Seldom have I enjoyed a course more than my current first year seminar on Jane Austen—specifically “Jane Austen and the Challenges of Being a Regency Teenager.” The title of the course isn’t historically accurate since young men and women in the early 19th century didn’t think of themselves as teenagers. Adolescence wasn’t as prolonged as […]
Tag Archives: Jane Austen
Regency Teens, Same Issues as Today
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged adolescence, Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, teaching Comments closed
Comparing Jane Austen and Frank Capra
Film Friday Teaching Sense and Sensibility in my Jane Austen First Year Seminar is giving me the chance to once again relish the magnificent way that the author dispenses poetic justice. This time through, I found that the ending of the novel reminds me of the ending of Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. Since […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Film, Frank Capra, It's a Wonderful Life, Justice, Sense and Sensibility Comments closed
Moving Beyond Adolescent Fantasies
Sometimes I will discover that two different works start talking to each other simply because I happen to be teaching them both at the same time. This week Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey (from my Jane Austen first year seminar) and John Keats’ Eve of St. Agnes (from my British fantasy course) engaged in one of […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged adolescence, Eve of St. Agnes, fantasy, John Keats, Northanger Abbey Comments closed
Jane Austen’s Emma as Teenpic
Alicia Silverstone in Clueless Film Friday I’m currently preparing to teach a first year seminar on “Jane Austen and the Challenges Faced by Regency Teenagers.” For years it didn’t strike me forcefully enough that most of Jane Austen’s heroines are either teenagers or recent teenagers. That’s because (1) Austen heroines seem fully adult and (2) […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged adolescence, Amy Heckerling, Clueless, Emma, Film Comments closed
Better Austen than Bronte on the Court
An interesting New York Times column by David Brooks has me doing some more thinking on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s enjoyment of Pride and Prejudice. Here is some of what he wrote: About a decade ago, one began to notice a profusion of Organization Kids at elite college campuses. These were bright students who […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged David Brooks, Elena Kagan, Gail Collins, politics, Pride and Prejudice, satire, Supreme Court Comments closed
Elena Kagan, Lover of Pride and Prejudice
Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennett Elena Kagan, current nominee for the U. S. Supreme Court, is a “literature lover” who used to reread Pride and Prejudice every year. So we are informed by a fascinating New York Times profile. Does this tell us anything about what kind of justice she will be? I wrote last year […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Elena Kagan, Emily Bronte, politics, Pride and Prejudice, Supreme Court Comments closed
Austen’s Good Enough Match
First of all, a happy birthday to Jane Austen (thanks to my mother for pointing this out). Jane would have been 234 today. My students have been bothered by the Marianne-Brandon marriage that concludes Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, and I’m inclined to agree with them. Kat Vander Wende reasonably pointed out that the sought-after […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "The River Merchant's Wife", Ezra Pound, love, Marriage, Sense and Sensibility Comments closed
