Short course
Jane Austen’s Novelistic Innovations
Course status:
Applications being accepted
Dates:
30/09/2026 - 02/12/2026
Study format:
In-person weekly
Fees:
£315.00
There are few novelists to rival the remarkable stature of Jane Austen. Her six most celebrated works continue to occupy a place in the public consciousness that is arguably unequalled amongst writers of fiction. Her characters have spilled out from the page onto stage and screen – both TV and film – again and again and have been portrayed by the leading actors of the day. The sheer bulk of literary scholarship on Austen’s work is beyond impressive. Sequels and homages to her work continue – the recent BBC adaptation of The Other Bennet Sister (2020) by Janice Hadlow is another example – and last year’s celebrations of the 250th anniversary of her birth made her more conspicuous than ever.
Yet Austen herself lived quietly and fairly comfortably with her family and wrote four of her most famous novels in an intense spell of just five years. She was deeply proud of her status as a professional novelist, especially since money was tight after her father died and financial instability was a feature of her family life.
She enjoyed a small measure of celebrity – enough for the Prince Regent to request (via his librarian) that she dedicate her novel, Emma to him. But it would be hard to predict the scale of her cultural impact over time from the modest level of success during her lifetime.
What was it about her work in the literary form of the novel that was so innovative? How did her writing build on and depart from the practices of her predecessors? Why did her work resonate with the concerns of her readers and why does it continue to do so?
In this course we will study and compare Austen's six major works, and explore some answers to these questions, while keeping a particular focus on Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Mansfield Park (1814). Over the 10 seminars, we analyse extracts from the texts drawing on the emerging characteristics of the novel form such as narrative technique, characterisation, and the ways in which it drew on other literary genres. We also investigate how Austen engaged with important and pressing debates and ideas of the age in a well-informed and acutely responsive way. Examples include power dynamics in the domestic sphere, changes to the social order, the precarious status of women, the acquisition and deployment of knowledge – as well as the cultural and philosophical shifts from Enlightenment tenets to Romanticism during the late eighteenth century. In the process we gain a range of insights into how her many creative innovations contributed to the development of the novel form.
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Programme details
Course starts Wednesday 30 September 2026
This is an in-person course which requires your attendance at the weekly meetings in Oxford on Wednesdays, 2.00-4.00pm.
Week 1: Biographical overview and some historical contexts, including a consideration of the innovations of preceding novelists
Week 2: Northanger Abbey
Week 3: Sense and Sensibility
Week 4: Sense and Sensibility continued
Week 5: Pride and Prejudice
Week 6: Pride and Prejudice continued
Week 7: Mansfield Park
Week 8: Mansfield Park continued
Week 9: Emma (including a session on a selection of Austen’s letters)
Week 10: Persuasion
Teaching methods
The course consists of 10 seminars. Each seminar will begin with an introduction by the tutor around a selected topic which will be opened up to group discussion in which student participation is encouraged in a supportive environment.
Students may be asked to read extracts singly or in pairs and then organise their thoughts into brief and informal presentations to the group. Tutor handouts will be provided for most sessions to give background material such as extracts from the works of preceding eighteenth-century novelists and selected articles from Austen scholars. Students will also be encouraged to use open access sites such as Project Gutenberg to source some eighteenth-century publications.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, students will have been given the opportunity to:
*demonstrate an enhanced understanding of how Austen experimented and innovated in her writing of fiction whilst she drew on the works of preceding authors.
*have a deeper appreciation of the ways in which Jane Austen engaged with topical ideas and issues in her six major works
*develop their ability to formulate their ideas around the novels of Jane Austen, both orally and in writing
Assessment methods
Only those students who have registered for assessment and accreditation, in advance of the course start date, can submit coursework/assignments for assessment.
Assessment
You will be set two pieces of work for the course. The first of 500 words is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome but preparing for it, and the feedback you are given, will help you prepare for your assessed piece of work of 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.
Level and demands
The Department’s Weekly Classes are taught at FHEQ Level 4, first year undergraduate level, and you will be expected to engage in a significant amount of private study in preparation for the classes. This may take the form, for instance, of reading and analysing set texts, responding to questions or tasks, or preparing work to present in class.
Course aims
This course aims to enable participants to develop an understanding of Jane Austen’s contribution to the development of the novel and to explore the literary innovations and experimentation that characterise her work.
Course objectives
By the end of the course, participants will have been given the opportunity to:
- explore the main themes, narrative techniques and experimentalism found in Austen’s major works
- develop an understanding of selected eighteenth-century social, cultural and philosophical contexts and consider how they inform Austen’s fiction
- engage critically with Austen’s novels, examining the ways in which they contributed to the development of the novel form
Programme details
Course starts Wednesday 30 September 2026
This is an in-person course which requires your attendance at the weekly meetings in Oxford on Wednesdays, 2.00-4.00pm.
Week 1: Biographical overview and some historical contexts, including a consideration of the innovations of preceding novelists
Week 2: Northanger Abbey
Week 3: Sense and Sensibility
Week 4: Sense and Sensibility continued
Week 5: Pride and Prejudice
Week 6: Pride and Prejudice continued
Week 7: Mansfield Park
Week 8: Mansfield Park continued
Week 9: Emma (including a session on a selection of Austen’s letters)
Week 10: Persuasion
Teaching methods
The course consists of 10 seminars. Each seminar will begin with an introduction by the tutor around a selected topic which will be opened up to group discussion in which student participation is encouraged in a supportive environment.
Students may be asked to read extracts singly or in pairs and then organise their thoughts into brief and informal presentations to the group. Tutor handouts will be provided for most sessions to give background material such as extracts from the works of preceding eighteenth-century novelists and selected articles from Austen scholars. Students will also be encouraged to use open access sites such as Project Gutenberg to source some eighteenth-century publications.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, students will have been given the opportunity to:
*demonstrate an enhanced understanding of how Austen experimented and innovated in her writing of fiction whilst she drew on the works of preceding authors.
*have a deeper appreciation of the ways in which Jane Austen engaged with topical ideas and issues in her six major works
*develop their ability to formulate their ideas around the novels of Jane Austen, both orally and in writing
Assessment methods
Only those students who have registered for assessment and accreditation, in advance of the course start date, can submit coursework/assignments for assessment.
Assessment
You will be set two pieces of work for the course. The first of 500 words is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome but preparing for it, and the feedback you are given, will help you prepare for your assessed piece of work of 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.
Dr Mary Gifford
Dr Mary Gifford has had a varied career in national newspapers, pharmaceuticals, in university teaching in English literature and in book editing. She gained her PhD from Oxford Brookes for her thesis on medical discourses in the eighteenth-century novel. Her specialist knowledge of the early novel has given her a keen appreciation for the groundbreaking strides made by Jane Austen in this literary form, which has involved her accommodating husband in watching as many adaptations of Austen’s works etc. as possible!
Assessment methods
Only those students who have registered for assessment and accreditation, in advance of the course start date, can submit coursework/assignments for assessment.
Level and demands
The Department’s Weekly Classes are taught at FHEQ Level 4, first year undergraduate level, and you will be expected to engage in a significant amount of private study in preparation for the classes. This may take the form, for instance, of reading and analysing set texts, responding to questions or tasks, or preparing work to present in class.
Fees
| Description | Costs |
|---|---|
| Course fee (with no assessment) | £315.00 |
| Assessment and Accreditation fee | £60.00 |
How to enrol
Please use the ‘Book now’ button on this page. Alternatively, please complete an enrolment form.
How to register for accreditation and assessment
To be able to submit coursework and to earn credit (CATS points) for this course, if you wish to do so, you will need to register and pay an additional £60 fee. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online.
Students who do not register for CATS points during the enrolment process will not be able to do so after the course has begun.
If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education at the Department you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.