2018-2019 JASNA Massachusetts Meetings

2018-2019 Meetings

These meetings were held between the fall of 2018 and the spring of 2019.

Sunday, September 16, 2018
Natick Community Center, 117 East Central St, Natick MA 01760

Elizabeth Philipps

Portrait of a Lady Governess

Angela Thirkell's 1945 novel Miss Bunting is about a governess addressing the changes that were wrought in society by World War II, as the title character grows to middle age and wonders how to live out her life, and where her ambitions might take her as the world turns upside down. Elizabeth will begin her discussion with Miss Lee (Mansfield Park), and go on to Miss Taylor in Emma, then branch out to other governesses, and finish with Thirkell's memorable character. Thirkell was a great admirer of Jane Austen, and wrote about 30 books set in Anthony Trollope's fictional county of Barsetshire She constantly referenced all of English Literature after Defoe.

Elizabeth Philipps, a member of the JASNA Massachusetts region, has been an ardent reader of Jane Austen's novels ever since a librarian told her about them when she was 11. At first she gobbled them up thinking they were historical romances. Later she learned better. Now she has a wide appetite for all sorts of fiction and includes membership in the Angela Thirkell Society - North American Branch among her activities. Never an academic, rather Philipps started her career as a nurse, turned to textbook publishing after college, then became a project manager for an order of nuns in Boston when they built a new convent. Since retirement, live radio programs for the blind and ESL teaching on a volunteer basis have filled her time. She did spend a few years as JASNA Regional Coordinator in North Carolina, but now her heart belongs to the Massachusetts region.

Sunday, November 4, 2018
Location: Kotzen Meeting Room, Simmons College, Boston

Pamela Bromberg

Emma's eyes and Elinor's reflection:
Thinking and Feeling in Fiction and Film

Pamela Bromberg is a Professor of English at Simmons College in Boston. She earned her Ph.D. in English from Yale University. She is interested in a broad variety of writers, including contemporary women and post-colonial novelists. Recent publications include essays on Blake's visual art, but also on the work of Margaret Drabble, Margaret Atwood, Lillian Hellman, and Buchi Emecheta. She has also contributed essays on teaching Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Emma to the MLA's Approaches to Teaching volumes; a new essay on "Mansfield Park: Austen's Most Teachable Novel" has just been published in the series. Her interest in Austen has inspired a seminar on Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf, a course that provides in-depth study of the development of two of England's greatest novelists.

Professor Bromberg will discuss how competing film versions render the key scenes of discovery and self-discovery in Sense and Sensibility and Emma, scenes that are narrated in indirect and free indirect discourse in the novels. So the talk will touch on theoretical questions of written language and film as media, particularly how the film makers solve the challenge of conveying climactic passages of critical thought, reflection, and judgment.

Sunday, December 2, 2018 at 2 PM
Endicott House, 80 Haven St., Dedham MA

Alison Larkin

Alison Larkin was born in Washington DC and spent her childhood in England and East and West Africa. After graduating from London University and the Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, she played classical roles on the British stage, then moved to America and became a stand-up comic. She appeared regularly at The Comic Strip in New York City, the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, and on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Comic Relief. She also appeared on Broadway in the Royal National Theatre's production of Stanley. Her unusually wide range of voices can be heard in dozens of cartoons and movies, from work by Robert Altman to The Wonderful World of OZ and The Wonderpets.

Combining stand-up comedy and theater, the author's internationally acclaimed one-woman show, The English American, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival's Assembly Rooms, headlined at the Soho Theatre as highlight of the London Comedy Festival, and has been seen in concert performance around the world,. In addition to a full catalog of audiobooks, Alison Larkin has recorded The Complete Novels of Jane Austen - the 200th anniversary audio edition. She is the ambassador to the United States for the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation. Ms Larkin is a member of JASNA Massachusetts Join us to celebrate Jane Austen's 243rd birthday! An elegant afternoon tea will be served in this lovely, historic mansion. As usual, we will salute Jane with champagne!

Sunday, March 10, 2019
Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation
154 Moody St, Waltham, MA

Annette LeClair

Dressing an Heroine: Fashion, Politics, and Fun
in Catherine Morland's Clothing Choices

What to wear? With a focus on spotted muslins in Austen's era, this talk explores
the cultural contexts and implications of feminine attire in Northanger Abbey.

Annette LeClair is a Librarian Emerita at Union College in Schenectady, NY, where she served as Director of Collection and Technical Services. She has master's degrees in English from the University of Virginia and in librarianship from the University of North Carolina. Before joining the faculty at Union College, she held positions at Dickinson College and the University of North Carolina, and she taught a number of graduate courses as an adjunct instructor at the University of Albany.

LeClair has published, served as a consultant, developed exhibits, and presented papers on a wide range of professional and literary topics. She has delivered programs on Jane Austen at a variety of JASNA AGMs and regional meetings, and her work on Austen's legacy, readership, and cultural milieu has been published in Persuasions, Persuasions On-Line, and MLA's Approaches to Teaching Austen's Emma.

Annette LeClair is the Harriet Avery Fund speaker for the 2018-2019 season.

Sunday, May 19, 2019 at 1PM
at Old Sturbridge Village
1 Old Sturbridge Village Road, Sturbridge, MA

For GPS use: 29 Stallion Hill Road, Sturbridge, MA

Elvira Casal

How to Mother a Heroine: Mothers and Mother-Figures in Jane Austen

Elvira Casal teaches English at the Middle Tennessee University at Murfreesboro. Dr Casal earned her Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University, and teaches courses in 18th and 19th century British literature, ESL, the short story, the novel, and Jane Austen. She is a frequent speaker at the JASNA AGMs.

She has published on George Meredith as well as Jane Austen. Her article, Laughing at Mr. Darcy: Wit and Sexuality in Pride and Prejudice, was published in Persuasions in 2001.

Old Sturbridge Village

You are sure to be delighted with the venue for this meeting! Old Sturbridge Village showcases 40 antique buildings moved from throughout New England, each restored to show how they would have been furnished and used during the early 19th century. Three areas - the Center Village, the Mill Neighborhood, and the Countryside - show different ways of rural New England life in the 1830's. Costumed historians make Old Sturbridge Village a truly special, interactive museum experience.

The JASNA lecture will be held in Fuller Conference Room in the Fuller Conference Center, followed by afternoon tea. Note the event starts at 1pm. Do allow time to visit the wonderful OSV gift shop and book store!

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