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CS92PROD
Jane Austen and Her World
ENGL 238Z
Winter 2021
Section: 01  

In this course we will read--and reread--three novels by Jane Austen. Our first reading will track the development of Austen's unique approach to the realist novel. Our rereading will investigate how that unique approach participated in contemporaneous debates about art, personhood, and politics. Austen was an active participant in these debates--a sharp, subtle, and principled writer who tended to explore competing arguments and assumptions rather than render explicit judgments. She weighed in on aesthetic controversies involving beauty and the picturesque, the appropriate language for literature, the ethics of readers' identification with characters, and the truth claims inherent in realism. She considered philosophical questions about how individuals come to know the world and themselves, and the value and danger of a complex inner life of emotion and imagination. She examined the competing claims her contemporaries made for the primacy of the individual, the family, and the community, and for local rootedness and cosmopolitan independence.

Please note: Students should expect some readings and assignments to be due during winter break, prior to beginning Winter Session. Please visit the Winter Session website for the full syllabus: http://www.wesleyan.edu/wintersession.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Student Option
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (ENGL)
Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
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