Sunday, September 30, 2012

Short Paper #2 (due Tuesday, Oct.9th)



  Short Paper #2: Elizabeth Bennet: Sensibility or Sacrifice? 

Who is Elizabeth Bennet?  Is she a sharp-witted critic who gradually sees her own intellectual vanity through Mr. Darcy’s love?  Is she a woman without a history, who simply longs to have a ‘room of her own’ in Pemberley?  Or is she a vain, ill-educated husband-hunter herself, who has more in common with her younger sister Lydia than her beloved Jane?  (and yes, there are other options!) Click on the line below to read the rest...

Friday, September 28, 2012

For Tuesday: 3 Critical Takes on P & P

For Tuesday's class, be sure to read the three articles in the back of your copy of Pride and Prejudice:

* Nina Auerbach, "Waiting Together: Pride and Prejudice" (326-338)
* Susan Morgan, "Perception and Pride and Prejudice" (338-347)
* Susan Fraiman, "The Humiliation of Elizabeth Bennet" (356-368)

Your Short Paper #2 (which I will post this weekend) will draw on ideas from these articles, and you will be expected to use one of them in your paper.  Also, if you haven't finished reading P & P, please do so by Tuesday! 

See you next week!

Monday, September 24, 2012

Pride and Prejudice, Second Questions




READINGS:

 T 25      Pride and Prejudice, Chs. IX-(Part III) Ch. III, pp.117-176
R 27      Pride and Prejudice, Chs.IV-Ch. XIX, pp.176-254

Answer ONE of the following by Friday at 5pm:

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Review #2: Sense and Sensibility by Kaitlyn Hatton and Melissa Williams


Jane Austen Movie Review: Sense and Sensibility (1995, dir. Ang Lee)


PART ONE

Jane Austen is a name that has been spoken of time and time again. She was and still is, known as a woman who wrote as a woman, created famous works such as Pride and Prejudice as well as the novel Emma, and was generally known for her more outspoken personality and satirical nature. Much of this is seen in her works and continued throughout each novel or short story she created, from her early works such as Catherine and onward. However, this review will not so much as focus on the books themselves but more on the various adaptations of her works through media, mainly how her novels and short stories have translated into cinema, and how one story in particular is what I and my partner will discuss.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

The First Review! Sense and Sensibility by Preston Marshall


Sense and Sensibility. Dir. Ang Lee. Perf. Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant,
Alan Rickman. Columbia Pictures, 1995. VHS. (Personal Star Rating 3 out 4).

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Pride and Prejudice Questions: pp.3-117



READINGS:

T 18       Pride and Prejudice, Chs.1-16 (pp.3-58)
R 20      Pride and Prejudice, Chs.17- (Vol.II) Ch. 8 (pp.58-117)


Answer ONE of the following by Friday at 5pm:

JASNA Link for Austen Articles...

The Jane Austen Society of North America has its annual conference in NYC next month: by way of a teaser, they've offered links to several articles published in their on-line journal relating to the conference theme: "Sex, Money and Power."  Not only are these good articles to read alongside the novels, but they might prove good fodder for future papers in our class.  Of particular interest to our reading of P & P might be...

Saturday, September 8, 2012

For Next Week

Remember to read the handout (Ch.4 from Woolf's "A Room of One's Own") for Tuesday's class.  I have copies in my office if you missed class.  On Thursday your Short Paper #1 is due--the assignment is two posts down.  On Thursday we will devote the class to discussing your short paper assignments and the various approaches/ideas you employed.  Bring your paper to class (it is due in class; turning it in after class will be counted as late.)  We will start reading Pride and Prejudice the following week, but you might want to get a jump on it now, particularly if you've never read it. 

I have also posted the Film Review Guidelines below.  See you in class!

Film Review Guidelines




Film Review Guidelines

Preface your review with bibliographic information about the film: director, production company, date, main actors.  Also give it a star rating out of 4. 

Thursday, September 6, 2012

For Next Thursday: Short Paper #1


Note: Don't forget to read Ch.4 from Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" for Tuesday.  This assignment runs in tandem with that reading.  

SHORT PAPER #1: Writing Like a ‘Woman’

In Virginia Woolf’s famous work, A Room of One’s Own (1929), she marvels at Austen’s ability to write books despite the incredible societal bias against women authors.  She goes on to claim that,

Only Austen did it and Emily Bronte.  It is another feather, perhaps the finest, in their caps.  They wrote as women write, not as men write.  Of all the thousand women who wrote novels then, they alone entirely ignored the perpetual admonitions of that eternal pedagogue—write this, think that.  They alone were deaf to that persistent voice, now grumbling, now patronizing, now domineering, now grieved, now shocked…that voice which cannot let women alone” (Ch. 4, 74-75). 

Looking at the three early works of Austen (“Love and Friendship,” “Lesley Castle,” and “Catherine”) find examples that show Austen writing “as women write, not as men write.”  What does it mean to write “like a woman” at this time?  It is the literal style of her writing?  Subject matter?  Characters?  Narration?  Genre?  Consider how Woolf discusses this throughout Chapter 4, and use specific examples (i.e. quotes) from the stories to illustrate this quality.  What made Austen a woman writer rather than, as Woolf claims, just another woman trying to write like a man?  What “voice” was Austen ignoring in these works, and what might it have wanted her to say?  (You might assume that her brother Henry was a representative of this voice, in this excerpt I gave you in class).

REQUIREMENTS
  • At least 2-3 pages double spaced
  • Quote passages from at least 2 of the stories; be sure they’re significant and explain how you read and understand them
  • Due IN-CLASS on Thursday, September 13th: we will discuss your papers as a class to see the different ideas and views they inspired

Good luck!  Remember, this is just a short “getting our feet wet” paper, so don’t stress out about it.  That said, the ideas in this paper will spill over into other assignments and possibly, your final Critical paper. 

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Weekly Question Change

For this week, since I was sick and we're only having one class, let's do the weekly question in class.  It will still be over "Catherine, or the Bower," and I'll only give you one question--but a very broad one--to respond to.  I forgot to post the questions last night and I want to give you enough time to think about them and/or finish the story.

Even though we missed a class, we shouldn't be too far behind.  For Tuesday, we won't start Pride and Prejudice yet (though you're welcome to get ahead); instead, we'll read/discuss Virginia Woolf's take on Austen and why she felt Austen's novels (much more than her apprentice works) rank her alongside Shakespeare in her ability to project what Keats described as "negative capability." 

I will be in class on Thursday (tomorrow)!  See you then...

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

No class on Tuesday...

I won't be able to make it in today due to a bad virus that laid me low all yesterday.  So be sure to read "Catherine" for Thursday.  Questions for this week are forthcoming.  Sorry to ditch you!