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The Thing About Austen

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Ep39: The Thing About Mrs. Dashwood's Linens

5/22/2022

 
John and Fanny Dashwood are sadly waving goodbye to some valuable household objects, and we're here to explain why they really need to get over themselves. This episode we're looking at the linens in Sense and Sensibility, and the role of such objects in Austen's time.

Selected Sources:
  • Boase, Tessa. The Housekeeper’s Tale: The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House. London: Aurum Press, 2015.
  • Brodie, Antonia. “Marking and Memory: An Embroidered Sheet in the Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.” TEXTILE 14, no. 2: Emotional Textiles (May 3, 2016): 160–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/14759756.2016.1139381.
  • Buchan, William. Domestic Medicine: Or a Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases by Regimen and Simple Medicines. 14th ed. London, 1794.
  • Dolan, Alice. “The Fabric of Life: Time and Textiles in an Eighteenth-Century Plebeian Home.” Home Cultures 11, no. 3 (November 2014): 353–74. https://doi.org/10.2752/175174214X14035295691238.
  • ———. “Touching Linen: Textiles, Emotion and Bodily Intimacy in England C. 1708-1818.” Cultural and Social History 16, no. 2 (March 15, 2019): 145–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780038.2019.1586810.
  • Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn. North and South. Edited by Angus Easson. Oxford World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
  • Postrel, Virginia. The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World. New York: Basic Books, 2020. 
  • St Clair, Kassia. The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History. London: John Murray, 2018. 
  • Victoria and Albert Museum. “Linen – The Original Sustainable Material,” April 2018. https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/linen-the-original-sustainable-material.

Ep34: The Thing About Edward's Hair Ring with guest Dr. Sally Holloway

4/7/2022

 
Mistaken identity! Mystery hair! Edward is sporting a new ring, and now everyone is feeling uncomfortable and confused. Fortunately, Dr. Sally Holloway is here to help us examine this hairy intrigue. If you have ever regretted your choice of accessories, this episode is for you.

Thank you so much to Sally for joining us for this episode! You can find her on Twitter @sally_holloway. You can also check out her book, 
The Game of Love in Georgian England: Courtship, Emotions, and Material Culture from Oxford University Press (2019).

Ep31: The Thing About Marianne's Smelling Salts with guest Dr. Emily C. Friedman

3/10/2022

 
Pull up your fainting couch because have we got a revivifying episode for you! Dr. Emily C. Friedman is here to take us through the olfactory delights of smelling bottles, as well as breaking down what their various scents and applications tell us about characters like Marianne Dashwood and Lady Bertram.

Thank you so much to Emily for joining us for this episode! You can find her on Twitter @friede, on Instagram @ManuscriptFiction, on YouTube @CriticalProf, and at www.ecfriedman.com where you can find information about all of her work.

Also, check out Emily's monograph
 Reading Smell in Eighteenth-Century Fiction, coming out in paperback soon.

EP20: The Thing About Brandon's Flannel Waistcoat

12/15/2021

 
Is Brandon into grunge? Going through a lumberjack phase? Embracing Santa chic? We're here to uncover just exactly what Colonel Brandon has on under his coat. If you have ever advocated for dressing in layers, this episode is for you.

Selected episode sources
  • Davidson, Hilary. Dress in the Age of Jane Austen: Regency Fashion. New Haven ; London: Yale University Press, 2019.
  • Ray, Joan Klingel. “‘The Amiable Prejudices of a Young [Writer’s] Mind’: The Problems of Sense and Sensibility.” Persuasions On-Line 26, no. 1 (2005). https://jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol26no1/ray.htm.
  • Styles, John. The Dress of the People: Everyday Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.
  • Sutherland, Eileen. “That Infamous Flannel Waistcoat.” Persuasions 19 (1995): 58.
  • “Waistcoat.” In OED Online. Oxford Univeristy Press. Accessed November 18, 2021. www.oed.com/view/Entry/225127.

EP04: The Thing About Marianne's Dead Leaves

10/3/2021

 
This episode we're all about the connection between Romanticism and Marianne's passion for dead leaves. We also discuss the ways in which the recent film adaptations have amped up the Romanticism factor. If you were ever a teen with a lot of BIG FEELINGS, this episode is for you. Content warning for this episode: Grief and parental loss are briefly mentioned at a few points throughout the episode.

Selected Episode Resources
  • Daniels, Stephen. “The Political Iconography of Woodland in Later Georgian England.” In The Iconography of Landscape: Essays on the Symbolic Representation, Design, and Use of Past Environments, edited by Denis E. Cosgrove and Stephen Daniels. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
  • Fizer, Irene. “A ‘Passion for Dead Leaves’: Animated Landscapes and Static Canvases in ‘Sense and Sensibility.’” South Atlantic Review 76, no. 1 (2011): 53–72.
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