Jane Austen (1775-1817), author of six novels renowned for their irony
and humour, their depiction of contemporary English social life and also
for their underlying serious qualities, would seem an unlikely
candidate for the title “hippest pop writer to go to Hollywood”. But
this is what she was called after six films of her novels appeared
between 1995 and 1997 alone. Altogether some 40 film and tv mini-series
adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels, biopics and Jane Austen-themed
stories have been made in Hollywood, Bollywood, by the BBC and others.
In this seminar we will examine Austen’s novels in context before moving
to film and tv adaptions, focussing especially on "Pride and
Prejudice", exploring the reasons for the striking and sudden appeal of
Austen and her work during and since the mid-1990s and examining
different adaptation strategies and foci.
- Teacher: Emer O'Sullivan