North Texas Region
June with Jane Austen Seminar
Saturday, June 2, 2012
The North Texas Region held its first annual June with Jane Austen seminar on Saturday, June 2, 2012 focusing on Jane Austen’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility. The event was held at the Omni Hotel Park West. Rosalie Sternberg welcomed members and guests, including those from Austin and Houston, to the program which featured some of the most popular speakers from the recent Fort Worth 2011 AGM.
Sheryl Craig
Dr. Sheryl Craig
“Wealth Has Much to Do With It”: The Economics of Sense and Sensibility
In the waning years of the eighteenth-century, incredibly wealthy characters living the lifestyles of the rich and famous (preferably in haunted castles) sold books. No-one was publishing novels about ordinary people who lived in a cottage down the lane. In retrospect, it seems a risky thing to have done, but Jane Austen was about to break the mold with heroines whose modest income would determine the course the story would take.
Dr. Sheryl Craig, life member of JASNA, has been invited to speak at various Jane Austen events throughout England, Scotland and the United States. She has published film reviews, multiple articles and edits JASNA News.
William Phillips
William Phillips
Meaner than a Texas Polecat: Present Day Perspective on Austen’s Largest Cast of “Nasties”
Sense and Sensibility has the largest cast of “nasties” in all of Austen’s works. Mr. Phillips presented a systematic and amusing examination of Austen’s masterly development of the mean-spirited and unappealing. Satirical illustrations of polecats help us gain insight into the “nasties” and we found find clues within the novel to show how these characters got to be the way they are.
William Phillips recently retired from more than 45 years in education in the US, Saudi Arabia and Japan. He has been a frequent Austen presenter in the Chicago area and at AGMs as well as giving Austen-related presentations in Japan and Australia. William has held several positions in the leadership of JASNA’s Greater Chicago Region and was Co-Coordinator of the 2008 Chicago AGM.
Jeffrey Nigro
Jeffrey Nigro
The Iconography of Sense and Sensibility
Austen’s characters were able to understand and interpret emotions through an individual’s expressions and physical behavior. In this fascinating presentation centering on Marianne Dashwood, we learned how, in an age when actors were encouraged to study great art and visual artists were inspired by great actors, body language became “readable.”
Jeffrey Nigro is an art historian, lecturer and educator with more than 20 years of experience as a speaker and organizer of cultural/educational programming. He has been associated with the Department of the Museum Education Department at the Art Institute of Chicago for over 20 years. He currently serves as Regional Coordinator for the Greater Chicago Region of Chicago.
A lively crowd engaged in the question and answer sessions of these three amazing speakers. Everyone departed with a deeper appreciation of Jane Austen’s work and a renewed desire to re-read Sense and Sensibility.
—Cheryl Kinney