Austen and Her Antecedents

In the eighteenth century, a new and sensational kind of entertainment appeared: the novel. Disparaged and revered, this revolutionary form of storytelling soon subordinated other artistic genres and remains the single most important influence on modern-day film and television. To puzzle out how this came to be, we will place the development of the novel in the long eighteenth century within the history of art, philosophy, science, psychology, literary theory, sociology –even dance history-- by using four of Jane Austen’s novels to explore the narrative ingredients of what we recognize today as romantic comedy: adventure, the novel of manners, sentimentality, and gothic melodrama. (In addition to Jane Austen, readings will include Defoe, Diderot, Haywood, Mackenzie, Radcliffe, and the anonymous author of The Woman of Colour.)