EagleEye

Lorentzen Gives JASNA Keynote Lecture

Professor of English Eric G. Lorentzen recently gave a keynote lecture for the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) entitled “Jane Austen’s Dangerous Education: Colonizing and Catechistic Curricula.” The talk was arranged by our local Central Virginia Region’s chapter, but members from across the country also attended remotely.

Lorentzen began by offering some context about dangerous education and texts during Jane Austen’s era (and beyond), and then discussed one particularly egregious form of education/textuality called the catechistic method. After offering some examples from works both before and after Austen’s canon, he scrutinized the ways in which her works provide a bridge between the earlier and later texts.

After examining Pride and Prejudice from an educational and catechistic perspective, his primary aim, and the new addition to the scholarly conversation, was to connect the issues (and narrative themes) of colonialism and catechistic curricula in Mansfield Park.