Kathryn Donlan (CAS ’18) is a writer and aspiring archivist (an an alumna of CC 111!). She likes talking about literature from the perspective of social history and historical context, and in keeping with this outlook she recently shared her thoughts on Twitter on the news of a new cinematic adaptation of Jane Austen‘s Persuasion. We thought it was such a timely response that we reached out and asked if we could share it here on the Core blog. She writes:
To the people complaining that we’re getting another Austen film, I have this to say: The reason Jane Austen’s stories are told and retold is due to the sheer fact they are timeless and constantly relevant. She would not “hate to see it.” She would be fascinated by the fact we like her stories so much and feel the need to share them time and time again. She wasn’t a prudish stickler! She was a real, funny, charming woman who wrote books that successfully examined womanhood from the point of view of a woman, not a man like Richardson examining it from the outside and making moral commentary on what a woman can and should do. Austen’s heroines are real, human beings who live complicated livesPersuasion being a book about the reality of being a woman who is dealing with life’s expectations while still holding on to this desperate hope that she can repeat, or redo, the past and find that one true love she lost. That’s why we still tell Austen’s storiesbecause they light within us that desire to have that happy ending. Now, more than ever, I think we deserve a happy ending.
Find Kathryn’s original tweet and replies over @kateodonlan. Her newsletter about classic literature”That Book is Good, Actually”will debut later this month.
The image above is the design for one of our new Fall 2020 Core tee-shirts; the quote comes from Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and seems like a sound if slant-wise comment on how we should all try to bear up during these time of social distancing. If you’re a member of the Core community and you’re on campus this semester, you can swing by our socially-distanced picnic this coming Sunday, September 20th, and see about snagging of these shirts, while supplies list. If you would like to stop by,RSVP using these links to let us know in which time-block you’d like to visit the distribution table:2-2:30,2:30-3,3:-3:30, or3:30-4.
