Humanities center schedules Jane Austen festival

The Center for Humanities kicks off its inaugural year with a schedule of public lectures and community-wide events including a lecture series and festival featuring fans and foes of 18th- century author Jane Austen.

Steven Nadler, center director and philosophy professor, says the 2000-01 “Humanities Without Boundaries” lecture series will present free public lectures by noted writers and scholars.

“The series features well-known and accomplished individuals who have reached a wide audience with work that crosses traditional academic boundaries, both in subject matter and method,” says Nadler.

Speakers include philosopher Richard Wollheim, University of California-Berkeley, Wednesday, Sept. 21; law professor and social critic Patricia Williams, Columbia University, Monday, Oct. 16; Natalie Zemon Davis, historian and author of “The Return of Martin Guerre,” Wednesday, Nov. 29; novelist William Gass, Washington University, Wednesday, Feb. 14; philosopher John Searle, University of California-Berkeley, Tuesday, March 20; and cultural scholar Sander Gilman, University of Chicago, Wednesday, April 18.

The Center for Humanities will also host a Humanities Festival in the spring devoted to a subject whose popularity and depth crosses all the humanities’ disciplines and reaches out to the general public.

The first festival, “Jane Austen in the 21st Century,” April 23-29, 2001 will bring together from around the world authors, scholars, filmmakers, fans and foes of this great writer.

British novelist and Austen scholar Margaret Drabble is scheduled to speak, as well as Andrew Davies, BBC “Pride and Prejudice” and “Emma” screenwriter. The weeklong celebration will highlight: Austen’s life and times; her impact on contemporary writers; adaptations of her novels for film and theater; her role in popular culture; and the art, dance, music, fashion, gardens and architecture of her revolutionary era.

Event organizer Emily Auerbach, professor of English, Austen scholar and Wisconsin Public Radio producer, says popular and academic interest in Austen (1775-1817) has never been higher.

“Austen’s one of the world’s few writers hailed as “classic,’ yet still widely read. She’s been labeled a feminist, anti-feminist, revolutionary, conservative, abolitionist, colonialist, Marxist, Tory, romantic, anti-romantic, 18th-century moralist, Victorian, psychological realist and modernist, but she defies easy analysis,” Auerbach says.

Also next year, on Feb. 21, the center will sponsor a roundtable session, “What = Jewish x?” Jewish studies faculty will discuss what makes philosophy, history, art, music and literature specifically “Jewish.”

The center coordinates and sponsors interdisciplinary activities and events. Visit: http://www.humanities.wisc.edu.