Retelling Jane Austen

Jane Austen wrote for a Regency-period audience and could never have predicted the lasting success of her original works. The slew of variations and adaptations of Austen’s works in both film and novels has grown into an industry with a fan base clamoring for more.
This collection fills a gap in Austen scholarship, examining universal and contemporary themes in the original literature and how the works have been adapted since 2000 onward. Essays explore Austen retellings with a New York City setting, Jane Austen and Islamic culture, and even a plot with zombies. This volume demonstrates Jane Austen’s enduring talent and relevancy.

Tammy Powley is a professor of English and teaches composition, creative writing, and technical communications at Indian River State College in Ft. Pierce, Florida. Her academic research interests include women’s literature and creative writing.
April Van Camp is a professor of English at Indian River State College in Fort Pierce, Florida, where she teaches composition and literature. She lives in Fort Pierce.

Edited by Tammy Powley and April Van Camp
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 226
Bibliographic Info: bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2024
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9193-0
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5327-3
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments v

Preface

Tammy Powley 1

Introduction

April Van Camp 5

Jane Austen in Context

April Van Camp and Tammy Powley 9

By the Book: Successfully Adapting Jane Austen’s Persuasion

Carolyn J. Brown 21

Virus and Virality: Zombifying the Regency in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies the Film

Jon Glover 29

Manners versus Passion: An Examination of Director Joe Wright’s Film Pride and Prejudice

Tammy Powley 36

The Hispanic Perspective: Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility and From Prada to Nada

Camila Alvarez 42

Unwarranted Disapprovals: The Campaign to Stop Diversity and Inclusiveness in Jane Austen Films

Damianne Candice Scott 48

Austenland: Being “Ready to Laugh” About Your Favorite Austen Adaptation Tropes

Robin Henry 59

Ibi Zoboi’s Pride Rooted in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

Jason D. Solinger 66

Parody, Pastiche, and Peas: An Appreciation of Whit Stillman’s Novel and Film Love & Friendship

Judith Stove 69

How Do You Prefer Your Pride and Prejudice: With or Without Zombies?

Steven Knapp 80

Embodying Austen for TV: Bridgerton and Sanditon

Sharmini Kumar 87

Soniah Kamal’s Unmarriageable: What Was Mrs. Bennet’s First Name?

Margie Burns 97

Mansfield Park (1999) versus Mansfield Park (2007): How Do You Solve a Problem Like Fanny Price?

Katie MacLean 107

“I am not yet so much changed”: Turning Persuasion into Captain Wentworth’s Diary

Lona Manning 116

“So altered that he should not have known her again”: An Examination of Authenticity in the 2022 Film Persuasion

Natalie Vandenberg 124

Globalized Austen: Or, the Unsurprising Failure of Postcolonial Ambitions

Mridula Sharma 136

Lost in a Comedy of Humors: Lost in Austen’s Break from Trope

Laura S. Witherington 143

Uzma Jalaluddin’s World: Pride and Prejudice and Ayesha at Last

Alexander Shelby 150

Major Music, Minor Shades: Music and Cultural Crossovers in Netflix’s Bridgerton

Brian E. Siegle 157

Usability Meets Fictional Worlds: Personas in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Sonali Dev’s Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors

Karla Saari Kitalong 162

In Training for a Heroine: Northanger Abbey (2007)

Judith Stove 179

Austen Rewritten: Persuasion or Not

Susan E. Jones 188

A Quirky, Colorful, Romantic Comedy for the ­Twenty-First Century: De Wilde’s Emma (2020)

Tara Moore 195

Regency Reimagined in ­Twenty-First-Century Culture

Annie Line-Van Camp 203

About the Contributors 211

Index 215