FLLC.01.004 Inglise kirjanduse eriseminar: Jane Austen and Regency England

The course is designed to be a reading and discussion course. The aim of the course is to familiarize the students with the world of Jane Austen’s novels. For this purpose, besides reading excerpts from a selection of her novels, background material is also provided to facilitate a better understanding of the novels. The novels chosen – Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park and Persuasion – help to highlight issues that were important and topical in Regency England. These include courtship and marriage, the management of the landed estate, the war with Napoleon’s France, the pursuit of pleasure, dandyism, issues of propriety and conduct that form the backdrop of her gripping love stories. The approach taken will combine the knowledge of the historical background to the novels with the discussion of the novels themselves. In order for this to proceed smoothly, the student is expected, using the ‘Questions for sessions’ as his or her guide, to do the required amount  of reading at home and come to the seminar fully equipped with the materials required in order to participate actively in what happens in class. At the seminars we will have a ‘warm-up’ round of general discussion of the background material assigned for home reading and then the discussion of the novel in question will follow. Everybody in class is expected to contribute to the discussion. In order for that to proceed most efficiently, it is recommended to follow, while reading the novel, the questions provided in the ‘Questions for sessions’. For convenience’s sake it might be advisable to mark the pertinent passages in the text or even write out short answers in the form of notes, for later use at the exam. The exam will consist of four questions, randomly selected from among the questions for sessions, answered in class using all your materials. The mark will be non-evaluative (arvestus). The course will consist of the introductory lecture, five sessions of discussion and the exam.