The Austen Connection

About The Austen Connection

We're talking about the stories of Jane Austen - how they connect to us today, and connect us to each other. austenconnection.substack.com (https://austenconnection.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Plain Jane

Category

arts · fiction

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

1 Jul 2021

Latest episode

24 Nov 2024

Latest episodes

22 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   24 Nov 2024

   Giving, gratitude, goodness, Jane Austen

   Hello friends, Enjoy this special podcast episode from a fun and meaningful conversation broadcast from our live taping at a one-day conference, “Everybody's Jane Austen.” This special symposium was hosted and produced by the Jane Austen Society of North America's Metro New York region. It was recorded live at Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space, in Manhattan. It was our honor here at the Austen Connection to speak with two amazing people on the front lines of Austen dialogue: JASNA director Renata Dennis, and Producer Tia A. Smith. Renata Dennis serves as the Georgia Regional Coordinator and on the board of the Jane Austen Society of North America, and she also serves on JASNA's Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee. So Renata is on the front lines of discussions about equity, diversity, and inclusion in the Austen conversations and scholarship. Tia A. Smith is a film producer who develops what she calls “culturally shifting projects that leave lasting imprints.” These lasting imprints that Tia Smith produces include more than 3,500 hours of television and film, with 15 movies, two documentaries, and four major awards shows to her name. Tia A. Smith also executive-produced the most recent film and television adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, the February 2024 production for Hallmark Channel as part of its Loveuary month of Jane Austen. Enjoy the conversation. —--- Thank you to the Everybody's Jane Austen organizers, Sarah Rose Kearns and Fran Winter and the team at JASNA's Metro New York Region. This episode was taped live at Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space, in Manhattan. Cool links and research: * Here’s more about Hallmark’s 2024 (https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/sense-and-sensibility)Sense and Sensibility (https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/sense-and-sensibility) film (https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/sense-and-sensibility) * The Race and the Regency Lab (https://jcblibrary.org/events/launch-race-and-regency-lab) and its director, scholar Dr. Patricia Matthew (https://www.patriciamatthew.com/) * Historical Regency-era heiress Dido Elizabeth Belle (https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/women-in-history/dido-belle/) * Belle (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2404181/) the movie (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2404181/) * Author Vanessa Riley (https://vanessariley.com/) writes historical fiction drawing from real lives and deep research on 18th and 19th century Black history. She also talked with us for this Austen Connection podcast episode (https://austenconnection.substack.com/p/the-podcast-s2-ep5-regency-women). * Historian Gretchen Gerzina (https://gretchengerzina.com/about-gretchen-gerzina.html) has written several books (https://gretchengerzina.com/britains-black-past.html) unearthing the lives of 18th and 19th century Black British figures and communities. * Professor Henry Louis Gates (https://www.pbs.org/articles/dr-henry-louis-gates-jr)’ series of books (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/266669/henry-louis-gates-jr/) * UK Historian David Olusoga produced an extremely moving and all-encompassing series on Britain’s Black past, Africa and Britain: A Forgotten History, available to stream on Amazon Prime (https://www.primevideo.com/region/eu/detail/0H0CX0Y7N28Z75YZQBU9A46YN0/ref=atv_me_inc_c_I3OVdr_brws_13_16?jic=8%7CEgRzdm9k) * UCL’s Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/) and the educational initiative “Colonial Countryside: Reinterpreting English Country Houses” (https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/projects/colonial-countryside-reinterpreting-english-country-houses) - insightful historic companions to our readings of Mansfield Park Coming this spring from PBS Masterpiece - Miss Austen! This is a television adaptation of Gill Hornby’s book Miss Austen, starring UK actor Keeley Hawes, who happens to be married to another actor named Matthew Macfadyen (https://www.hellomagazine.com/brides/726977/keeley-hawes-and-matthew-macfadyen-20th-wedding-anniversary-photos/) whom some of you may know of. (😉) * Music for the podcast episode is by: Nico Staf, Patrick Patrikios, RKVC, and we went out with music by Amy Lynn and the Honey Men, all from YouTube’s Free Music Archive or De Wolfe Music. If you enjoyed this episode, feel free to share it and also leave a review! Get full access to The Austen Connection at austenconnection.substack.com/subscribe (https://austenconnection.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

2. 

   21 Jul 2024

   Jane Austen's happy endings have strings attached

   Hello, friends! So: Does Jane Austen even do happy endings? It’s a very fair question! And one we’ve explored at the Austen Connection (https://austenconnection.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/49294771/share-center?alreadyPublished=true) - and now diving deeply into this question is a fascinating new book: Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness is just out, from Hopkins Press (https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/53691/jane-austen-and-price-happiness). Professor Inger Brodey is the founding director and co-host of the marvelous conversation, dialogue, and seminar program Jane Austen & Co (https://www.janeaustenandco.org/)., and many of us here at the Austen Connection have engaged with their conversations series such as Race & the Regency, and also their seminars from the Jane Austen Summer Program (https://www.janeaustensummer.org/). And now with this new book Dr. Brodey has produced a deep study on Jane Austen’s endings: How happy are they really, and what’s she doing with them? The answers are surprising: They involve token survivors, metafictions, ambiguous resolutions, and crashing the fourth wall where Austen’s narrators slow down the pace of the narrative, peer behind the veil of fiction, and talk to us. The reader. If that all involves aspects of Jane Austen’s stories you’ve never thought about before - stay tuned. Author Inger Brodey is a highly original thinker and scholar, and this conversation explores Jane Austen as not only a young woman of the Regency, and as a weaver of these classic, iconic stories we know, but also as: an Artist. This is all in the conversation we’re honored to have with Inger Brodey in our latest podcast episode. You can listen here and wherever you get your podcasts - and if you prefer reading, here’s a transcript of the conversation, lightly edited. Enjoy the conversation! —-- You can find more discussion on this podcast episode at the Austen Connection, at austenconnection.substack.com. Links and mentions: Jane Austen & the Price of Happiness is by Inger Brodey, from Hopkins Press. More on Jane Austen & Co - Many of you here already know Dr. Inger Brodey from Jane Austen & Company’s wonderful research and conversation series, or you may have engaged with the popular Jane Austen Summer Program (https://www.janeaustensummer.org/). Also discussed in this conversation - Dr. Brodey’s favorite Austen film adaptations, which are explored in her book, including: Autumn de Wilde’s (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9214832/)EMMA. 2020 film (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9214832/), Ang Lee’s (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114388/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)Sense and Sensibility, Amy Heckerling’s (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112697/)Clueless (of course!), and an unexpected favorite, Pride and Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy, by Andrew Black. You can listen to this conversation and all our conversations at the Austen Connection podcasts right here (https://austenconnection.substack.com/podcast), and wherever you get your podcasts. The late scholar Alison G. Sulloway’s book is (https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv4rfs0n)Jane Austen and the Province of Womanhood - it’s a big fave here at the Austen Connection. Professor John Mullan’s (https://janeaustens.house/videos/watch-our-annual-lecture-with-john-mullan-now-on-youtube/) book is What Matters in Jane Austen. Further discussion- here are some Austen Connection archive posts on Austen’s HEAs, Austen’s Token Survivors, and Austen’s Fleabag-style breakage of the fourth wall. Enjoy. Get full access to The Austen Connection at austenconnection.substack.com/subscribe (https://austenconnection.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

3. 

   29 Oct 2023

   Second chances and Muslim romances

   The Mis-Arrangement of Sana Saeed just like Jane Austen’s 'Persuasion' is all about family pressures, class pressures, societal pressures - all the pressures - navigated by two people who once innocently fell into fast love with each other, and are now reunited, amidst conflict and tension. They navigate all that conflict, all that tension, all those pressures, and find their way to each other. It’s a debut novel from Noreen Mughees, a writer and an engineer specializing in environmental policy. For her day job Mughees works on environmental justice for under-served communities and immigrant communities, and, as it does in Austen, that kind of conflict and examination of power structures also comes out in this book. And so does the romance! Just like her heroine Sana Saeed, Mughees is navigating life, love, Muslim family and community, and environmental justice issues in her work - and it all comes out in this book. We spoke with Noreen Mughees about The Mis-Arrangement of Sana Saeed as the book was launching, earlier this month. Enjoy this Austen Connection episode featuring our conversation with author Noreen Mughees. Music for this episode of the Austen Connection podcast is by: Nico Staf, Patrick Patrikios, on YouTube’s free music archive. You can see more conversations and community about Jane Austen at austenconnection.substack.com. See you there! Get full access to The Austen Connection at austenconnection.substack.com/subscribe (https://austenconnection.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

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Apple Podcasts (US)

4.7 / 5

11 ratings

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