Weekly Journal #14 (December 1, 2016)

     The power of persuasion is a theme in Persuasion (as subtly hinted at by the title), specifically in regards to how Anne is persuaded by different characters, such as Lady Russell's effect on her decision to reject Captain Wentworth years before the novel opens. Persuasion continues to be a central issue in society today, although in many ways that Austen couldn't have anticipated. Social media, the internet, television, and other competing forms of technology in our globalized culture expose us to constant attempts at persuasion, whether it be political persuasion by a party candidate, or the work of telemarketers intent on selling a product. Robert Levine's book The Power of Persuasion addresses the psychological power of persuasion and the way it affects our society today.

Weekly Journal #13 (November 24, 2016)

     This article by The Atlantic discusses research which shows a lack of social mobility in the United States. One of the main themes in Austen's Persuasion is an increased level of social mobility within English society, which had a traditionally rigid class system. as demonstrated by Captain Wentworth and the Crofts, that concerns the generations of landowners that Sir Walter represents. While social mobility is one of the celebrated hallmarks of modern society, the truth is that there is not as much social mobility today as some might think.

Weekly Journal #12 (November 17, 2016)

     
     While not as severe, Fanny's small room in the attic at Mansfield mirrors Harry Potter's confinement to the cupboard under the stairs (or rather, Harry Potter's confinement mirrors that of Fanny Price's). In both stories, these living conditions reflect the characters' diminished statuses within their respective families, and are a form of abuse. This sort of abuse reinforces Fanny's lack of self-confidence, and also to behaviors  associated with anxiety, such as obsessing and worrying about social interaction, something she thinks about and gets distressed about throughout the novel. While Fanny may not have realized that she was experiencing neglect and emotional abuse, it did affect her. This sort of abuse continues to be a problem today and its effects are well documented.

Weekly Journal #11 (November 10, 2016)

    
     Austen's novels focus on the lives of a small percentage of the English population: rich landowners. These people held the most wealth in that society, and the wealth inequality between this class and the working and lower classes was an extraordinary one. Unfortunately, 200 years later we continue to live in a society with massive wealth inequality. The problems that the working and lower classes faced mirror those of today, and the disconnect between these and the top 1% is similar to that of Austen's time. Bernie Sanders made this the focus of his campaign in the Democratic Primary and touches upon it in his reaction to the results of the general election.

Weekly Journal #10 (November 3, 2016)

   

     Mansfield Park is the first of Austen's novels to so overtly address the slave trade, and makes a point of mentioning that Sir Thomas Bertram's wealth is built on slave labor and property in Antigua (page 6).  The theme of wealth built on the abuse of others is not a new phenomena, nor is it something that has since disappeared. Sir Thomas' human rights abuses, and the abuses of the real upper class landowners which he represents, can be connected to similar human rights abuses by corporations today. There are countless examples of such abuses being tied to even well known companies like Apple, or Walmart. These abuses range from wage discrimination to ties to child labor and slavery. Unfortunately, the sorts of evils that Austen alludes to in Mansfield Park have not gone away, and continue to be issues in our society.

Weekly Journal #9 (October 27, 2016)

     

     One of the main challenges that Fanny faces in Mansfield Park is attempting to navigate her way through the unspoken rules of the English upper class, something she is entirely unfamiliar with. These unspoken rules and her adherence to them seem to measure her worth as a person, and her lack of knowledge surrounding those rules consistently makes her feel ashamed of herself and her family. Despite the importance of these rules to upper class society, her ability to "perform correctly" does not really say anything about her intellectual strength or the quality of her character. Fanny's stress and society's fixation about those rules in Mansfield Park could correspond to the standardized testing system that we have today, and the anxiety and feelings of inadequacy that those tests can produce in children even if they arguably fail at successfully saying anything about a student's intellectual strength, quality of character, or overall potential. The harmful nature of this system is discussed in a New York Times article and a corresponding letter to the editor.

Weekly Journal #8 (October 20, 2016)

     Aspects Game of Thrones's setting correspond with 19th century ideas and the settings of Jane Austen's novels, showing that these themes still influence the topics of modern works of fiction. The show's plot revolves around a group of five or six rich, well known families who vie for money and power. Like Austen's novels, while these families and their concerns make up only one part of a larger world and society, the focus stays on them and the way that the rest of the world is affected by their actions is not a major concern of the plot. Marriage in the show functions as a way to secure power, money, and status, and the show portrays a world with a rigid lack of social mobility. This is very similar to the workings of Jane Austen's early 19th century English settings. Certain characters, like Jon Snow, could be directly compared to some of Austen's characters, like Fanny Price. Jon Snow and Fanny Price are raised in high ranking, rich families, but because of the circumstances of their birth they are denied the privileges of and entry to this higher class.

Weekly Journal #7 (October 13, 2016)

     In Emma, Emma's vanity and inflated sense of social status puts her in several awkward positions. She makes incorrect and often harsh judgements about the inhabitants of Highbury, going so far as to call the Martins "illiterate and vulgar" (page 39). The "guidance" that results from her sense of superiority ultimately hurts her friend Harriet Smith. In this way, Emma is similar to the character of Kuzco in The Emperor's New Groove (2000), a vain emperor whose sense of superiority also causes him trouble. It is interesting to note that this character flaw is often revisited in fiction, demonstrating a continued concern not only with modesty, but also with social hierarchies and the effect that positions within them can have on our judgements.

Weekly Journal #6 (October 6, 2016)

     In Emma, Austen paints a detailed picture of the sort of socioeconomic hierarchy that directed life in early 19th century English society. While Queen of Katwe (2016) is set in the slums of 21st century Uganda, worlds away from Austen's England, the film (based on a true story) shows that class distinctions and socioeconomic status are still concerns in the 21st century. The main character, Phiona, is in the end able to augment her status by becoming a national chess champion and receiving an education. While this is a particularly inspirational story, it is also a rare one, and a foreboding lack of social mobility similar to that of Austen's setting seems to permeate the film's setting.
     Towards the beginning of Emma, Mr. Knightley remarks that if Harriet continues to see Emma "She will grow just refined enough to be uncomfortable among whom birth and circumstances have placed her home" (page 29). Phiona faces exactly the same situation in the film, as her trips around the world to fancy hotels and chess championships give her fleeting tastes of a life which she can't have and which also makes her painfully uncomfortable with her own.

Weekly Journal #5 (September 29, 2016)

     Austen's stories are influential and still read. The general form of some of her stories, like Pride and Prejudice, can be recognized in countless romantic comedies. Some popular television shows, like Downton Abbey, have similar forms and thematic concerns. Direct adaptions, parodies, and sequels to Austen's novels denote a continued interest by popular culture in her works. Examples of this include the 2005 adaption of Pride and Prejudice, as well as the more recent (and more comedic) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016).  Jo Baker's companion novel to Pride and Prejudice, called Longbourn, tells the same story from the point of view of the servants of the Bennet household. All of this activity shows that modern readers are still interested not just in the romance or themes, but also in the specific characters and the settings of Austen's works. 

Weekly Journal #4 (September 22, 2016)

     
     Humor is a major part of Pride and Prejudice. Most of this humor is derived from dialogue and social interaction throughout the book, and many jokes come from interactions within the Bennet family, many of these made at the expense of Mrs. Bennet. Mrs. Bennet is in the habit of embarrassing her daughters with some of her remarks. While these moments are not generally centered around political views, as in this SNL skit, the embarrassing and humorous nature of such family conflict is a recurring motif in Pride and Prejudice. The idea of sometimes being self-conscious of or embarrassed by one's family is universal, and a common theme of much comedy today. In the novel, it actually ends up having some serious implications; the way the Bennet sisters and Mrs. Bennet carried themselves was one of the reasons why Mr. Darcy originally convinced Mr. Bingley not to marry Jane.

Weekly Journal #3 (September 15, 2016)

     Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey are both comprised of short chapters, some of which do not break even two full pages. Each tends to deal with one specific event, like a conversation, or a dinner, or a ball, so that the story is told in an almost episodic way. At the time that Austen wrote her books, the novel was itself a novel genre, and her decision to tell her stories in this way was an innovative and overt one that took advantage of the novel's format and influenced what it has become. Modern web series, like Carmilla (a comedic, modern retelling of Sheridan Le Fanu's novel of the same name, featured above), are a particularly new and contemporary genre of storytelling. They follow a very similar format, with episodes that last only a few minutes and tend to deal with one event at a time. This format may very well have been influenced by the format which Austen's novels helped establish. Austen's novels shares similarities with web series like Carmilla in that both are early examples of new genres that served to pioneer their respective genre's format and structure. 

Weekly Journal #2 (September 8, 2016)

     This clip from the news satire show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver ended a larger 2014 segment on the Miss America Beauty Pageant (here). The segment criticized the unethical practices, sexist ideas, double standards, and unrealistic expectations set by these events. The popularity of beauty pageants shows that many of the 18th and 19th century values surrounding gender roles that Austen criticized, such as the supposed importance of physical beauty to a woman's value as a person, still exist today.

 

Weekly Journal #1 (September 1, 2016)

    

   

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, as a coming-of-age story, echoes some themes and ideas from Northanger Abbey and 18^th and 19^th century values and behavior. Both stories feature a high degree of self-awareness, and both mock the attitudes of certain adults. For example, Austen mocks the shallow and vain outlook of people like Mrs. Allen and Thorpe, while the film mocks the overly-critical and unsympathetic attitudes of people like Ed Rooney. While the teenage characters may not find themselves in the same situation as Catherine, they are pressured by similar forces. Both find themselves pushed by parents, authority figures, and society to aspire to some social expectation; for Catherine, this expectation is the 18^th to 19^th century feminine ideal, for Bueller and his friends, this expectation is the late 20^th century ideal of the obedient and academically successful teen. These pressures lead Catherine to become someone she might not have been and is not suited to be, and lead the cast of the film to rebel. In both stories, the teenage characters are naïve and have a limited understanding of the world, and by the end of their stories they have reached a higher level of maturity.