ENG 4934 Spring 2022 Eckert

In this course we will consider how Jane Austen’s novels engage with the popular culture of her own era and have, more than two hundred years later, shaped today’s popular culture from the Bridgeton series to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to the movie Clueless. Reading closely the content and narrative form her novels, we will explore how Austen represents and critiques her contemporary society. For example, we will ask how Pride and Prejudice engages debates about love and money (not to mention dancing), how Northanger Abbey satirizes the craze for gothic fiction, and how Emma depicts changing notions about class and education. These questions will help us understand why Austen’s fiction interested her original readers and why her work—in its original form as well as its adaptations—continues to fascinate people today. This course will ask students not only to analyze Austen’s novels but also to consider the ways that more recent writers, producers, directors, and content creators have used her work.

This course fulfills the Literature Capstone requirement, meets the Genre requirement for LMC majors, and meets the Scholarship in Practice (s) requirement for Liberal Studies.