Why Jane Austen? with Author Rachel M. Brownstein

PRLog (Press Release) - Jun. 6, 2012 - Why Jane Austen?
with author Rachel M. Brownstein
Thursday, June 21, 2012 from 7:00- 8:00 p.m.

From the first publication of Pride and Prejudice to recent film versions of her life and work, Jane Austen continues to inspire fantasies of peculiar intimacy and provoke enthusiasm and debate.  Celebrated in the nineteenth century for her realism and patrician gentility, Austen generates passions shaped by ideologies and trends of her reader’s time- and by her own memorable stories, characters, and elusive, perennially cool tone.

In Why Jane Austen?  Rachel M. Brownstein considers Austen as a heroine, moralist, satirist, romantic, woman and author along with the changing notions of these categories over time and texts.  Her brilliant discussion of the distinctiveness and distinction of the novelist’s genius clarifies the reasons why we read Jane Austen- or why we should read her- and reorients the prevailing view of her work.

Rachel Brownstein is the author of two critically acclaimed books, Becoming a Heroine: Reading about Women in Novels and Tragic Muse: Rachel of the Comédie-Française.  She is professor of English at Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center.  Dr. Brownstein is a Barnard College graduate and she received her Ph.D. in English from Yale University.  Her website is rachelmbrownstein.com.

All Oliver Wolcott Library events are free and open to the public.  The Hickory Stick Bookshop will provide books for signing and purchase.  A wine & cheese reception will follow the event.  Space is limited.  Registration is required and can be done by calling 860-567-8030 or logging onto www.owlibrary.org and clicking on Programs/Adult Programs.  This program is generously sponsored by Union Savings Bank.