For Monday: Sense and Sensibility, Chs.11-Ch.4 (Vol.3) & Paper #3

NOTE: For Monday, there are no questions--just read up to Ch.4 of Volume III of Sense and Sensibility.  An in-class writing will probably await you!  The Paper #3 assignment follows:

Paper #3: A Sense of Sensibility 

Choose ONE of the following options...

1. Discuss how contemporary audiences understood or tried to make sense of both Otranto and Sense and Sensibility.  How did the reviewers/critics represent the aesthetic values of the time, and how did each work fit into this?  Examine the reviews I gave you in class on Walpole and Sir Walter Scott’s Introduction, as well as the “Early Views” of Sense and Sensibility on pages 313-324.  Were these works very much of their time—or were the considerably ahead of their time?  In what ways?  Also, are there qualities and/or characters we admire that Austen and Walpole’s age was oblivious to? 

2. In the excerpt from Raymond Williams on “Sensibility,” he writes that “It is a very difficult word, both in its senses and variations within this historical period, and in its relations within the very complicated group of words centered on sense” (333).  Using his various definitions of sensibility, explain how both The Castle of Otranto and Sense and Sensibility explore and define this ambiguous term.  How does sensibility frame the plot, the characters, and the very philosophy of the work itself?  What makes them full of “sensibility,” and do the works complement or contradict each other? 

3. In Deborah Kaplan’s essay, “Mass Marketing Jane Austen,” she notes that “Neither of the recent films suggests that female friendships are sufficient to sustain an alternative emotional life for heroines without men...[but] The presentation of women’s relationships is more complex in Sense and Sensibility.  The filmmakers were concerned that the film not seem to be about “a couple of women waiting around for men”” (408-409).  Watch one of the versions of Sense and Sensibility, either the Ang Lee 1995 version, or the more recent 2007 Andrew Davies/BBC production.  Discuss how Sense and Sensibility is “marketed” to a modern audience.  What remains, what changes, and whose story do we ultimately get?   As you write this, discuss why you think these changes were made, and if sometimes, a change is necessary to preserve a “truth” of the novel.  (Please avoid merely giving a thumbs-up or thumbs-down movie review)

REQUIREMENTS

·        At least 4-5 pages, double spaced

·        At least 2-3 secondary sources; you must use an essay or essays from the Norton edition of Sense and Sensibility

·        A true conversation between you, the novels, and other sources; don’t simply have a monologue where you say what you liked and disliked about the books

·         Due MONDAY, DECEMBER 2^nd by 5pm (you can turn it in earlier if you want more time to revise it, of course)