In this episode, Dr. Patricia Matthew sits down with guest host Dr. Anne Fertig to discuss Mansfield Park, in all its beauties and complexities, as well as Matthew’s experience editing a new edition of the novel. They also unpack the ways in which Jane Austen weaves social commentary into her novels, and how what Austen doesn’t say is sometimes just as important as what she does say. In the wrap-up, Matthew also shares a reading list of some of her other favorite eighteenth-century novels.

Dr. Patricia Matthew is associate professor of English at Montclair State University, specializing in nineteenth-century British literature, Regency culture, and abolitionist literature. She is the editor of the Penguin Random Deluxe Editions of Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey released for Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, as well as the forthcoming Norton Library edition of Mansfield Park. And she is currently writing a book on sugar, gender, and British abolitionist culture for Princeton University Press. Matthew also co-edits the Oxford University Press series Race in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture, and her work has appeared in the journals Women’s Writing, the Keats-Shelley Journal, and Texas Studies in Literature and Language, as well as in The Atlantic, Lapham’s Quarterly, The Times Literary Supplement, and Slate. A plenary speaker at JASNA's 2024 Annual General Meeting, Matthew is also the director of The Race and Regency Lab.

For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep40

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Rereading Jane Austen’s novels with an understanding of the literary conventions of her time can reveal new layers of meaning that modern audiences may miss. In this episode, we sit down with Austen scholar Elaine Bander, author of Reading with Jane Austen, to explore how Austen used and deliberately played against the conventions of the romance fiction of her day, as well as forms such as the “two-heroine” novel and the “female Quixote.” Along the way, we’ll gain fresh perspectives on Fanny Price, Marianne Dashwood, and Elizabeth Bennet, and discover how Austen took familiar literary traditions and turned them in unexpected directions.

Dr. Elaine Bander is retired from Dawson College in Montreal, Canada, where she taught English for three decades. She has published numerous essays and book chapters on Jane Austen and other Georgian writers, including contributions to JASNA’s journals Persuasions and Persuasions On-Line. A frequent speaker on Austen, Elaine has also served as president of JASNA Canada and of the Burney Society (North America).

For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep39

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Email: podcast@jasna.org

“The first one, the very first one, is like opening a door to another portal somehow.”
—Laura Piani on reading her first Jane Austen novel.

Join us for a conversation with Laura Piani, writer and director of the romantic comedy, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life. In this episode with guest host Janet Saidi, she shares how Austen's novels and life choices, Austen fandom, and her own experiences inspired the development of the heroine, Agathe, and her journey.

Laura Piani studied film and literature in Paris and Rome, then worked as a bookseller at Shakespeare and Company in Paris while studying screenwriting. She went on to write for French film and television before making her feature film directorial debut with Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (2024/2025), distributed by Sony Pictures Classics.

For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep38

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Visit our website: www.jasna.org
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook
Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel
Email: podcast@jasna.org