One of the world%E2%80%99s most famous authors, Jane Austen created a complex textual world for her characters to inhabit that continues to capture the imagination of readers across the globe. This course gives you a unique opportunity to examine Austen%E2%80%99s heroes and villains and the England in which they lived.You will study the Regency period: the roles of men and women and what they read, saw and experienced, and how Jane Austen responded to it in her novels. How far does she reflect her time and to what extent does she challenge the society in which she lived? Are Austen%E2%80%99s novels really full of happy endings?You will also explore the modern reader%E2%80%99s relationship with Austen%E2%80%99s world, how film directors interpret it, and why Austen%E2%80%99s creations continue to hold appeal for writers of crime, sci-fi, horror and romance, from P. D. James to Helen Fielding.Studying Austen in London provides access to an extensive range of original resources held at the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and many others, not to mention trips to Bath and Alton and a guided walk tracing Regency London, all alongside screenings of the author%E2%80%99s major novels.The course is structured around three themed weeks:Week one: A Literary Introduction to AustenWeek two: The Society, Culture and Excess of the Regency PeriodWeek three: Austen and the Modern WorldThe first week will offers you a solid foundation in close literary analysis, while learning about Austen's relationship to genre and her place amongst and relationship to her literary contemporaries, in addition to accessing Austen's lesser known work. The second will consider Austen's work within the context of the Regency period, including notions of leisure, pleasure and sociability, as well as attitude to money, manners and marriage. The final week will focus on modern responses to Austen's world and her characters, including re-imaginings in other media or genres.
Course leaderEmma Newport
Target groupThis course is designed to be highly accessible and suitable for students from beyond the fields of literature and history. It would be suitable for those students from other fields of academia, such as the sciences. It is recommended however that students are familiar with Jane Austen's major works.
Course aimYou will cultivate an awareness of Austen's place within the context of her time, with a deeper understanding of attitudes towards the roles of men and women and the contrast between Regency metropolitanism and village ways of life.You will gain knowledge of genre fiction and the debates about Austen's place within genre, as well as her attitudes to it, while also working on skills to compare and contrast modern dramatic and literary adaptations with the original texts.Throughout the course, you will work on techniques of close-reading, textual analysis and historical and contextual analysis, in addition to developing skills in the handling of diverse source material that relate to the texts studied.
Fee infoGBP 1500: tuition fee only
King's College LondonAddress: Strand, London
Postal code: WC2R 2LS
City: London
Country: United Kingdom
Website: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/summer
E-mail: summerschool@kcl.ac.uk
Phone: +44 20 7848 1533
