June Sturrock, "Dandies, Beauties and the Issue of Good Looks in Jane Austen's Persuasion"

Time:6:00PM–9:00PM

In 1818, the year in which Persuasion was published (posthumously), as in 1814-15, the years in which it is set, England was in the middle of a period in which the personal appearance of males attracted as much attention as that of females. It was the age of the beau and the dandy. Austen's insistence on the significance of attitudes towards beauty throughout this novel relates to her concern with attitudes towards the vulnerable and aging body.

June Sturrock, who is an Emeritus Professor of SFU's English Department, continues to teach occasionally for the Graduate Liberal Studies Program, and at the moment is their Acting Graduate Chair. She is the editor of the Broadview Press edition of Austen's Mansfield Park, and the author of Heaven and Home: Charlotte Yonge's Domestic Fiction and the Victorian Debate over Women and about 60 articles and book chapters, mostly about nineteenth-century literature. She has recently completed a book, Jane Austen's Families. Forthcoming publications include articles on Elizabeth Bowen, and on A.S.Byatt and Robert Browning. She is a winner of an SFU Excellence in Teaching Award.