Answering the eternal question
Alert Janeite Lisa sent us a link from Inside Higher Ed in which Austen scholar Devoney Looser wittily answers the eternal question: Why Jane Austen?
I’m having a similarly mixed reaction to the latest wave of Austen mania in the U.S. and U.K., shifting nervously, while approaching it with a combination of anxiety and dread. I know that all English professors worth their salt should be constructing some theories and responses now, in advance of being cornered by colleagues and co-workers and co-eds, so as not to have to resort to the professorial and clichéd. What will we say when asked about Anne Hathaway’s Becoming Jane (2007); about upcoming The Jane Austen Book Club film, with its star-studded cast; or about PBS’s planned 10-week winter 2008 airing of the Complete Jane Austen on “Masterpiece Theatre”?
What’s the witty, cynical comeback to this cultural flowering of Austen-related stuff, I find myself wondering: “Can’t wait to see it!” “Wish I’d thought of it first!” “The Decline and Fall of Austen’s Empire.” “A tippet in the hand is worth two in the bush.” “A stitch in the huswife saves nine.” “Don’t look a gift pianoforte in the mouth”?
Read the whole thing, it’s hilarious!
August 22nd, 2007 at 4:33 pm
I might be wrong intepreting the tone of the article, but I got the sense the writer is just a little peeved he has to face all these dimwits and common folks suddenly invading his sacred sphere of Austen scholarhood. Why cannot they just leave Austen to the people she really belongs to? Could they _not_ write all those funny, cute books? Could they please stop making films? That is all so wrong and disturbing.
And oh, all those people reading and buying Harry Potter, that’s wrong too.