How would Jane Austen fit in with our modern #MeToo movement? It's an interesting question which led us, in this episode, to look at Jane Austen and the #MeToo, breaking it down into terms which make sense in her era: the context of feminist thought and sexual harassment in the late 18th and early 19th century. We discuss the shockingly unequal legal framework in which women lived, early feminists and empowered women such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Caroline Herschel, and then go on to discuss incidents in Jane's life and novels that illustrate #MeToo moments.
Find out what Mr Collins got wrong, what Fanny got right, and who was the novelist's narcissistic sociopath!
We go on to award our Lizzy and Lady Catherine of the month and review Janice Hadlow's The Other Bennet Sister (Pan).
Links mentioned are:
https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/jane-austen-family-slavery-essay-devoney-looser/
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Jane-Austen-the-Secret-Radical-by-Helena-Kelly-author/9781785781889
https://janeaustens.house