Syllabus for English 337: The British Novel I
Reading Jane Austen
Fall 2025

Thursday, August 28

Before our first class meeting, read (or watch) these two things:

• Deborah Wynne, "Readers and Reading Practices" (in Canvas Files--this is the only secondary reading that will be distributed electronically)
• Janine Barchas, "Jane Austen on the Cheap" (excellent talk about the making and circulation of Austen editions in the nineteenth century)

First quick assignments! (Note that normally, the assignment written here--in the space for the class day--is due before class. Only these first-day assignments break that pattern.)

By the end of today,

1. Put a paragraph of self-introduction in the class "Self-Introductions" Document, and
2. As the first entry in your Commonplace Document, do your first reading situation post about the experience of being read to in class today.

Tuesday, September 2

Edward Copeland, from "Money" in The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen (class packet)
• Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, Volume One, pages 5-129

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

• Group 1 does a regular response post
• Group 2 does a reading situation post
• Group 3 does a quotations-only post

Thursday, September 4

• Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, Volume Two, pages 133-238

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

• Group 2 does regular response post
• Group 3 does reading situation post
• Group 1 does quotations-only post

Tuesday, September 9

• Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, Volume Three, pages 241-353

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

• Group 3 does regular response post
• Group 1 does reading situation post
• Group 2 does quotations-only post

Thursday, September 11

• D. A. Miller, from Jane Austen; Or, The Secret of Style (class packet)
• Stephanie Insley Hershinow, "Little Bit of Ivory: D. A. Miller on Jane Austen" (class packet)

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

Choose one small meeting point between Miller and Hershinow's pieces and connect it in some way to your own experience of reading Sense and Sensibility. Be sure to quote both Miller and Hershinow, and write at least 200 words.

Tuesday, September 16

• Sense and Sensibility, film, directed by Ang Lee (1995, through Swank Digital Campus)

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

Choose two snapshots from different scenes in the film. (Think of a snapshot as a character saying a single line, or the filmmakers composing one image.) Write about a connection you perceive between the two snapshots, showing how the connection demonstrates something about this production's interpretation of Austen's novel.

Thursday, September 18

• Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Volume One, pages 5-128

• Optional bonus content: What Jane Saw, a digital re-creation of two art exhibitions that Austen saw in person

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

• Group 1 does a regular response post
• Group 2 does a reading situation post
• Group 3 does a quotations-only post

Tuesday, September 23

• Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Volume Two, pages 131-232

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

• Group 2 does regular response post
• Group 3 does reading situation post
• Group 1 does quotations-only post

Thursday, September 25

No class meeting

Tuesday, September 30

• Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Volume Three, pages 235-367
• Optional bonus reading: Marilyn Butler, "Pride and Prejudice," from Jane Austen and the War of Ideas (class packet)
• Optional bonus reading: Claudia L. Johnson, "Pride and Prejudice and the Pursuit of Happiness," from Jane Austen: Women, Politics, and the Novel (class packet)

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

• Group 3 does regular response post
• Group 1 does reading situation post
• Group 2 does quotations-only post

Thursday, October 2

• Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, Volume One, pages 5-159

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

• Group 1 does a regular response post
• Group 2 does a reading situation post
• Group 3 does a quotations-only post

Tuesday, October 7

• Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, Volume Two, pages 159-284

During class today, we will take some time to talk about your ideas for the shorter paper.

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

• Group 2 does regular response post
• Group 3 does reading situation post
• Group 1 does quotations-only post

Thursday, October 9

• Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, Volume Three, pages 287-439

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

• Group 3 does regular response post
• Group 1 does reading situation post
• Group 2 does quotations-only post

Tuesday, October 14

• Edward Said, from Culture and Imperialism (class packet)
• Susan Fraiman, "Jane Austen and Edward Said: Gender, Culture, and Imperialism" (class packet)
• Corinne Fowler, "Revisiting Mansfield Park: The Critical and Literary Legacies of Edward W. Said's Essay 'Jane Austen and Empire' in Culture and Imperialism (1993)" (class packet)

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

Choose one sentence from each of Fraiman's and Fowler's pieces that you would nominate as the thesis. Quote the sentence, with a page reference. After each quotation, write a brief note (at least 30 words) pointing to a part of the piece's analysis that your chosen sentence does not cover.

Thursday, October 16

The paper is due tomorrow, so we'll have an in-class film: Bride and Prejudice, directed by Gurinder Chadha (2004, via Swank Digital Campus)

Tuesday, October 28

• Jane Austen, Emma, Volume One, pages 7-142

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class -- note that we're juggling the order so people get to respond in different ways to different parts of the novels:

• Group 3 does regular response post
• Group 1 does reading situation post
• Group 2 does quotations-only post

Thursday, October 30

• Jane Austen, Emma, Volume Two, pages 145-291

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

• Group 1 does regular response post
• Group 2 does reading situation post
• Group 3 does quotations-only post

Tuesday, November 4

• Jane Austen, Emma, Volume Three, pages 295-453

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

• Group 2 does regular response post
• Group 3 does reading situation post
• Group 1 does quotations-only post

Thursday, November 6

• Juliet McMaster, "Class" from The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen (class packet)
• Beth Fowkes Tobin, "Aiding Impoverished Gentlewomen: Power and Class in Emma" (class packet)
• Paul Delany, "'A Sort of Notch in the Donwell Estate': Intersections of Status and Class in Emma" (class packet)

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

Choose one sentence from each of Tobin's and Delany's pieces that you would nominate as the thesis. Quote the sentence, with a page reference. After each quotation, write a brief note (at least 30 words) pointing to a part of the piece's analysis that your chosen sentence does not cover.

Tuesday, November 11

• Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, prefatory materials and Volume One, pages 3-119

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

• Group 3 does regular response post
• Group 1 does reading situation post
• Group 2 does quotations-only post

Thursday, November 13

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

Write at least 150 words about your plans for the bibliography and final assignments. This is informal: just let me know what you're thinking about, as a starting point for our conversations in conferences.

In place of meeting as a class, we will have check-in conferences to talk about your annotated bibliographies and how you're doing more generally.

Tuesday, November 18

• Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, Volume Two, pages 123-235

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

• Group 1 does regular response post
• Group 2 does reading situation post
• Group 3 does quotations-only post

Thursday, November 20

• Jin Feng, "Time-Travel to P&P: Web-based Chinese Fanfic of Jane Austen" (class packet)
• Deidre Lynch, from Janeites: Austen's Disciples and Devotees (class packet)
• Claudia L. Johnson, "Austen Cults and Cultures" (class packet)

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

For each of the three pieces, write one question that you would like to ask the author about the reading.

Tuesday, November 25

Annotated bibliography due by email attachment by 9:00 p.m.

Tuesday, December 2

• Jane Austen, Persuasion, Volume One, pages 5-109

• Optional bonus content: Brandon Taylor's brief reflection on Persuasion is an apt accompaniment to the last reading assignment of the term.

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

• Group 2 does regular response post
• Group 3 does reading situation post
• Group 1 does quotations-only post

Thursday, December 4

• Jane Austen, Persuasion, Volume Two, pages 113-236

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

You've made it to the end of Austen's major novels! Using this last volume of Persuasion as a starting point, write at least 250 words reflecting on how you connect this final reading to the rest of the novels.

Tuesday, December 9

• Persuasion, film, directed by Roger Michell (1995, through Alexander Street/Academic Video Online)

Commonplace Document post, due by 1:00 a.m. the night before class:

Choose two snapshots from different scenes in the film. (Think of a snapshot as a character saying a single line, or the filmmakers composing one image.) Write about a connection you perceive between the two snapshots, showing how the connection demonstrates something about this production's interpretation of Austen's novel.

Thursday, December 11

• Last day: wrapping up and sharing of performances for anyone choosing the performance option for the final

Progress report due by email by 9:00 p.m. An informal, ungraded assignment, this can constitute anything from a paragraph describing the state of your research and writing to an outline of the whole--or whatever else you deem helpful to share with me. I will respond to the materials you give me; you can also suggest questions you would like me to consider in my response.