Syllabus | Class Reading | Weekly Questions | Further Reading | Essays
Weekly Questions
Every week I will post questions here that will help to structure your reading and prepare for each class. Check this page on a regular basis.
| 18th Jan. | Think
about the subtitle of Evelina - 'A Young Lady's Entrance into the
World'. Why write a novel that takes such a subject? Why does Captain Mirvan so violently dislike Madame Duval? Is his 'practical joke' (Vol. 2, Letter II) humorous? Think carefully about the mode of address that Sir Clement Willoughby adopts towards Evelina. How might we characterize it's aggression? Is Evelina a snob? |
| 25th Jan. | Think
carefully about the way Edmund Burke represents inheritance, femininity,
and family. Who in Pride and Prejudice, if anyone, most resembles James Fordyce's ideal/idealized woman? |
| 1st Feb. | Read
Chapter 13, Vol. 2, of Pride and Prejudice very carefully. What
is this chapter about? What is Austen's attitude towards character such as Mrs Bennet and Mary? Read the description of Pemberley given in the first two pages of Vol. 3, chapter 1 (pp. 185-6) carefully. Towards what features of the house and the landscape does Austen draw our attention?Is Mr Bennet a good father? Think about the way in which Austen introduces each character/family. What is she most concerned to tell us? |
| 8th Feb. | What
does Wollstonecraft mean by a 'revolution in female manners? How does The Wrongs of Woman use the conventions of the gothic novel? Is Maria's love for Darnford redemptive? |
| 15th Feb. | How
might we define 'sensibility'? How might we define 'sense'? |
| 1st Mar. | How
might we compare the tale of the two Elizas (Vol. 2, Ch. 9) to that of
Wollstonecraft's Jemima? How many moments of false identification (one character being mistaken for another) can you find in Sense and Sensibility? Should we finally regard 'Sense' and 'Sensibility' as oppositional terms?Does the novel offer a conservative critique of 'sensibility'? |
| 8th Mar. | What
is being suggested by the opening exchanges of Wives/Maids? Nb.
Note the absence of female characters in the opening.
What message, if any, does the conclusion to Wives/Maids offer? What might contemporaries have found shocking about Lovers' Vows? |
| 15th Mar. | Read
the opening paragraph of Mansfield Park carefully. How does it
differ from the beginnings of Pride and Prejudice and Sense
and Sensibility? What are the reasons of 'higher consequence' that stand against a theatrical performance in the house? |
| 22nd Mar. | How
does Austen use and management of space in the novel.
How much attention should we as critics pay to Sir Thomas 'business' in Antigua? |
| 29th Mar. | |
| 5th Apr. |