Pride and Prejudice Remix: Sara General’s Pride & Rezjudice and Uzma Jalaluddin’s Ayesha at Last
This seminar introduces students to the analytic interpretation of narrative prose within the context of literary adaptions. We will discuss two contemporary novels that retell Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) from a Kanien’keha:ka and a Muslim South Asian Canadian perspective respectively. Through close reading of Sara General’s Pride & Rezjudice (2017) and Uzma Jalaluddin’s Ayesha at Last (2018), we will explore the literary strategies that inform these two culturally re-contextualized adaptations of the original romance novel. By setting their novels on a fictional Mohawk reserve and in Muslim Toronto, the two authors emphasize the importance of place in forming community and the need for stories based on culturally diverse experience.
Assessment
Participation: 20%
Written Reading Reflection: 15%
Close Reading: 15%
Take-Home Exam: 20%
Final Paper: 30%
Prerequisites
- Registration in an English Major or Joint Honours plan
