{"id":18884,"date":"2013-02-11T10:23:41","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T14:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=18884"},"modified":"2013-02-12T12:13:49","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T16:13:49","slug":"wright-state-faculty-students-celebrate-bicentennial-anniversary-of-pride-and-prejudice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2013\/02\/11\/wright-state-faculty-students-celebrate-bicentennial-anniversary-of-pride-and-prejudice\/","title":{"rendered":"Wright State faculty, students celebrate bicentennial of Pride and Prejudice"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A portrait of Jane Austen, author of Pride and Prejudice.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the last two centuries, millions of scholars, readers and romance enthusiasts have swooned over the pages of Jane Austen\u2019s Pride and Prejudice.<\/em> But when she first published the novel 1813, Austen was far from being the popular, best-selling novelist she\u2019s known as today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rest is history,\u201d said Crystal Lake, Ph.D. assistant professor of English. \u201cPride and Prejudice<\/em> has since become a touchstone text in Western culture; only Shakespeare seems to rival Austen in terms of name recognition in the literary world.\u201d<\/p>\n

This semester, Lake will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice\u2019s <\/em>publication by teaching a course at Wright State appropriately titled, 200 Years of Pride and Prejudice.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>

An image of the title page from Pride and Prejudice, first published in 1813.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI think that because Pride and Prejudice<\/em> is such a beloved and popular story, many students will be drawn to the course, even if they haven\u2019t already read and fallen in love with the novel,\u201d said Lake. \u201cAt the very least, they\u2019ve enjoyed the movies and TV series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having always been intrigued by Austen\u2019s satirical bent and subtle wit, Lake believes that Austen\u2019s novels are so much more than fairy tale romances. \u201cThey are insightful and often wildly radical critiques of the conventions of the culture in which she lived and wrote,\u201d said Lake.<\/p>\n

Inspiration to create this course occurred while Lake spent her last summer working as a research fellow at the Chawton House Library in the village of Southampton, England. Known as a center for studying rare works by early women writers, the Chawton House Library is the capital for all things Jane Austen.<\/p>\n

According to Lake, \u201cThe whole village was gearing up to celebrate the bicentennial anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice.<\/em> I thought that it would be a great opportunity for Wright State to join the festivities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The course will benefit not just those pursuing literature, but even those who simply appreciate a good book.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents get the chance to really slow down and read carefully, paying particular attention not only to what happens in the novel or what the characters are like, but also to how the novel is a carefully crafted work of art,\u201d said Lake.<\/p>\n

The first half of the semester will be spent reading and analyzing Pride and Prejudice<\/em>. The remainder will be spent drawing cultural parallels between the text and other publications from Austen\u2019s time. Assignments in the course will require students to do rigorous literary research, and, according to Lake, to bring that research to a larger community outside of the classroom.<\/p>\n

The Wright State celebration of Pride and Prejudice<\/em>\u2019s anniversary doesn\u2019t stop with the course.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Regency Ball is the culminating event of a three-day celebration of the bicentennial of Pride and Prejudice<\/em> to be hosted by Wright State in October of 2013,\u201d said Lake.<\/p>\n

The celebration will begin with a symposium featuring presentations by Austen researchers. There will also be a theatrical performance of Pride and Prejudice<\/em>, and numerous opportunities for attendees to engage in 19th century festivities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ball is a unique event because it will be historically immersive,\u201d said Lake. \u201cGuests will listen to the same music Jane Austen listened to, learn the dances she would have done and enjoy the food and entertainments that would have been popular at the kinds of balls she might have attended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joseph Gibbons, a student enrolled in 200 Years of Pride and Prejudice<\/em>, was eager to take Lake\u2019s course and to learn about the Regency Ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a great way for the humanities to reach out to the Dayton community and increase the community’s awareness of how much of a driving force Wright State truly is,\u201d said Gibbons.<\/p>\n

The bicentennial celebration is supported by funding from the Ohio Center of Excellence in Collaborative Education, Leadership and Innovation in the Arts (CELIA) at Wright State University.<\/p>\n

For more information on the Regency Ball, contact Crystal Lake at crystal.lake@wright.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last two centuries, millions of scholars, readers and romance enthusiasts have swooned over the pages of Jane Austen\u2019s Pride and Prejudice. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":18886,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,725,747,715,719],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-home-news-sidebar","category-liberal-arts","category-news","category-special-categories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18884"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18909,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18884\/revisions\/18909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}