Unit 1: Who was Jane Austen? Biography and biographies; Family history; Letters.
Unit 2: Jane Austen's language and style: The narrative voice; Dialogue; Perspective; Inner and outer; How to analyse an Austen novel.
Unit 3: Sense and Sensibility: Background: Elinor and Marianne; the epistolary novel; The literature of Sensibility; Romanticism; Siblings in Austen's work.
Unit 4: Northanger Abbey; Background: the Gothic novel and Gothic novel readers; Ann Radcliffe; Pastiche and parody.
Unit 5: Pride and Prejudice I: Background: marriage and property in Austen's time; soldiers and militia men; The 'courtship ordeal novel'; Fashion in Austen's time.
Unit 6: Pride and Prejudice II: The War and the militia, Brighton, The big house and the estate, subversion.
Unit 7: Mansfield Park: Background: The Georgian, the Augustan and the Regency; Imperialism, and Mansfield Park; Mothers and home-makers.
Unit 8: Emma I: Background: dancing games and puzzles in Austen's writing; Governesses; Irony; Parents in Austen's novels.
Unit 9: Emma II: An error in Emma? The comedy of manners.
Unit 10: Persuasion: Background: Bath and Lyme; the Navy in Austen's time; Persuasion and persuasiveness; The cancelled section of Persuasion.
We strongly recommend that you try to find a little time each week to engage in the online conversations (at times that are convenient to you) as the forums are an integral, and very rewarding, part of the course and the online learning experience.