JASNA Ohio North Coast Region invites those to submit papers based on AGM 2020 theme, “Jane Austen’s Juvenilia: Reason, Romanticism, and Revolution.” The papers should address Austen’s work from 1787 (when she was 11) to 1783 (when she was 17). They do, however, also accept works based on Lady Susan.
From the AGM coordinators, “We request submissions that explore how Austen engages with the world around her in her early writings, including influences from the Age of Reason, Romanticism in the popular culture of her time, and the Revolution of ideas that swept through Europe during the 18th century. We also hope to discuss her early stories for their pure entertainment value.”
To get you started, the AGM has thoughtfully put together a list of questions for you to get the juices flowing for your paper:
- Did the social and political background of revolutionary war in America and France, along with questions of sovereignty and human rights, influence Austen’s teenage writing?
- Did changing ideas about education and women’s roles appear to have influenced her childhood works?
- Did Austen engage with the Romantic period in literature and art? How did contemporary novels influence her teenage writings?
- How is the exuberance of Austen’s early writings present, although perhaps in suppressed form, in her mature novels?
- Austen’s unique narrative voice is apparent in even the briefest fragments from Austen’s three volumes of juvenilia. How does her author’s voice evolve over time?
- We know Austen herself valued her early works, as she kept them throughout her life. As the study of juvenilia gains recognition in academia, how do her youthful writings compare to other teenage art?
- We picture young Jane Austen reading her works aloud to amused family and friends. Do these works stand on their own as entertaining fiction, or are they best viewed as apprenticeship work for the mature novels?
- Does Lady Susan form a bridge between Austen’s teenage writings and the novels that she produced later in her life, or does it stand alone in Austen’s published works?
- How did Austen use the epistolary form in Lady Susan, and how might this provide insight into early versions of her novels, such as First Impressions? And what are we to make of this wicked main character?
Submission deadline is October 12, 2019.
You can fnd more information on submission date and materials required at http://jasna.org/agms/cleveland/call-for-papers.html.
And don’t forget, CLEVELAND ROCKS!
