Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and Persuasion

Learning outcomes:

This course has been designed to enable you to:

• Develop confidence in your own critical ability through taking part in discussions of texts you have read and reflected on independently
• Express your responses to these texts, making use of other readers’ interpretations where appropriate

Course sessions:

1. Imitation or parody? Northanger Abbey
Gothic fiction and the novel of sensibility were the most popular genres of Austen’s day. Northanger Abbey engages with the extravagant themes and overwrought conventions of fashionable reading matter and transforms them into her own distinctive, nuanced representation of everyday life. In the process she shows that in a more mundane social context, “ordinary” heroines can still experience horrors of ill-treatment from which they need to be rescued.

2. From landed estate to naval mobility: social change in Persuasion
It has often been remarked that Persuasion represents a new direction in Austen’s oeuvre in that she explores two classes in her society in interaction in a way she has not done before. Sir Walter Elliot, who embodies the landed gentry, is shown to be no responsible guardian of his estate, and the seafarers, having served their country in the Napoleonic wars and shaped by their lives of duty, energy and steadfastness, are portrayed as alternatives to the establishment.

3. An independent, older heroine: why Persuasion is not an “autumnal” novel
While responding to contemporary Romantic poetry with some irony, Austen also uses nature imagery to explore her heroine’s inner life and development. In doing so, she presents Anne’s disconnection from her family and from the insularity of landed life. She emerges as an autonomous woman who is able to cut loose from the conventional social arrangements that have constrained her.

4. Austen’s style: analysis of selected passages from Northanger Abbey and Persuasion
Austen’s specific concerns in these two works unsurprisingly manifest themselves in her style as well. Among the passages chosen for detailed analysis will be her famous defence of the novel in chapter 5 of Northanger Abbey, and Anne’s conversation with Captain Harville, overheard by Wentworth, in the revised chapter 11 of volume II of Persuasion.

5. Austen’s afterlife: adaptations and sequels
Both Northanger Abbey and Persuasion have been adapted for the screen several times, most recently in 2007 by Andrew Davies (NA) and Simon Burke (P) in the same year. There is also a 1995 version of Persuasion by Nick Dear which will be included in the discussion. Finally, we’ll address the question of Austen’s enduring popularity.

Non-credit bearing

Please note that our Virtual Summer Festival of Learning courses are non-credit bearing.

Certificate of Participation

A certificate of participation will be sent to you electronically within a week of your Summer Festival course(s) finishing.

Welcome week: Before the course starts

Courses are delivered online via our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). A week before your course starts you will receive an email from our Teaching & Learning (TEL) team confirming your VLE login details. Once you have logged into the VLE, you should:

• Access the ‘Course Information’ and ‘Welcome to the course’ areas.
• Carry out any technical checks, including video checks.
• View the VLE ’Online course tour’ and familiarise yourself with your learning environment.
• Watch the Course Director’s welcome video.
• Introduce yourself to the Course Director and other students using the general forum.
• Access and carry out any pre-reading or activities for the course provided in the ‘Welcome to the course’ area.

Study week: Course delivery, video content and study time

• You will be taught largely through a series of pre-recorded course videos.
• Course videos will be released on a daily basis, Monday to Friday.
• We suggest that you set aside around 1.5 hours each day to watch the course videos, view course materials and resources and complete any related reading, activities and discussions in the daily forums. This does not need to be done in one sitting, you have the flexibility to access content when and where you want, and to go back and review it as often as you wish.

At the end of the course

• Content for each course will remain available on the VLE for 5 weeks after the course has finished
• Course forums will close for postings on the Monday after the course, but existing messages will still be visible for 5 weeks after the course has finished
• You will receive a certificate of participation via email within a week of your course finishing

Pre-recorded course videos

Courses include one or two videos per day, these are designed by the Course Director to help you address different aspects of the main topic. All of our course videos are subtitled.

Course discussion forums

There will also be the opportunity to engage in written form with other course participants and discuss questions set by the Course Director on the discussion forums. Your Course Director will launch a number of discussions on the daily forums and will generally respond to a selection of key questions and comments on a daily basis. You are encouraged to actively take part in these discussions to get the most out of the course and to add to your overall enjoyment.

Resources, reading lists and activities

During the course and up until 5 weeks after the course has finished you will have access to a number of learning resources which may include links to websites, readings and research papers. These are provided by the Course Director to support the teaching and will be available on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

You may wish to consider these additional related courses on offer in the Festival:

If you are able to study more than one course or for more than one week, you may wish to consider streams of related course subjects.  There will be many other options – this is just an illustration of possible course combinations:

And don’t forget to watch the series of talks included in your course booking (usually charged at £50). Further details and a link to access the talks will be sent to you a week before the Festival starts.

Booking a course

To book a Festival course please click the Book Now button at the top of the course page. You will be taken to our secure bookings portal where you can set up an account using your email address, and pay for your course by credit or debit card.

All of our courses are limited to 50 places, in order to allow students and Course Directors the opportunity for interaction via the discussion forums on the VLE.

Bookings will remain open until midnight the day before the course starts. If your preferred course is full at the time of booking you can add yourself to a waiting list. You will be notified, by email, if a place becomes available. We recommend that you book early to avoid missing out.

Please note that if you book a place the weekend before a course starts, it may take up to 48 hours to process your application and notify you of your VLE log in details. You may therefore not have access until the end of the second day of the course, but can go back and review sessions which have already been released.

‘How to book a course’ video

Our short video below talks you through the necessary steps to register and create an account before booking on to your chosen course(s) via our secure payment portal.

Before booking, please ensure that you have read and understood our Booking terms and conditions

Talks

As part of our Summer Festival we will also be offering a series of talks showcasing the variety of subjects on offer here at the University, as well as research, global current affairs and a range of other topics.

By booking a Summer Festival course, you automatically qualify for free access to these talks (usually charged at £50). Further details and a link to access the talks will be sent to you a week before the Festival starts.