Ep 4 - Super Heroes
05/27/19 • 26 min
Marvel or DC universe? Iron Man or Batman? Wonder Woman or Black Panther? Our cinema culture has for over a decade been dominated by our love of super heroes. Julia Golding explores how each era makes the heroes suited for its own day. She goes back to the novelists writing before Jane Austen to look at the big rivalry: Richardson Universe v Fielding Universe. Following their negotiation about the nature of the hero, Austen picks this up when she explores what it means to be a heroine in her early novel, Northanger Abbey. So are there any super heroes to be found in Jane Austen? There is indeed - and you'll be surprised by a guest appearance from General Zod (Man of Steel) if you stick around for the big battle at the end.
Marvel or DC universe? Iron Man or Batman? Wonder Woman or Black Panther? Our cinema culture has for over a decade been dominated by our love of super heroes. Julia Golding explores how each era makes the heroes suited for its own day. She goes back to the novelists writing before Jane Austen to look at the big rivalry: Richardson Universe v Fielding Universe. Following their negotiation about the nature of the hero, Austen picks this up when she explores what it means to be a heroine in her early novel, Northanger Abbey. So are there any super heroes to be found in Jane Austen? There is indeed - and you'll be surprised by a guest appearance from General Zod (Man of Steel) if you stick around for the big battle at the end.
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Ep 3 - Gender Identity
Questions about gender identity may seem to be characteristic of our time, but others have gone before us in challenging societal roles. From Harriet Freke in Maria Edgeworth's Belinda (1801) to the real life Chevalier d'Eon, men and women have been pushing the boundaries of what it means to be male and female. Where does Jane Austen come in this debate? How would she negotiate current questions about how we engage with our gendered social roles? We go from Lady Susan to Persuasion in our quest for some of the answers.
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Ep 5 - On location at Chawton
A very special episode recorded on location at the Jane Austen House Museum in Chawton. Listen to Julia Golding in conversation with the museum director, Mary Guyatt and find out how Jane's last home became a museum open to the public. What was daily life like in this home for Jane, her mother and her sister Cassandra? Who made the breakfast and dealt with the tea? What objects in the house feature in her novels? What do visitors learn by coming here that they can't get from books or adaptations? And just how big was her writing desk? Finally, what would Jane have thought if she came today to find that 40,000 international visitors walk around her house each year.
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