Jane Austen: Fictions and Frenemies
Course Description
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “frenemy” as “a person with whom one is friendly, despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry; a person who combines the characteristics of a friend and an enemy.”
In 1940, the British psychologist and literary critic D.W. Harding published a groundbreaking essay on Jane Austen, in which he argued that Austen’s “books are, as she meant them to be, read and enjoyed by precisely the sort of people whom she disliked.” If, as Harding suggests, Austen writes books to entertain people that she in fact kind of hates, might it be fair to characterize her as an authorial frenemy?
In this course, we’ll exam Jane Austen’s fictions and fictional afterlives through the framework of the frenemy. Although the term itself wasn’t actually used during Austen’s lifetime, we’ll ask whether it might nonetheless provide a useful tool for understanding her unique capacity to engage and entertain readers while simultaneously criticizing the very people her novels represent—and perhaps her readers too. Throughout the class, our central question will be: what does frenemyship have to do with fiction?
Required Texts
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (Norton, 2016)
Emma, Austen (Oxford, 2022)
Persuasion, Austen (Norton, 2013)
Longbourn, Jo Baker (Penguin, 2014)
The Woman of Colour, Anonymous (Broadview, 2008)
Assignments
1. Participation
For this class to be a lively and productive group conversation, I’d like all voices to be included. I understand that not everyone is comfortable with verbal participation in a classroom setting. If this description feels familiar, please come to my office hours and we’ll talk about how we can incorporate your ideas into the class.
Participation in class will be one factor in the “ongoing engagement” portion of your final grade. Attending and being attentive in each class meeting may not always be possible, but I hope you will make an earnest effort. Please let me know if you will need to miss class at any point in the semester so that we can discuss ways for you to make up any missed work.
2. Weekly writing (Canvas posts)
In addition to attending class and participating in our conversations, you will need to make a weekly Canvas post for this class. Each Tuesday evening, I will provide a question or prompt for you to respond to. Posts are due each week before class begins on Thursday. You’ll write a total of ten Canvas posts over the course of the semester.
There is no absolute length requirement for posts, but I’m imagining something between about 150 and 300 words. If you’ve been reading along and paying attention during class, the posts shouldn’t take too much time to write—no more than about 30 minutes. If you had a quiet day in discussion, you might find yourself writing more, capturing the things you didn’t get to say or wish you’d said.
The purpose of these posts is threefold: 1) you’ll practice writing in a variety of styles and in response to different kinds of prompts; 2) you’ll have the opportunity to demonstrate your engagement in a written—rather than verbal—mode; and 3) you’ll help us build momentum between our Tuesday and Thursday discussions.
3. Adaptation assignment
For this assignment, you will propose your own adaptation of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It will be up to you to decide upon a medium. You might choose to propose a film, television series, or novel. Or you could choose to adapt Austen’s novel into a less conventional form—for instance, a podcast, a board or video game, a social media persona or platform, or another kind of genre/medium of your choosing. Although this is primarily a written assignment, you may include other media that help to flesh out your proposal. I will go over the specifics of this assignment in the coming weeks, and you’ll receive a handout with detailed instructions.
4. Critical essay
You will write an argumentative essay of 4-6 pages that makes use of at least one primary text from the course and at least one critical source. Throughout the semester, I will be sharing samples of Austen criticism—that is, writing by literary scholars that examines and interprets Austen’s work. You’ll need to choose one of these pieces of writing to read in full and to engage with in your own essay. You might build off of another critic’s insight, apply their thinking to a different text, or disagree with something they’ve said. I’ll provide detailed instructions well in advance of the deadline.
5. Final project: adaptation or criticism
For your final assignment in the course, you’ll have the option to work on another adaptation or another critical essay. It will be your choice, though in either case your final product will be somewhat lengthier and better developed than either of the two earlier assignments. We will devote the last two weeks of the class to working on and workshopping your final projects.
This assignment will also provide us with an opportunity to reflect on the differences and similarities between adaptation and criticism. Adaptations tend to foreground their indebtedness to an original text in some way, and yet the decisions an adaptor makes can call into question what has been taken for granted in the original. This is to say, adaptations can also be understood as works of critical engagement. At the same time, literary criticism generally involves some kind of affection for or at the very least passionate engagement with an original text too. Critics are not merely disinterested parties. They have their own feelings and investments that they bring to a text, and so works of criticism might also be understood as adaptations of sorts. For this reason, regardless of the kind of project you choose, you’ll write a short addendum that emphasizes the kind of thinking or feeling that you didn’t foreground in your project proper.
As with the other assignments, you’ll receive detailed instructions for this project well in advance of the deadline.
6. Deadlines and extensions
I do ask that you submit your assignments on time. My hope in requiring that assignments be done within their respective window is two-fold: first, to minimize the number of unfinished assignments (and the concomitant dread) that can build up in one’s backlog, and, second, to head perfectionism off at the pass. Your assignments don’t need to be the best thoughts ever thought in all the world, just your genuine thoughts as an engaged person.
I am open to granting extensions, particularly if you have other assignments or conflicts that you know about in advance. If you find you’ll be unable to complete a task before the deadline, telling me as soon as possible will greatly increase the chances of an outcome we both find satisfying. (Two weeks ahead of time is a good rule of thumb.)
Schedule of Readings
Week 1:
introduction; selections from D.W. Harding, “Regulated Hatred: An Aspect of the Work of Jane Austen” (1940)
read Austen, Love and Freindship (1790) [Canvas]
Week 2:
read Austen, Pride and Prejudice (vol. 1, chs. 1-16)
submit Canvas post #1; read Pride and Prejudice (vol. 1, chs. 17-23; vol. 2, chs. 1-9)
Week 3:
read Pride and Prejudice (vol. 2, chs. 10-19; vol. 3, chs. 1-5)
submit Canvas post #2; finish Pride and Prejudice (vol. 3, chs. 6-19)
Week 4:
watch Pride and Prejudice (BBC mini-series, 1995)
submit Canvas post #3; watch Fire Island (dir. Andrew Ahn, 2022)
Week 5:
discuss film adaptations [no new reading]
read Jo Baker, Longbourn (vol. 1)
adaptation assignment due on Canvas
Week 6:
read Longbourn (vol. 2)
submit Canvas post #4; finish Longbourn (vol. 3)
Week 7:
read Emma (vol. 1, chs. 1-9)
submit Canvas post #5; read Emma (vol. 1, chs. 10-18)
Week 8:
read Emma (vol. 2, chs. 1-9)
submit Canvas post #6; read Emma (vol. 2, chs. 10-18)
Week 9:
read Emma (vol. 3, chs. 1-10)
submit Canvas post #7; finish Emma (vol. 3, chs. 11-19)
Week 10:
watch Clueless (dir. Amy Heckerling, 1995)
critical essays due on Canvas
Week 11:
read The Woman of Colour, pp. 51-127
submit Canvas post #8; finish The Woman of Colour (pp. 128-189)
Week 12:
watch Belle (dir. Amma Asante, 2013)
submit Canvas post #9; read Persuasion (chs. 1-9)
Week 13:
read Persuasion (chs. 10-18)
submit Canvas post #10; finish Persuasion (chs. 19-24)
Week 14:
final project proposals due
individual meetings with Prof. Turner
Week 15:
final project drafts due; in-class workshopping / peer review
last class / no new reading
final projects due