Regional Meeting, March 18 – Arenas of Pleasure: Jane Austen, Sex, and Romance

JASNA New York Metropolitan Regional Meeting

Date: Saturday, March 18, 2023

Time: 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM

Place: Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, 7 West 55th Street, Manhattan

Arenas of Pleasure: Jane Austen, Sex, and Romance

The topic of sex in Jane Austen’s novels is a powder keg that ignites furious debate among her admirers. How are Austen’s novels and the creative works they inspire enriched when Eros is added to the equation? Prof. Nora Nachumi and Prof. Stephanie Oppenheim will share some of their insights into all things Austen including fan fiction, films, scholarship, and internet activities as discussed in their new co-edited book, Jane Austen, Sex, and Romance: Engaging with Desire in the Novels and Beyond.

Nora Nachumi is associate professor of English and coordinator of the minor in Women’s Studies at Yeshiva University.

Stephanie Oppenheim is associate professor of English at Borough of Manhattan Community College, the City University of New York.

The registration fee for this event is $50, which includes food. For this special occasion, JASNA-NY is subsidizing the costs of the venue, catering, and other expenses for our members to keep your registration fee as low as possible.

Register online here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/551602155897

OR

Please mail a check, payable to JASNA-NY to our Treasurer, Christina Feicht,

150 East 69th Street, Apt. 7H, New York, NY 10021

To reserve your spot, registration checks must be received by March 11.

Walk-in members are welcome to the event; please bring a check or cash with you to the venue.

EVENT RECAP:

The JASNA NY Metro Region was treated to a provocative talk on March 18 when Prof. Stephanie Oppenheim and Prof. Nora Nachumi spoke about “Arenas of Pleasure: Jane Austen, Sex and Romance.” Our first in-person meeting of 2023 was attended by about 65 enthusiastic Janeites longing to hear about the sexier side of Austen. Fans of Colin Firth and of Laurence Olivier were pleased to hear Prof. Nachumi’s lecture, “In Search of Colin Firth’s Bum,” in which she discussed representation of the body and desire in the novels and in the 1995 BBC adaptation and other filmed versions of P&P, and whether that famous bum actually made an appearance.

Prof. Stephanie Oppenheim then took up the mic to speculate about “What’s Hidden in Highbury,” and to share her fascination with the erotic undertones in Emma, particularly the sexual tension between Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax in both the novel and in the erotic imaginings of Austen fan fiction.

Prof. Nuchumi of Yeshiva University, and Prof. Oppenheim of Borough of Manhattan Community College are the co-editors of Jane Austen, Sex, and Romance: Engaging with Desire in the Novels and Beyond, a recent collection of critical essays from a wide range of Austen scholars and fans, exploring fan culture, films, plays, and other Jane-related spinoffs and sequels, with a focus on the erotic underpinnings of the novels as expressed both explicitly and in unspoken desires.