Critical Paper Assignment: Read Carefully!

Anne Hathaway: Our 21st Century Austen? 

 Critical Paper: (Re)Reading Jane Austen: A View from the 21^st Century

As we read (and re-read) Jane Austen’s novels, we are doing something quite revolutionary.  Reading is interpreting, and as 21^st century readers we are reading Austen’s text in a ‘future’ that she could have never envisioned.  In essence, we are doing the work that Austen scholars and filmmakers do on a much larger (and expensive) level!  For each new version of a Jane Austen novel introduces, comments, and contextualizes Austen’s words, making us see and appreciate them according to new ideas, trends and aesthetics (feminism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, etc.).  Likewise, each new Austen film tailors her work to a contemporary audience, snipping out bits that would seem too dated and stressing the ‘universal’ and the ‘modern.’  For some, she is all lightness and perfection, while in others, she is tormented, hemmed in, and bitter about her heroines’ fates.  For this paper, I want you to perform your own ‘rewriting’ of Austen, considering a specific aspect, theory, or conversation to help us re-evaluate Austen’s legacy and unshakable (?) place in the literary canon...

Your paper should have a clear thesis or approach to Austen’s work that you can summarize in a short abstract (a paragraph of no more than 150 words).  It should say something interesting, controversial, insightful, or exploratory about at least 2 of the novels (you can count the early stories collectively as a ‘novel’), as well as at least one film adaptation.  Before you really get started on the paper, I want you to schedule a time to come to my office to discuss your abstract and the paper in general.  This way, I can guide you, suggest sources, and make sure you’re not trying to write something too vague and generic.  While I would prefer to talk with you personally, I know some of you would rather limit your time with me to class (which is long enough!).  In that case, you must at least e-mail me your abstract so I can read it and write you back with comments.  

REQUIREMENTS/DEADLINES

• Abstracts (and meetings) are due by Friday, November 9^th.  Please consider submitting them and meeting with me before this date.  Remember, the goal here is to allow me to help you shape your material and inspire your research! 
• The Final Paper should draw on ideas or even entire passages of the short papers 1-3.  That’s why you’re writing them!  J
• The Final Paper should be at least 8 pages long.  Even longer is acceptable. 
• The Final Paper is due by Tuesday, December 4^th, though I would encourage you to finish it earlier.  The sooner I get it, the sooner I can return it to you.  I will return all papers by our Final Exam Day (we will meet for the exam, though there is no exam as such)