EN2J3/EN3J3 Austen in Theory
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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.
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 |
1 |
Lady Susan (in Oxford Northanger Abbey collection, or online) |
Marilyn Butler, Jane Austen and the War of Ideas |
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) |
3: |
Northanger Abbey |
John Locke, "Book III, Chapter I" and "Book III, Chapter V" (from the Essay Concerning Human Understanding) |
4: |
Sense and Sensibility |
David Hume, "On the Origin of Ideas" (from the Enquiry) |
5: |
Sense and Sensibility |
|
7: |
Pride and Prejudice |
Adam Smith, from the Moral Sentiments |
8: |
Pride and Prejudice |
Smith, from the Moral Sentiments |
9: |
Mansfield Park |
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, first half |
10: |
Mansfield Park |
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1-74 |
Term Two: Austen in "Theory"
Week |
Primary |
Secondary Reading |
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 |
Michael Rothberg, The Implicated Subject, "Introduction" |
3: |
Emma |
Sianne Ngai, Ugly Feelings, "Tone" |
4: |
Emma |
Structuralism and high deconstruction: Ferdinand de Saussure, "The Object of Study"; and Jaques Derrida, "Structure, Sign and Play in the Human Sciences" |
5: |
Persuasion |
Bill Brown, "The Idea of Things and the Ideas in Them" |
7: |
Persuasion |
Judith Butler, "Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions" |
8: |
The Watsons |
Slavoj Zizek, from The Sublime Object of Ideology |
9: |
Juvenilia (as much as you wish) |
Question: can we use the juvenilia to theorise Austen's major fictions? |
10: |
Sanditon |
D.A. Miller, Jane Austen; or, the Secret of Style |
Sample first paper, 2018/19: