 2008)

Butler, Marilyn. Jane Austen and the War of Ideas (OUP, 1987).

Term One: Austen in Theory, 1790-1810

Term One: Austen and Eighteenth-century Philosophy

Week

Primary Text

Secondary Reading

PowerPoint*

1

Lady Susan (in Oxford Northanger Abbey collection, or online)

Marilyn Butler, Jane Austen and the War of Ideas

T1W1

2:

Northanger Abbey

John Locke, "The Epistle to the Reader" and "Book I, Chapter II: No Innate Principles in the Mind" (from the Essay Concerning Human Understanding)

T1W2

3:

Northanger Abbey

John Locke, "Book III, Chapter I" and "Book III, Chapter V" (from the Essay Concerning Human Understanding)

T1W3

Handout

4:

Sense and Sensibility

David Hume, "On the Origin of Ideas" (from the Enquiry)

T1W4

Handout

BONUS HUME! (guest lecture for EuroNovel)

5:

Sense and Sensibility

Hume, "On the Standard of Taste"

T1W5

Handout

7:

Pride and Prejudice

Adam Smith, from the Moral Sentiments

T1W7

Handout

8:

Pride and Prejudice

Smith, from the Moral Sentiments

T1W8

9:

Mansfield Park

Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, first half (or until it starts to get repetitious)

 

10:

Mansfield Park

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1-74  

 

Term Two: Austen in "Theory"

Week

Primary

Secondary Reading

Powerpoint*

1:

Mansfield Park

Postcolonialism: Edward Said, from Culture and Imperialism, particularly "Jane Austen and Empire"

Recent readings in Austen and slavery: Tricia Matthew, "On Teaching, but Not Loving, Jane Austen"; Jasmin Malik Chua, "The Battle Over Jane Austen's Whiteness"

 

2:

Emma

Kathleen Stewart, from Ordinary Affects

T1 W2 Handout

3:

Emma

Lauren Berlant, from Cruel Optimism

T2W3

4:

Emma

Structuralism and high deconstruction: Ferdinand de Saussure, "The Object of Study"; and Jaques Derrida, "Structure, Sign and Play in the Human Sciences"

T1W4 PowerPoint

T1W4 Handout

5:

Persuasion

T1W5 Handout

7:

Persuasion

Judith Butler, "Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions" T1W6

8:

The Watsons

 

T1W8

Handout

9:

Juvenilia (as much as you wish)

Question: can we use the juvenilia to theorise Austen's major fictions?

Handout

T2W9

10:

Sanditon

D.A. Miller, Jane Austen; or, the Secret of Style

Handout

*A note on PowerPoint: these are teaching aids, rather than in any sense a transcript or summary of the class session. Please use them for your review--but the class experience, summary videos, and interactions with the instructor in office hours are paramount.

Sample first paper, 2018/19: