Mary Jane Curry, JASNA-NC member, will lead us in discussing a few passages in Austen’s fiction that describe wild nature (the sky, wind, trees, waterways, and land) in order to understand how those passages provide a fuller understanding of her main characters. Mary Jane’s book shows that Austen’s treatment of nature is both structural and thematic, allowing us to read her novels as serious
(realistic) pastorals.
The Details
What: “Jane Austen on Wild Nature: An Exploration” with Mary Jane Curry
When: March 16, 2025 from 2:00-3:30 p.m.
Where: In the comfort of your home via Zoom
RSVP: This event is open to members and interested guests; it is FREE but registration is required. Register for Zoom here.
Accessibility: We have auto-captions available in the Zoom meeting for our conversation, and there may be slides with text and images accompany the presentation that will be as clear and as high-contrast as possible. If you have accessibility needs we have not addressed here, please let us know.
About our speaker
Mary Jane Curry has been writing and speaking to general audiences as well as academics about nature and pastoral elements in Austen’s fiction since 1994. Her articles on Austen have appeared in Persuasions and proceedings of an International Conference on English Historic Linguistics. She contributed a chapter on the novel as a genre to The Text and Beyond: Essays in Literary Linguistics.