• Featuring Evelyne Ender, Senior Lecturer, Department of Comparative Thought and Literature •
• Presented by Hopkins at Home •

In advance of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth in 2025, join Dr. Evelyne Ender, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Comparative Thought and Literature, for a presentation of the author's fiction in terms of its brilliant and touching humanity. The lecture will illuminate Austen’s portrait of human relations, a world shaped by live dialogue, but also staged and modulated by the circulation of letters.

Dr. Ender's many articles and book chapters, published in English and in French, are indeed driven by one conviction, namely that an ever-renewed attentiveness to what words and language(s) can tell us is key to our humanity. Holding a pen or pencil to generate script may seem quaint, but in a world enthralled by electronic communications and devices, it may be salutary at times not only to slow down but to be reminded of the weight that words carry -- for good and for evil.

The preparatory materials for this presentation will direct you to scenes from her novels that highlight the significance of letters and literacy in Austen's world. These moments enable us to reflect on the historical and cultural significance of that old fashioned gesture that consists in putting pen to paper. This is purely optional, of course, but certain to delight those in search of additional insights!

The 2020 film Emma directed by Autumn de Wilde (described by a New York Times critic as "An Emma for an Era of Bad Behavior" - my discussion of the novel Emma will focus on selections from chapters 31, 34 and 41).
Mansfield Park vol. 2, from chapters 9 to 13.
Persuasion chapters 22 and 23.
Ann Patchett, "The Decision I Made 30 Years Ago That I Still Regret". New York Times, Sunday October 20, 2024.

00:20 - Nora Pehrson Introduces Lecture and Evelyne Ender
01:51 - Evelyne Ender Introduces Jane Austen, and brings us into the world of Jane Austen
00:00 - The Age of Letter Writing
12:53 Austen’s Creative labors compared to present day writing - the writing, the craft, the accomplishment, the imagination, and the creation.
26:48 - Romance / Matchmaking in Austen’s Work
34:22 - Gossip in the Fabric of Society in the World of Austen’s Time
45:50 - Austen’s “Capital” and Model for Creating her Worlds and Mastering the Process of doing so
53:29 - Designing worlds she could not see or visit, aside from memories
01:00:00 - Brain Rot
01:04:24 - Q + A Segment
01:15:52 - Thank You and Outro