lecture 1
· We are going to study Pride and Prejudice كبرياء و تحاملbyJane Austin
· Every lecture, you have to prepare five chapters.
· We are going to deal with the theme- style- characters
· We are going to have a handout- additional اضافيnotes = The Art of Jane Austin.
Introduction
Jane Austin 1775 - 1817
She was born towards the end of the 18th century. She died at the beginning of the 19th century. She was living during the turn of the century. It was a very important فترة not only in the history of England but in the history of all Europe.
Two important events happened- The French Revolutionالثورة الفرنسية- and the Napoleonic Warsحروب نابليون. They two events took place when Jane Austin was living and writing her novels. There were also changes inside England itself. These changes were mainly related متعلقة بto the economic condition and the social conditions. For example, England was changing from an agricultural countryبلد زراعي to become a country that depends on industryيعتمد على الصناعة- from an agricultural society into an industrial society. It was an internal changeتغير داخلي. There was the Industrial Revolutionالثورة الصناعية - there were factoriesمصانع. People began to move from villagesالقرى to townsالمدن. There was a change in the social structureالبناء الاجتماعي. Insteadبدلا من of peasantsالفلاحين, they started having workersعمال. They started to have a new working- middle class.
Jane Austin was living during a period of social changesتغيرات اجتماعية.
The French Revolution was an important event throughout the worldفي كل أنحاء العالم- not only in France. It changed everything about the government الحكومةin the whole world. It was a very bloody دمويand violent revolutionثورة عنيفة. People in England were affected تأثرتby the French Revolution. There were revolutionary ideasأفكار ثورية. People were anxious قلقabout the changes that might happen and move from France to England.
The Napoleonic Wars were set by Napoleon. He was the head of a French Army. He was fighting يحاربmany European countries. Many European countries were fighting each other. It was very extended warحرب ممتدة. Many people died. It was a source of anxietyمصدر قلق. It was a change that made the English people to feel uncomfortableيشعر بعدم ارتياح.
Jane Austin had two brothers who were officers ضباطfighting in these wars. It was a very important event in the history of England and on the personal life of Jane Austin.
Jane Austin wrote six novels. Not in any of her novels, we can find reference لا نجد إشارة إلىto all these changes. She never mentionedلم تذكر the revolutions, wars or the internal changes of England. There can be two reasons for that. She may not be a realisticغير واقعي person. Maybe, she is not writing imaginary خياليthings- things about fantasyخيال. May be, she wanted to escape the actual life تهرب من الحياة الواقعيةshe was living. Yet, she was a realistic writer. We can find elements of realismعناصر واقعية in her novel. She wanted to be realistic, but she did not want to write all about these things. She ignoredتجاهلت the major politicalسياسي, social اجتماعيand economic اقتصاديchanges in her period.
She was a realist. She was not an escapist personشخص يهرب من الواقع- a person who wrote fantastic literature depending on imagination. Yet, she ignored the real events of her time. She was a woman. She wrote about domestic life الحياة المألوفةin simply country side dwellingsسكان الريف. She wanted to write about her own first hand experienceتجربة عاشتها. As a woman, she had a very limited and restricted lifeحياة محدودة. He wanted to write about the activities that she knew about. She was living in the country side, in a small town. The activities الأنشطةshe knew were just the social visiting, gossipالنميمة, dancing partiesالحفلات الراقصة- balls. This is the sort of life that she had first hand experience about. She wanted to write about what she knew. She wanted to be very keen حريصabout her materialsالمواد المستخدمة. She wrote about the domestic sphereجو اجتماعى- domestic domain- about the family relationships.
The title of our lecture is:
The limited range- the narrow scope of Jane Austin's novel.
All her novels have limited knowledgeمعلومات محدودة- have a narrow scopeنطاق ضيق The first reason for that is that she ignoredتجاهلت the important events. These events were affecting the life of every one in England, and the family of Jane Austin herself, but she never mentionedلم تذكر this. This is why her novels never mentioned these events. Her novels are like a miniatureفن رسم المصغرات- المنمنمات[ like a very small painting filled with very minute detailsالتفاصيل الدقيقة- all the details require تتطلبmuch talentموهبة to occur. They require us to be very attentive يقظso that we can use them to build up our knowledge about the characters and events] in which we know all the small details in the novel. These minute details are very important so that we can understand the characters or the events. All the details are important. This is why we have to read the original text.
Jane Austin chose deliberately عن عمدnot to write about the real events of her time because she wanted to write about first hand experience, about the life she was living as a human being at that time.
Jane Austin can be called a miniaturistرسام الصور المنمنمة.She is one of the most important miniaturists in the history of English literature.The area of her novels is a very limited narrow area but she is very skilled and talented in writing about this very limited, narrow areaمساحة ضيقة.
· This topic is found in the notes in page 99- 108
· Reading from the notes
· Characters in the novels are individual and specialفردي - متميز. They are not like anybody else.
· Timing details make people special.
· Being a miniaturist was a new style= an innovationابتكار. It required يتطلب موهبةa skill to go into the details. She was drawing a minute detailed picture which was something strange.
· Part of her limited range نطاق محدودwas realism.
· She is realistic by focusing onتركيز على first hand experience and not writing about things that she could not know much about it. this is a point of strength. نقطة قوة
The setting of the novel and the time are limited. Characters are also limited. Themes, mood, atmospheres are also limited. This is related مرتبط بto the realism of Jane Austin. Realism is much related to the point of having a limited range. She needed to focus on the narrow domestic sphere in which she was living.
In her novels, we have a limited time setting. Most of Her novels were very limited in time. The whole novel speaks about few months. In some novels we might find three generationsاجيال. Some novels extend over 30 years. Any novel of Jane Austin is very limited in time- less than a year. The whole action is developing and coming to an end in few months.
The setting= place is just a small town in the country side. Most of her novels were limited to a small town in the English country side- a rural settingمكان ريفى- قروي. Jane Austin herself never went to London. This shows realism in her novels. She never visited London and she was focusing on the places she knew- small towns in the country sideالريف.
Charactersare also limited in her novels. We have few numbersعدد قليل of characters. All the characters in her novels belong to the middle classes- the rural land owners. They are not cultivatingزراعة the land themselves. They are not farmers. They are called the gentryالطبقة الغنية. She only mentioned the middle rural classesالط in her novels. She did not mention the other classesلم تذكر الطبقات الاخرى.
We have a very few number of the aristocratsالطبقة الستقراطية in the novel= people from the upper class. We do not have workers or farmers.
So, characters are not only limited in numbers but in their social class- the class of the gentry of the land ownersملاك الاراضى.
They are limited in a third way. There is a limitation in the form of genderالجنس- النوع. She did not only write about women. We have the novel represented تقدمto us from the point of view of womenمن وجهة نظر النساء- even when they are important male charactersالشخصيات الرجالية. But all the time, we see male characters through the female point of viewوجهة نظر نسائية. There is a restriction, a limitation تقيد- تحديدin the point of view in which the male characters are present. Characters are represented mainly through a female point of view. Even if we have conversationsمحادثات between men, they are not very long conversations. They are not deep conversations. They are about very few things. We can not know about the deep psychology of menنفسية الشخصية.
The mood, the atmosphere is also limited. All the feelings and the emotions that give the atmosphere الجوof the novel are moderate feelingsمشاعر معتدلة. We do not find strong passionsعواطف قوية- emotions- like love in Romeo and Juliet- or ambitionالطموح in Othello. Characters are moderateمعتدل- they are not evil or angelsملائكة. They are moderate. All the time, Jane Austin is not stressing the extremesالمشاعر المتطرفة. She is not an artist of extremes. She is an artist of moderation. Part of being realist is to be moderate. We never find strong passions in her novels.
We have limited events. The action is very limited. All the activities of the people are of the every day activities. The party- the ball is a limited event. The climax of our novel- Pride and Prejudice- is that they have a ball= a dancing partyحفل راقص. This is the climax and the greatest action in the novel. The greatest catastrophe الكارثةthat ever happened in her novel- a thing like a scandalفضيحة- the elopement هروبof one of the girls with a man- this is a limited action. The action is just about visitingالتزوار, gossipالنميمة, going for walks.
Themes are limited. She is interested in human nature. Her themes are related to human nature. Her themes are common themesافكار شائعة. Her main theme is love and marriage. This is a realistic but a limited theme. Most of the time, she is concentrating on the relationship between men and women. She was focusing on the domestic sphereمناخ- نطاق. This is the limitation in her themes
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