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| Fanny Price: "Pray, is she out, or is she not?" We had a great meeting in January. Some details --
Saturday, January 25, 2014
1:00 – 3:00 p.m. A.G. Williams Library at Toco Hills
1:00 – 1:15 Welcome and Intro of our 2014 Theme
1:15 – 1:30 A reading/performance of a scene 1:30 – 2:30 Discussion of first third of Mansfield Park 2:30 – 3:00 Snacks, socializing, Austen game 3:00 – 3:45 Resume discussion of Mansfield Park 3:45 – 4:00 Open discussion on any Austen-related topics
Mansfield Park was
published in three separate volumes - the common practice for18th and early 19th Century novels.
We discussed 'Volume, the First.
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Jane Austen’s ‘Problem Novel’
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the
publication of Jane Austen’s first novel to be composed in her mature years,
i.e. after age 35. The novel is more
complex and much more ambitious than her first three novels that were composed
when she was in her 20’s. It is also
considered by many to be Austen’s ‘problem novel,’ similar to the three
‘problem plays’ of Shakespeare that he wrote in the middle of his career. From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespearean_problem_play):
Problem
Plays…Other
definitions have followed, but all center on the fact that the plays cannot be
easily assigned to the traditional categories of comedy or tragedy. [All’s Well
that Ends Well, Measure for Measure, and Troilus and Cressida.] The three plays are also referred to as the dark comedies, since despite ending on
a generally happy note for the characters concerned, the darker, more profound
issues raised cannot be fully resolved or ignored.
Many
critics have suggested that this sequence of plays marked a psychological
turning point for Shakespeare, during which he lost interest in the romantic
comedies he had specialized in and turned towards the darker worlds of Hamlet, Othello,
King Lear and Macbeth.
The term, coined by scholar Frederick Boas, could be adapted
to describe Mansfield Park. Again from Wikipedia: ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_plays
)
The problem play is a form of drama that
emerged during the 19th century as part of the wider movement of realism in the
arts. It deals with contentious social issues through debates between the
characters on stage, who typically represent conflicting points of view within
a realistic social context.
There are debates aplenty in Mansfield Park! And, as it
was for Shakespeare, Austen’s ‘problem novel’ marked a turn to more serious
subjects. As she was proofing Pride and Prejudice for publication, she
wrote to Cassandra that “The work is rather too light and bright and
sparkling….” Her last three novels
definitely corrected this problem, perhaps at the expense of giving the public
another heroine as feisty as Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
The 2014 Annual General Meeting will be held in Montreal on
October 10-12, with the theme, “Mansfield Park:
Contexts, Conventions and Controversies.” As the AGM webpage points, out, “Understanding and appreciating Mansfield Park is
central to understanding and appreciating Jane Austen: her world, her values,
and her methods of literary composition.”
Thus, the first two meetings JASNA-Atlanta in 2014 will be devoted to a
thorough examination of Jane Austen’s most challenging novel. While many readers regard Fanny Price as
‘insipid’ (Jane’s mother’s verdict), Jane clearly loved this heroine. Can we learn to see what Jane saw in
her?
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2014 Theme Novel - Mansfield Park
