This course explores the novels of Jane Austen and the writers with whom she was in conversation in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Although we have an image of Austen as domestic and unworldly, she was very engaged with her era’s politics, media, and celebrity gossip, and she incorporated these details into her novels. Reading her works alongside those of her contemporaries will offer insight into the period’s roiling debates around slavery, sexuality, colonialism, and labor—in addition to the pleasures of reading Austen’s consummate prose.

Because this is a small seminar, class sessions will take place synchronously and will be discussion based, both with the full class and in breakout sessions. Classes will be recorded and shared for those who are unable to attend synchronously (for which there will not be a penalty), but your course experience will be much less rewarding if you cannot participate in discussion. The total reading load will be seven novels or novellas over 10 weeks.