Universität Tübingen, Sommersemester 2000

Sense and Sensibility:

Jane Austen and Her Female Predecessors

Content:

Course Description
Course Outline
Selected Books and Websites

Course Description

The 18th century acknowledged women as both rational and feeling creatures and consequently witnessed an increasing number of female authors as well as female heroines in literature. The theme of feminine education became a focus of late 18th century novels. Both Fanny Burney's courtesy novels in the conduct-book tradition and Maria Edgeworth's „fashionable novels“ had an influence on Jane Austen, the „first modern novelist“ (Trilling). We will trace the emergence of the modern female in those novels and place them in the tradition of 18th century writing.

Required reading: Fanny Burney: Evelina (1778); Maria Edgeworth: Castle Rackrent (1800), Belinda (1801); Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1816), Persuasion (1818).

Please read the novels by Burney and Edgeworth before the term starts. Requirements for Schein: an oral presentation and a written version of this (set out in MLA style).

Course Outline

Week 01: 04/04/00 Introduction

Week 02: 11/04/00 Fanny Burney: Evelina

Week 03: 18/04/00 Maria Edgeworth: Castle Rackrent

Week 04: 25/04/00 Maria Edgeworth: Belinda

Week 05: 02/05/00 Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility

Student Presentation: „Jane Austen's Times: Historical Background“

Week 06: 09/05/00 Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility

Student Presentation: „Sense Versus Sensibility in Sense and Sensibility“

Week 07: 16/05/00 Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice

Student Presentation: „Jane Austen: Literary Influences“

Week 08: 23/05/00 Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice

Student Presentation: „Jane Austen's Favourite Heroine: Elisabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice“

Week 09: 30/05/00 Jane Austen: Mansfield Park

Student Presentation: „Jane Austen's Life as a Professional Writer“

Week 10: 06/06/00 Jane Austen: Mansfield Park

Student Presentation: „Fanny Price: The Unlikeable Heroine of Mansfield Park“

Week 11: 20/06/00 Jane Austen: Emma

Student Presentation: „Jane Austen and Women's Education“

Week 12: 27/06/00 Jane Austen: Emma

Student Presentation: „Emma: A World of Material Value“

Week 13: 04/07/00 Jane Austen: Persuasion

Student Presentation: „Persuasion: The Importance of Propriety“

Week 14: 11/07/00 Jane Austen: Persuasion

Student Presentation: „The Popularity of an „Old-Fashioned Spinster“: The Jane Austen Cult“
Conclusion

Selected Books and Websites

(from the Library of University of Osnabrück, therefore not representative)

Criticism on Edgeworth, Burney and Others

Elizabeth Kowalewski-Wallace. Their Fathers' Daughters: Hannah Moore, Maria Edgeworth, and Patriarchal Complicity. New York, N.Y., et al.: Oxford University Press, 1991. Standort: Magazin 4541-687 9

Dale Spender. Mothers of the Novel: 100 Good Women Writers Before Jane Austen. London et al.: Pandora, 1986. Standort: DTS 4412-136 9

Oleta Elizabeth McWhorter Harden. Maria Edgeworth. Boston, Mass.: Twayne, 1984. (Twayne's English Authors Series; 375) Standort: ELA E 234 4387-894 3

Tracy Edgar Daugherty. Narrative Techniques in the Novels of Fanny Burney. New York et al.: Lang, 1989. (Studies in the Romantic Age; 1) Standort: ELA B 9657 4434-743 1

Jane Austen - Biographies

David Nokes. Jane Austen: A Life. 1st American ed., 3rd printing. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998. Standort: ELA A 9335 4698-809 2

Claire Tomalin. Jane Austen: A Life. 1st ed. London et al.: Viking, 1997. Standort: ELA A 9335 4698-808 9

Jan Fergus. Jane Austen : A Literary Life. Basingstoke et al.: Macmillan, 1991. Standort: ELA A 9335 4524-692 6 (Comment: a brief biography concentrating on Austen as a professional writer, recommended reading)

John Halperin. The Life of Jane Austen. Baltimore, Md: The Johns Hopkins Univ.Pr., 1984. Standort: ELA A 9335 4323-689 9 (Comment: a popularizing biography; Jane Austen presented as resentful of her lot, incapable of love, and cynical about her personal relationships)

Marghanita Laski. Jane Austen and Her World. Repr. London: Thames and Hudson, 1977. Standort: ELA A 9335 4154-610 9 ( Comment: for the coffee table - pictures)

Jenkins, Elizabeth. Jane Austen. London: Cardinal ed. publ. by Sphere Books, 1973. Standort: ELA A 9335 4009-285 8 (Comment: an easily readable classic, recommended as a starting point)

Jane Austen - Bibliography

David Gilson. A Bibliography of Jane Austen. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982. (The Soho Bibliographies; 21) Standort: ELA A 9333 4246-083 1 ( Comment: contains a list of all biographies and critical works published up to 1978; for more bibliographical information consult the MLA bibliography)

Jane Austen's Letters

Jane Austen´s Letters. Collected and ed. by Deirdre LeFaye. 3rd ed. Oxford et al.: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997. Standort: Freihand-Magazin 5410-470 3

Jane Austen - General Criticism

D. W. Harding. Regulated Hatred and Other Essays on Jane Austen. Ed. by Monica Lawlor. London et al.: Athlone Press, 1998. Standort: ELA A 9337 4712-090 1 (Comment: „Regulated Hatred“ was first published in 1940 and presented Austen as an isolated ironist, critical of her society)

John Lauber. Jane Austen. New York: Twayne Publ. et al., c 1993. (Twayne´s English Authors Series; 498) Standort: ELA A 9334 4632-569 7 (Comment: guide for the general reader)

Roger Gard. Jane Austen´s Novels: The Art of Clarity. New Haven et al.: Yale Univ. Press, 1992. Standort: ELA A 9337 4561-746 1

Barbara J. Horwitz. Jane Austen and the Question of Women´s Education. New York, N.Y. et al.: Lang, 1991. (American University Studies, Series 4, English Language and Literature; 129) Standort: Magazin 4520-654 2

Claudia L. Johnson. Jane Austen: Women, Politics and the Novel. Chicago et al.: University of Chicago Press, 1988. Standort: ELA A 9337 4434-306 6 (Comment: provocative thesis: the domestic novel in England became politicized as England was threatened by revolutionary France)

Tony Tanner. Jane Austen. Basingstoke et al.: Macmillan, 1986. Standort: ELA A 9334 4393-288 9 (Comment: introductory)

Janet Todd, ed. Jane Austen: New Perspectives. New York et al.: Holmes & Meier, 1983. (Women & literature; N.S., 3) Standort: ELA A 9333 4301-933 3 (Comment: collection of critical essays)

Barbara Hardy. A Reading of Jane Austen. London: Owen, 1975. Standort: ELA A 9337 4045-715 0 (Comment: close reading of Austen, offers chapters on topics such as Storytelling or Properties and Possessions)

Marvin Mudrick. Jane Austen: Irony as Defense and Discovery. Repr. Berkeley, Calif. et al.: Univ. of Calif. Pr., 1974. Standort: ELA A 9337 4015-132 0 (Comment: cf. Harding's 1940 essay „Regulated Hatred“)

Mary Lascelles. Jane Austen and Her Art. Repr. London u.a.: Oxford Univ. Pr., 1970. Standort: ELA A 9337 4034-335 8 (Comment: first full-length thorough study of Austen)

B. C. Southam, ed. Jane Austen: The Critical Heritage. Vol. 1: 1811 - 1870. London et al.: Routledge, 1968. (The Critical Heritage Series). Standort: ELA A 9333 4439-551 9 (Comment: anthology of critical essays from 1811 to 1870)

B. C. Southam, ed. Jane Austen: The Critical Heritage. Vol. 1: 1811 - 1870. Repr. London et al.: Routledge, 1995. (The Critical Heritage Series). Standort: ELA A 9333 4612-116 3

B. C. Southam, ed. Jane Austen: The Critical Heritage. Vol. 1: 1879 - 1940. London et al.: Routledge, 1987. (The Critical Heritage Series).Standort: ELA A 9333 4439-551 9 (Comment: anthology of critical essays from 1879 to 1940)

B. C. Southam, ed. Jane Austen: The Critical Heritage. Vol. 1: 1879 - 1940. Repr. London et al.: Routledge, 1995. (The Critical Heritage Series). Standort: ELA A 9333 4612-117 6

Jane Austen - Criticism of Individual Works

David Lodge, ed. Jane Austen, Emma: A Casebook. Rev. ed., 3rd print. Basingstoke, Hampshire et al.: Macmillan, 1995. (Casebook Series) Standort: ELA A 9339 4665-093 5

Liselotte Glage. Jane Austen: "Pride and Prejudice." München: Fink, 1984. (Text und Geschichte. Modellanalysen zur englischen und amerikanischen Literatur; 12) (Uni-Taschenbücher; 1311) Standort: ELA A 9339 4320-340 8

Jan Fergus. Jane Austen and the Didactic Novel : "Northanger Abbey", "Sense and Sensibibility" and "Pride and Prejudice." London et al.: Macmillan, 1983. Standort: ELA A 9337 4261-207 4 (Comment: relates Austen's first three novels to educational thinking; cf. Barbara J. Horwitz above)

Brian Charles Southam, ed. Jane Austen: Northanger Abbey and Persuasion: A Casebook. London et al.: Macmillan, 1976. (Casebook Series) Standort: ELA A 9337 4179-225 4

Brian Charles Southam, ed. Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Mansfield Park. London et al.: Macmillan, 1976. Standorte: ELA A 9337 4031-944 7, Magazin 4145-353 5, Magazin 4181-541 6

Website

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It was last updated on September 26, 2001.

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