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The Thing About Austen

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EP89: The Thing About Henry Crawford Reading Shakespeare

5/7/2024

 
If you thought that Mary Crawford with her harp was the only siren in the Crawford family, think again. Henry Crawford is here with a volume of Shakespeare, and WOW. Prepare yourselves. This episode we unpack this scene's particular Shakespearean allusion, examine the status of reading aloud during Austen's time, and discuss Fanny's reaction to Henry's reading.

Selected Sources:
  • DeWispelare, Daniel John. “Spectacular Speech: Performing Language in the Late Eighteenth Century.” The Journal of British Studies 51, no. 4 (October 2012): 858–82. https://doi.org/10.1086/666958.
  • Graham, Peter W. “Falling for the Crawfords: Character, Contingency, and Narrative.” ELH 77, no. 4 (December 2010): 867–91. https://doi.org/10.1353/elh.2010.a406155.
  • Harrington, Dana. “Remembering the Body: Eighteenth-Century Elocution and the Oral Tradition.” Rhetorica 28, no. 1 (January 2010): 67–95. https://doi.org/10.1353/rht.2010.0025.
  • Honan, Park. Jane Austen: Her Life. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1989.
  • Jajdelska, Elspeth. “‘The Very Defective and Erroneous Method’: Reading Instruction and Social Identity in Elite Eighteenth‐Century Learners.” Oxford Review of Education 36, no. 2 (April 1, 2010): 141–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054981003696648.
  • Kelly, Gary. “Reading Aloud in Mansfield Park.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction 37, no. 1 (1982): 29–49. https://doi.org/10.2307/3044668.
  • Mullini, Roberta. “Reading Aloud in Britain in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century: Theories and Beyond.” Journal of Early Modern Studies, March 11, 2018, 157-176 Pages. https://doi.org/10.13128/JEMS-2279-7149-22842.
  • Newark, Elizabeth. “Words Not Spoken: Courtship and Seduction in Jane Austen’s Novels.” In The Talk in Jane Austen, edited by Bruce Stovel and Lynn Weinlos Gregg, 207–24. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2002.
  • Pinch, Adela. “Hearing Voices in Austen: The Representation of Speech and Voice in the Novels.” In The Routledge Companion to Jane Austen, by Edited By Cheryl A. Wilson and Maria H. Frawley, 277–95, 1st ed. New York: Routledge, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429398155-21-25.
  • Pollack-Pelzner, Daniel. “Jane Austen, the Prose Shakespeare.” SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 53, no. 4 (September 2013): 763–92. https://doi.org/10.1353/sel.2013.0039.
  • Tomalin, Claire. Jane Austen: A Life. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1999.
  • Yahav, Amit. “Austen’s Literary Time.” In The Routledge Companion to Jane Austen, by Edited By Cheryl A. Wilson and Maria H. Frawley, 306–17, 1st ed. New York: Routledge, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429398155-23-27.

Ep83: The Thing About the Ha-Ha

2/7/2024

 
There's a bit of a brouhaha brewing over at the Sotherton ha-ha, and we've got front row, garden bench seats. Join us as we walk through the various comings and goings of the world's most awkward group date.

Below are a few images that illustrate the type of ha-ha Austen describes in ​Mansfield Park
Selected Sources
  • Brodey, Inger Sigrun. “Papas and Ha-Has: Rebellion, Authority, and Landscaping in Mansfield Park.” Persuasions 17 (1995). https://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions/no17/brodey/.
  • Heydt-Stevenson, Jill. “‘Slipping into the Ha-Ha’: Bawdy Humor and Body Politics in Jane Austen’s Novels.” Nineteenth-Century Literature 55, no. 3 (2000): 309–39. https://doi.org/10.2307/2903126.
  • Repton, Humphry. The Landscape Gardening and Landscape Architecture of the Late H. Repton, Being His Entire Works on These Subjects, with ... Introduction, ... Analysis, Biographical Notice, Notes and Index by J. C. Loudon, 1840.
  • Russell, Tilden A. “On ‘Looking over a Ha-Ha.’” The Musical Quarterly 71, no. 1 (1985): 27–37.
  • Taylor, Patrick. “Ha-Ha.” In The Oxford Companion to the Garden. Oxford University Press, 2006. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198662556.001.0001/acref-9780198662556-e-0714.
  • Toner, Anne. “Jane Austen, Frances Sheridan, and the Ha-Ha: A New Affiliation for Mansfield Park,” no. 32 (n.d.).

Ep61: The Thing About Speculation with guest Dr. Regulus Allen

2/19/2023

 
​This week we're dealing out an episode on the game of Speculation with our guest Dr. Regulus Allen. We discuss the rules of play and the ways in which the game serves the narrative in Mansfield Park. Dr. Allen also provides us with some fun speculation (see what we did there?) as to what Jane Austen's own favorite card game might have been.

​Thank you so much to Regulus for joining us for this episode! You can learn more about her and her work at https://english.calpoly.edu/faculty/allen. 

For an explanation of the rule for Speculation, see "How to Win at Speculation" from JaneAusten.co.uk 

EP09: The Thing About the Rushworths' Divorce with guest Dr. Ellen Campbell

10/3/2021

 
Sex! Scandal! This week we're headed to Mansfield Park where a matrimonial fracas is brewing. Actually, it happened in Twickenham, and it's already fully steeped. If you ever thought Jane Austen was just about polite tea parties, this episode is for you. A huge thanks to Dr. Ellen Campbell for joining us for this discussion, despite suffering from new semester laryngitis — thank you, Ellen! You can find her on Twitter @EllenCampbell.

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