Jane Austen and Co.: Remaking the Past in Contemporary Culture

Examines recent Austen remakes as well as other “post-heritage” films and television shows to show how the past is reshaped for a contemporary market.

Jane Austen and Co. explores the ways in which classical novels―particularly, but not exclusively, those of Jane Austen―have been transformed into artifacts of contemporary popular culture. Examining recent films, television shows, Internet sites, and even historical tours, the book turns from the question of Austen’s contemporary appeal to a broader consideration of other late-twentieth-century remakes, including Dangerous Liaisons, Dracula, Lolita, and even Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Taken together, the essays in Jane Austen and Co. offer a wide-ranging model for understanding how all of these texts―visual, literary, touristic, British, American, French―reshape the past in the new fashions, styles, media, and desires of the present.

Contributors include Virginia L. Blum, Mike Crang, Madeline Dobie, Denise Fulbrook, Deidre Lynch, Sarah Maza, Ruth Perry, Suzanne R. Pucci, Kristina Straub, James Thompson, Maureen Turim, and Martine Voiret.