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DATE: Sunday, Oct 2nd, 2:00-4:00pm

LOCATION: Locust Grove Auditorium

MEETING INFORMATION: Our next presentation will be by Kristina L Hochwender, PhD, who is Associate Professor, Department of English and Creative Writing, and Director, Eykamp Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Evansville.

Her topic will be..."A Clergyman out of His Pulpit: Jane Austen and the Roots of the Victorian Clerical Novel"

“One scarcely sees a clergyman out of his pulpit,” complains Mary Crawford to Edward Bertram in Mansfield Park. Yet far from being visible only in their pulpits, Austen’s clerics are everywhere present in their communities, advising, dancing, and frequently making offers of marriage. (Indeed, it’s a rarity to see them in church at all!) From Henry Tilney to Mr Collins to Edward Bertram, Austen’s clerics are some of her most memorable characters, and in creating them, she lays the foundations for one of the most popular genres of the second half of the nineteenth century: the clerical novel. With its focus on finance, reputation, marriage, and profession, the Victorian clerical novel was a publishing sensation, establishing the reputations of authors as popular and respected as George Eliot, Anthony Trollope, George MacDonald, and Margaret Oliphant. Indeed, in 1857, as Eliot was writing her first work of fiction, Scenes of Clerical Life, she was re-reading Austen. October’s talk will focus on the links between Austen’s clergymen and their earnest Victorian descendants.

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Many thanks to Evelyn Walker for finding this presenter!

As always, feel free to bring a sweet or savery dish to share. Iced tea will be provided.

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