2022 AGM Reading List

Sense and Sensibility in JASNA Publications

Learn more about Jane Austen's first published novel: the focus of JASNA's 2022 AGM, “Sense and Sensibility in the City of Gardens,” to be held in Victoria, British Columbia.  This curated list is a small sampling of essays from Persuasions, Persuasions On-Line, and the JASNA Essay Contest.

Competing Institutions: The Law and the Church

• “John Dashwood’s Contract to Care: Parodic Legalism in Sense and Sensibility” by Kevin Wong. Persuasions 42 (2020): 181-93.

• “Marianne Dashwood’s Repentance, Willoughby’s ‘Repentance,’ and The Book of Common Prayer” by Brenda S. Cox. Persuasions On-Line 39.1 (Winter 2018).
• “’A More Gentle, Less Dignified, Forgiveness’: Willoughby’s Apology in the Context of Austen’s Religious Beliefs” by Gillian Dooley. Persuasions On-Line 38.3 (Summer 2018).
• “Preparation for Death and Second Chances in Austen’s Novels” by Brenda S. Cox. Persuasions On-Line 41.1 (Winter 2020).
   

Health

• “Deaths and Entrances: The Opening of Sense and Sensibility” by Nora Bartlett. Persuasions On-Line 32.2 (Summer 2012).
• “Idleness and Melancholy in Sense and Sensibility” by Márta Pellérdi. Persuasions On-Line 32.2 (Summer 2012).
• “Marianne’s Addiction: Amorous Pleasures in Sense and Sensibility” by Kimiyo Ogawa. Persuasions On-Line 32.2 (Summer 2012).
• “Preparation for Death and Second Chances in Austen’s Novels” by Brenda S. Cox. Persuasions On-Line 41.1 (Winter 2020).

The Landscape and Eco-Criticism

• “Jane Austen and the Enclosure Movement: The Sense and Sensibility of Land Reform” by Celia Easton. Persuasions 24 (2002): 71-89.
• “Sense and Sensibility: 3 or 4 Country Families in an Urban Village” by Laurie Kaplan. Persuasions 32 (2010): 196-209.
  
  

Manners, Mores, and Emotions

• “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Reading Character in Sense and Sensibility” by Elaine Bander. Persuasions On-Line 32.1 (Winter 2011).
• “Temper Tantrums and Sugar Plums: Childish Behavior in Sense and Sensibility” by Katherine Elizabeth Curtis. Persuasions On-Line 32.1 (Winter 2011).
• “Uncommon Prudence in Sense and Sensibility” by Clyde Ray. Persuasions On-Line 33.1 (Winter 2012).
  
  

Men and Rakes

• “Brotherly Love in Eighteenth-Century Literature” by Ruth Perry. Persuasions On-Line 30.1 (Winter 2009).
• “A Defense of Edward Ferrars: Austen’s Hero as a Nexus of Sense and Sensibility” by Mary Watson. Persuasions On-Line 32.1 (Winter 2011).
• “Good Punishes Bad? The Duels in Sense and Sensibility” by Juliet McMaster. Persuasions On-Line 32.1 (Winter 2011).
• “Jane Austen, The Second Anglo-Mysore War, and Colonel Brandon’s Forcible Circumcision: A Rereading of Sense and Sensibility” by Linda Robinson Walker. Persuasions On-Line 34.1 (Winter 2013).
• “’A More Gentle, Less Dignified Forgiveness’: Willoughby’s Apology in the Context of Austen’s Religious Beliefs” by Gillian Dooley. Persuasions On-Line 38.3 (Summer 2018).
• “Plots and ‘Dark Subplots’ in Sense and Sensibility: Adapting and Interpreting Jane Austen’s Duels” by Joanna Thaler. Persuasions On-Line 32.1 (Winter 2011).
• “Why Edward Ferrars Doesn’t Dance” by Theresa M. Kenney. Persuasions 35 (2013): 153-68.
   

On Adaptations in Film and Popular Culture

• “The Banquet of Desire: A South Indian Sense and Sensibility” by R. N. Simhan. Persuasions On-Line 28.2 (Spring 2008).
• “Code Word Jane Austen, or How a Chinese Film about Martial Arts Teaches Life Arts” by Joan Klingel Ray. Persuasions 22 (2000).
• “For the First Time in Forever: Sense and Sensibility and Frozen” by Laura S. Witherington. Persuasions On-Line 40.2 (Spring 2020).
• “From Page to Screen: Emma Thompson’s Film Adaptation of Sense and Sensibility” by Nora Foster Stovel. Persuasions On-Line 32.1 (Winter 2011).
• “How Masculinity Plays: Effects of Musicianship in the 1995 Film Adaptation of Sense and Sensibility”  by Sarah R. Wakefield. Persuasions On-Line 28.1 (Winter 2007).
• “The Immortality of Sense and Sensibility: Margaret’s Tree House, Edward’s Handkerchief, Marianne’s Rescue” by Susan Allen Ford. Persuasions On-Line 38.1 (Winter 2017).
• “Jane Austen in Translation: On Sisterhood and Romance in Mochizuki Reiko’s Sense and Sensibility” by Tsugumi Okabe. Persuasions On-Line 36.1 (Winter 2015).
• “Sororal (Mis)Perception in Sense and Sensibility and Fleabag” by Talia M. Vestri. Persuasions On-Line 41.1 (Winter 2020).
• “A Thoroughly Elinor Sort of Way: Elinor’s Sensibility in Masterpiece’s Sense and Sensibility” by Daniel R. Mangiavellano. Persuasions On-Line 29.1 (Winter 2008).
  
  

The Text Itself

• “Jane Austen’s Conversational Pragmatics: Rational Evaluation and Strategic Action in Sense and Sensibility” by Bill Hughes. Persuasions On-Line 32.2 (Summer 2012).
• "Making Sense of Sensibility" by Inger Sigrun Thomsen Brodey. Persuasions 37 (2015): 62-80.
• “‘A Something or a Nothing’: Towards a Sensibilious Reading of Sense and Sensibility” by Daragh Downes. Persuasions On-Line 32.2 (Summer 2012).
  
  

Women and Heroines

• “The City of Sisterly Love: Jane Austen’s Community as Sorority” by Laura S. Dabundo. Persuasions On-Line 30.1 (Winter 2009).
• “Exonerating Mrs. Dashwood” by Kathryn Davis. Persuasions 33 (2011): 61-74.
• “Interpretive Ekphrasis and the Marital Marketplace: Elinor’s Drawings in Sense and Sensibility” by Sharon Cohen. JASNA Essay Contest Winner (2021).
• “The Passion of Marianne Dashwood: Christian Rhetoric in Sense and Sensibility” by Anne Richards. Persuasions 25, 2003.
• “Sunday in the Park with Elinor Dashwood: ‘So Public a Place’” by Laurie Kaplan. Persuasions 34 (2012).
  
  

Additional Lists

• The 2011 AGM Reading List, “Jane Austen: 200 Years of Sense and Sensibility.”
• “200 Years of Sense and Sensibility: Selected Essays from the Conference at the University of St. Andrews.” Ed. Susan Allen Ford, Marina Cano López, and A. Rose Pimentel. Persuasions Online 32.2 (Summer 2012). Essays are individually cited.