Three by Austen: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma

Peter Medine
Summer 2014
FRIDAYS |  
9:00 a.m. until noon
August 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 2014
Course Format: Hybrid
Location: Main Campus
Tuition: $135.00

Jane Austen’s portrayals of Regency England’s provincial life provide fascinating commentary on social and economic issues as well as the characters’ psychology and emotional lives. Throughout this class we will attend to the ironic presentation, where the narrative’s implicit meaning often differs from what is literally expressed. Such approaches will bring into focus the education of the main characters through the trials of their experiences. While the novels conform to the comedic mode, in which the principals ultimately realize their destinies as well-married men and women, their education displays the hazards, if not the flaws, of society and humanity. These are some of the ways in which Austen reworks the Bildungsroman formula to create narratives of poise, wit, and artistic seriousness. It is little wonder that Austen has long been regarded as the originator of the “great tradition” of the English novel.

Required Reading

Austen, Jane. Emma. Dover Thrift Editions, 1998. ISBN: 0486406482.

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Dover Thrift Editions, 1995. ISBN: 0486284735.

Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. Dover Thrift Editions, 1995. ISBN: 0486290492.

All three texts are paperback editions.

Meet Your Instructor

Professor Emeritus

PETER E. MEDINE is Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona, where he served in the English Department from 1969 to 2014. He has written, edited, or coedited seven books in Early Modern English studies. His most recent coedited book is Visionary Milton: Essays in Prophecy and Violence (2010). He is the recipient of several Humanities Seminars Superior Teaching Awards and the College of Humanities Award for Outreach Service.  

Location

POETRY CENTER
Dorothy Rubel Room
1508 E Helen
Tucson, AZ 85721
United States

Located on the SE corner of Helen Street and Vine Avenue, one block north of Speedway and three blocks west of Campbell Ave.

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