New Directions in Austen Studies Conference

Conference: New Directions in Austen Studies, 9-11 July 2009

Confirmed speakers include: Linda Bree, Emma Clery, Deirdre Le Faye, Isobel Grundy, Juliet McMaster, Kathryn Sutherland, Janet Todd and John Wiltshire.

In July 1809, Jane Austen moved to the village of Chawton in Hampshire with her mother and sister, into a cottage owned by her brother, Edward Knight. Thus began the most productive period of Austen’s literary career, as she substantially revised the manuscripts that would become Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey and composed Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion.

To celebrate the bicentenary of Austen’s arrival in the village, Chawton House Library invites proposals for papers on any and all aspects of her work for a conference to be held in the library and grounds. Since the 200^th anniversary in 1975 of Austen’s birth there has been a wealth of criticism on her life and work. This conference is intended to provide an opportunity both to take stock of recent scholarship, and to frame new directions in Austen studies.

The conference will also include a closing concert, entitled 'A Chawton Album: Music from the Austen Family Music Books', which will be recorded.   Jane Austen's novels feature many scenes of domestic music-making, yet relatively little is known about musical practice in the homes of the middling gentry.  This concert helps to situate Jane Austen's own music - copied and collected in albums held at the Jane Austen House and Museum at Chawton - within the broader context of family life, by including music collected by her mother, sister and sisters-in-law in the albums they kept themselves and shared with Jane.  There will be a pre-concert talk. For more information about the conference location, please see www.chawtonhouse.org

Please note that conference registration is now closed.