Approaches to Teaching Austen’s Persuasion
- Editors: Marcia McClintock Folsom, John Wiltshire
- Pages: 248
- Published: 2021
- ISBN: 9781603294775 (Hardcover)
- ISBN: 9781603294782 (Paperback)
“The volume makes a valuable addition to Austen scholarship, and its pedagogical approaches are both thorough and innovative.”
—Laura White, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Jane Austen is a favorite with many students, whether they’ve read her novels or viewed popular film adaptations. But Persuasion, completed at the end of her life, can be challenging for students to approach. They are surprised to meet a heroine so subdued and self-sacrificing, and the novel’s setting during the Napoleonic wars may be unfamiliar. This volume provides teachers with avenues to explore the depths and richness of the novel with both Austen fans and newcomers.
Part 1, “Materials,” suggests editions for classroom use, criticism, and multimedia resources. Part 2, “Approaches,” presents strategies for teaching the literary, contextual, and philosophical dimensions of the novel. Essays address topics such as free indirect discourse and other narrative techniques; social class in Austen’s England; the role of the navy during war and peacetime; key locations in the novel, including Lyme Regis and Bath; and health, illness, and the ethics of care.
PART ONE: MATERIALS
Editions (3)
Critical Reception (5)
Films (10)
Digital Resources (11)
PART TWO: APPROACHES
Introduction (17)
Historical Context
Teaching Persuasion in Multiple Contexts (39)
Mapping the Chronology of Persuasion (53)
“The Navy Who Have Done So Much for Us”: Professional and Domestic Ideology in Persuasion (64)
The Influence of Austen’s Naval Family Members on the Creation of Persuasion (71)
“Her Own More Elegant and Cultivated Mind”: Anne Elliot and Music (80)
Persuasion in a Women’s Studies Course (86)
Persuasion as a Wartime Novel (94)
Close Reading and the Inner Life
Baronets and the Baronetage: Close Reading the Opening Chapters of Persuasion (105)
Writing the Life of Feeling in Persuasion (115)
Thinking with Austen: Literature, Philosophy, and Anne Elliot’s Inner World (129)
Teaching about Persuasion in Persuasion (135)
Literary Context
Teaching Persuasion in a Transient World (140)
The “Unfeudal Tone” in Context: Teaching Persuasion through Mary Wollstonecraft (148)
Persuasion as Transition: From “Tawny Leaves” to the “Spring of Felicity” (157)
“The Richness of the Present Age”: Romantic Allusions in Persuasion (164)
Other Teaching Strategies
Social Class in Persuasion (170)
Debating Persuasion (175)
Teaching Persuasion with the Michell Film Adaptation (183)
Nursing in Persuasion: The Value of Women’s Work (192)
The Medical Context: Disability, Injury, Illness, and Nursing in Persuasion (201)
Organizing Bodies: Teaching Metaphors of Space in Persuasion (207)
Placing Persuasion (213)
Notes on Contributors (223)
Survey Participants (227)
Works Cited (229)
“The purpose of this volume is to help instructors teach Persuasion in many different classroom contexts, and it succeeds marvelously. I am eager to try out the ideas gathered here!”
—Claudia L. Johnson, Princeton University
