Handbook : Unit informationEdith Cowan University

School: Arts and Humanities

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

• Unit Title

  Jane Austen: Past and Present

• Unit Code

  ENG3175

• Year

  2017

• Enrolment Period

  1

• Version

  1

• Credit Points

  15

• Full Year Unit

  N

• Mode of Delivery

  On Campus
  

• Unit Coordinator

  A/Prof Susan Elizabeth ASH

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Description

This unit explores the phenomenon that is Jane Austen: in her own milieu of the early 19th century and the extraordinary resurgence of popularity in the past two decades. We explore the technical innovations of the novels, such as Austens use of free indirect discourse to express irony, as well as the reception of the novel as a genre (particularly the gothic) in her own times. We also consider why there remains an out-dated resistance to Austen in academia because she confined her writing to a certain class of women in drawing and ballrooms.

Equivalent Rule

Unit was previously coded ENG3142

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. Apply a range of critical approaches to the analysis of Austens novels and their adaptations, including a spohisticated language analysis of Austen's pioneering use of free indirect speech.
2. Discuss the main critical issues relevant to the study of Jane Austen, and apply these in a comparative way with the different slant given by various film-makers.
3. Discuss the practical and analytical issues associated with Austen and the translation of her work into film and other adaptations.
4. Identify the ways in which Austens novels and their later adaptations contributed to the construction of social, historical and cultural contexts, both for their time and for today.
5. Relate Austens novels and their film adaptations to their social, historical and cultural contexts.

Unit Content

1. Historical, social and cultural understandings of Jane Austen, her work, and the adaptations of her work.
2. A range of critical approaches, including that of sophisticated language analysis, and Free Indirect Discourse
3. Contextual curriculum, including the fine de siecle period of 18th century, and the Regency period in England.
4. Ideological concepts related to gender race and class.

Additional Learning Experience Information

Lectures and tutorials.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

Core Reading(s)

• Austen, J. (2007). Emma. Chandni Chowk, Delhi: Global Media.
• Austen, J. (2012). Mansfield Park. New Yprk: Start Publishing.
• Austen, J. (1972). Northanger Abbey. Penguin: Harmondsworth.
• Austen, J. (1987). Persuasion. Basingstoke: Macmillan Education.
• Austen, J. (2008). Pride and prejudice. Harpenden, Hertz: PearEducation.
• Austen, J. (2001). Sanditon. London: Electric Book Co.
• Austen, J. (2008). Sense and sensibility. Oxford: PearEducation.

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