Department of English

How has a slim novel centered on the English gentry and their marital pursuits become one of the most loved books around the world? This course explores Pride and Prejudice – its unique style and form, its imperial and postcolonial history, and its continued popularity today. For the first half of the semester, we will read Pride and Prejudice slowly, pairing it with selections from Austen’s other work, her contemporaries, and literary theories of narrative and authorship. We will explore how the novel crafts seductive meditations on marriage, bourgeois propriety, and the negotiation between social expectation and individualism that resonated then and now. In the second half of the semester, we will track how Pride and Prejudice became a global vernacular. We will follow how Austen’s highly adaptable vision of “Englishness” spurred the novel’s dissemination beyond the British empire and how authors and filmmakers have remixed the text to probe experiences of immigration, race, and sexuality. Assignments will include brief research exercises and short writing in various forms. For the final project, students will have the choice of a critical essay or creative project.