René Descartes (1596-1650)  
              & Jane Austen  (1775-1817)
A Transition
 


I. Reflections on Descartes

A. The urgency of Descartes' project

B. Descartes' significance

C. Descartes' modernity


 Descartes at work in his study
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and larger view

II. Who is Jane Austen?      

III. Thinking with Austen

A. Irony:  what is it?

B. Shaping the reader's thinking: irony and assessment (45-57, 52, 86)

C. Austen's construction of a "satiric field" (58, 59, 70-1, 75-7, 80, 86, 142)

D. The meanings of "persuasion" (117,123, 137-8. 143)

E. Gentry - the social hierarchy in Austen's novels (60, 61, 63-4, 66,73, 82, 84, 127, 128).

IV. Reading Austen with a little help from Descartes
A.  Working from the contents of consciousness
(Remember: doubting, understanding, affirming, denying, etc.)

B. Self-preoccupation: method or defect?
V. Thinking about our categories:
►If Aristotle were the director of Core Course, in which quarter would we read Persuasion?

Austen's grave marker in Winchester Cathedral
Jane Austen portrait
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Austen: Image on cigarette card

Austen-verso-image-cig