2024 - 2025 Season
Meetings this season will be held at 2pm, at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation in Waltham, MA.
Meetings will be a hybrid of in-person and Zoom.
Meeting fee is $10 JASNA members, $15 non-members. Cash is accepted at the meeting. Click here to purchase tickets.
Click here for driving directions and parking information.
Sunday, May 4, 2025
2 pm, Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation
Elizabeth Porter
Austen's London
Elizabeth Porter is Assistant Professor of English and Coordinator of Women's and Gender Studies at Hostos Community College, City University of New York.
Her current research analyzes the relationship between feminist histories and eighteenth-century studies. With her scholarship appearing (or forthcoming) in
Digital Defoe, Eighteenth-Century Fiction, The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation, ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830, and
Pedagogy, she has published articles on literary representations of London in the long eighteenth century, writing pedagogy, and feminist writing communities.
This presentation analyzes Austen's representation of London in her letters and major novels to argue that the metropolitan setting is key to
understanding her life and literature. While some of her literary predecessors linger on the sensory overload of the London season,
Austen's engagement with London tends to be subtle and pragmatic. Juxtaposing a selection of Austen's letters with London-based scenes
from some of her major novels, this talk considers the varied functions of the metropolis in her fiction, as well as the important role the city played in her life as an author.
Dates for next season: September 14, 2025, November 9, 2025, December 14, 2025 (Tea at Gore Place), March 16, 2026, and May 3 or 17, 2026
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