This day school will combine Garden History and Literature. We will alternate between illustrated talks and close reading and discussion of relevant sections of 'Sense and Sensibility' and 'Mansfield Park'. We will examine Jane Austen's use of contemporary fashions in garden design and landscape to convey particular ideas, preferences, personal characteristics and moral worthiness (or otherwise) of many of her characters, as well as devices to help advance her plots. Garden design, and the new appreciation of landscape at the turn of the eighteenth century, was a very popular subject and widely discussed amongst the educated classes, so we will discover how Jane Austen utilises contemporary culture and weaves it into her work in order to present viewpoints and further develop her characters.
Course aim
To provide an overview of the contemporary trends in garden design and landscape at the turn of the 18th century, and to consider how Jane Austen incorporates these into her novels, using them to comment on society and develop character and plot.
Do I need any particular skills or experience?
- This course is for beginners and improvers
By the end of the course I should be able to:
- Name the contemporary fashion in garden design style in the final decades of the eighteenth century in Britain.
- Give an example of a character in a Jane Austen novel expressing aspects of their personality through their opinion on landscape.
- Give an example of where you think Jane Austen's own view may have differed from one of her characters on the subject of garden design.
What else do I need to know?
A familiarity with Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility would be helpful, but we will be working from printed extracts of the relevant sections so don't worry if you haven't read both novels recently.
View full course information sheet
Day School: Gardens and Landscapes in the Novels of Jane Austen
