Jane Austen in a Week



Ethics, aesthetics, women’s agency, print culture, theology, landscape conservation, education – these are some of the topics with which Jane Austen’s characters wrestle in her six major novels. Austen represented key cultural debates through the varied and, at times, clashing perspectives of iconic figures such as Marianne Dashwood, Fitzwilliam Darcy, and Emma Woodhouse. In this course, explore the worlds of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, reflecting critically on select film adaptations of the novels. Along the way, consider questions Jane Austen raised regarding diverse social issues ranging from ordination to the slave trade. 

Natasha Duquette is Professor of English at Tyndale University College in Toronto, Canada, co-editor of Jane Austen and the Arts: Elegance, Propriety, Harmony (2013), and author of Veiled Intent: Dissenting Women’s Aesthetic Approach to Biblical Interpretation (2016). Her series of meditations titled A 30-Day Journey with Jane Austen is forthcoming with Fortress Press (in Spring 2020). She is currently serving as editor-in-chief for The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Romantic-Era Women’s Writing, which will include biographical entries on many of Jane Austen’s contemporaries, as well as topical entries on subjects such as religion, philosophy, and women’s reading. Her home in North Toronto is shared with Frederick Duquette and their sweet dog, Esmée the pug.

Click here for the full programme.

Residential prices start from £480, non-residential from £330. Discount rates for clergy and students apply.

For more information or to book, please call 01244 532350 or email [email protected].