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SoSe 16: Jane Austen: Between Romance and Realism

Elizabeth Bonapfel

Hinweise für Studierende

Dr. Elizabeth M. Bonapfel Freie Universität Berlin Mittwoch, 10-12 Uhr, Raum J 32/102 Office Hours: Mittwoch, 12-13 Uhr elizabeth.bonapfel@nyu.edu

Kommentar

Jane Austen (1775-1817) is the first author in the English language to write using the style of free indirect discourse. Following from her brother Henry’s statement that “everything came finished from her pen,” critics have often praised Austen for her polished, ironic, parodic style. But what exactly constitutes her technique? From where did her style come? To what extent was Austen a product of her time, and to what extent did she reshape the novel as we know it? What is the relationship of Austen’s novels to 18th-century romance novels and discourses on morality and emotion? In turn, how did Austen influence the realist novel that followed her? Perhaps most importantly, what does Austen’s development of free indirect discourse mean for the development of the novel and our understanding of it? Austen’s manuscripts show that she, like many of her contemporaries, often capitalized and punctuated inconsistently, variants that compositors and editors streamlined in the process of bringing her books to print. What does this discrepancy between manuscript and print tell us about changing language conventions in the early 19th century? To what extent is “Jane Austen” as we have come to know her a product of changes in language standardization and developments in print? By focusing on one author, this course will examine theoretical questions relating to narratological theory (free indirect discourse), book history and language standardization (the relationship between manuscript and print), and socio-historical context (situating Austen in relation to romance novels and contemporary discourses on emotions and morality). This course has three goals: 1) to provide students with an intensive introduction to the works, historical contexts, and influences on and of Jane Austen; 2) to provide students with an introduction to terminology about the novel and narratology in literary theory; and 3) to enable students to think critically about the representation of “voice” in literary (narrative and charactorological) and material (manuscript and text) forms. Potential texts include Ann Radcliffe, A Sicilian Romance (1791); Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), Northanger Abbey (1818, posthumously), and Persuasion (1818, posthumously); and Charles Dickens Great Expectations (1861). The course will situate Austen in relation to contemporary socio-historical and literary contexts about the regulation of emotion and abstraction of moral principles, as expressed through works such as Samuel Johnson’s The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), and Mary Wollstonecraft’s The Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792). The course will be supplemented by the Jane Austen’s Fiction Manuscripts Digital Edition (http://www.janeausten.ac.uk/index.html). Requirements: This course is reading intensive: it is highly recommended that students obtain a copy of the syllabus before the beginning of the semester in order to begin reading the novels during the break. Literary Texts Ann Radcliff, A Sicilian Romance (1791), ISBN-10: 0141191945 Sense and Sensibility (1811; begun November 1797), ed. Ross Ballaster, ISBN-10: 0141439661 Pride and Prejudice (1813; composed October 1796-August 1797), ed. Vivien Jones, ISBN-10: 0141439513 Mansfield Park (published May 1814), ed. Kathryn Sutherland, ISBN-10: 0141439807 Emma (1815-January 1816; composed January 1814-March 1815), ed. Fiona Stafford, ISBN-10: 0141439580 Northanger Abbey (published posthumously December 1817-January 1818; drafted 1798-1799 as Susan, then Catherine), ed. Marilyn Butler, ISBN-10: 0141439793 Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (serialized in All the Year Round, December 1, 1860-August 3, 1861), ed. Charlotte Mitchell, ISBN-10: 0141439564 Secondary Texts Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), selections Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), selections Samuel Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) Gérard Genette, Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method (1972), selections M.B. Parkes, Pause and Effect: An Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the West (1992) Anne Toner, Ellipsis (2015), selections Schließen

Literaturhinweise

Requirements: This course is reading intensive: it is highly recommended that students obtain a copy of the syllabus before the beginning of the semester in order to begin reading the novels during the break. Literary Texts Ann Radcliff, A Sicilian Romance (1791), ISBN-10: 0141191945 Sense and Sensibility (1811; begun November 1797), ed. Ross Ballaster, ISBN-10: 0141439661 Pride and Prejudice (1813; composed October 1796-August 1797), ed. Vivien Jones, ISBN-10: 0141439513 Mansfield Park (published May 1814), ed. Kathryn Sutherland, ISBN-10: 0141439807 Emma (1815-January 1816; composed January 1814-March 1815), ed. Fiona Stafford, ISBN-10: 0141439580 Northanger Abbey (published posthumously December 1817-January 1818; drafted 1798-1799 as Susan, then Catherine), ed. Marilyn Butler, ISBN-10: 0141439793 Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (serialized in All the Year Round, December 1, 1860-August 3, 1861), ed. Charlotte Mitchell, ISBN-10: 0141439564 Secondary Texts Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), selections Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), selections Samuel Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) Gérard Genette, Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method (1972), selections M.B. Parkes, Pause and Effect: An Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the West (1992) Anne Toner, Ellipsis (2015), selections Schließen