In response to comments from the previous post:
All English majors at SSU have to take a senior level theory course. I had already taken this course with another professor and I found out that Bob was going to teach it using the novels of Austen as the objects to be interpreted through the lens of theory. So we read Williams, Derrida, Hillis Miller, Cixous, Showalter, Brooks, Greenblatt, Said, Lacan, Foucault, etc. I took the course again because there was no way I was going to miss it and we just listed it as a single author course and not the theory course that I had already completed. It was the most enjoyable class I've ever taken.
He told me that he was going to teach it the previous semester and asked me which novels I thought we should use because he didn't think there would be room in the syllabus for all of the. So I agonized for hours and hours and sent him this long explanation and justification. And he ended up doing all of them. Curse him. :)
I do not think that Elizabeth is indefensible.
When we were reading P&P, I was basically the only person who wasn't defending her. As an aside, you can use her own words and self-assessment of her behavior to critique her. Elizabeth faults vs. Darcy's faults, the century old discussion!
Anyways, this was one of those times when everyone was fearfully silent and just the two of us were talking. He very calmly suggested to me "Do you suppose this is because you hold women to a higher standard than men?"
This was one of my Lightbulb Moments with him.
I thought for about three seconds and said "Yes."
This explained more to me about myself than any other single statement. Ever.
I think I will write more about that in a later post.
Regarding the Bingley family wealth....
Here is one of the most irritating and fantastic things about Austen.
She will mention something of vital import ONCE, almost in passing, as if she just threw it in there as an afterthought.
My favorite example of this is in Sense & Sensibility. Colonel Brandon and Willoughby engage in a duel. A DUEL!! For someone like Marianne, can you get more romantic than that??? But most people don't catch it and it has only been included in one film version. The scene is not dramatized in the novel, as you will never find a single scene in any Austen novel that takes place with only men involved. I don't have the book in front of me as I write this, but the line is something like "They met at an appointed time without serious injury to either party." That's it!! The characters in the novel never discuss it. Irritating Austen!
Your homework is to find out why Bingley is wealthy. :) It's fairly easy to find, it's towards the beginning of the book.
"I could easily forgive his pride if he had not mortified mine." -Elizabeth Bennett, Jane Austen
1 comment:
All I can find is that bit where it says he inherited it from his father, who had died before he could purchase an estate (thus Bingley had to rent Netherfield). I don't see where the money came from. I'm afraid it's something awful, like slave trading. Please don't let it be slave trading.
I'm certainly aware of Elizabeth's faults, but for some reason I read your earlier statement to mean "In a classroom discussion about Elizabeth Bennet, I wouldn't speak in her defense," which makes much less sense than what happened.
Thank you for answering my questions.
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