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Continue reading →: The Sublime & the Beautiful: Exploring Edmund Burke’s Aesthetic Theory in Emma (2020)The 2020 adaptation of Emma, directed by Autumn de Wilde brings Austen’s novel to light through visual choices highlighting the beautiful and sublime. In A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, Burke defines the beautiful as “quality or those qualities in bodies…
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Continue reading →: By Pens and Pixels: Echoes of Romanticism in a Digital Commonplace BookIntroduction A commonplace book goes beyond just a place to store quotes, but serves as a reference of intellectual exploration where ideas are gathered, revisited, and reimagined by the creator. They play an important role in having a place to document information but also allow for engagement on a deeper…
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Continue reading →: “A Gentleman of African Extraction”: Vampirism and the Haitian Revolution in Uriah Derick D’Arcy’s The Black Vampyre: A Legend of Santo Domingo (1819)Amidst the decaying grandeur of Gothic landscapes, monsters emerge not merely as fearsome beings but as haunting reflections of society’s deepest, darkest fears. While they appear as villains intent on corrupting the characters, a closer examination often reveals that their true nature may be more complex and less sinister than…
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Continue reading →: “Regency History is Black History”: Exploring the Historical Easter Eggs in the 2024 Adaptation of Sense and SensibilityAnnually a plethora of Jane Austen adaptations premiere from books, to television shows and films, each bringing the celebrated author’s work to life. Some decide to try to recreate the original source material to a tee, while others modernize, tweak or update Austen’s texts and approach—or they decide to create…
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Continue reading →: Elizabeth Bennet & Mr. Darcy: Exploring Austen’s Beloved Couple Through Taylor Swift’s MusicJane Austen and Taylor Swift provide smart, formally brilliant takes on crucial social issues. While being hugely popular, particularly with women audiences, and critically praised, each has also been denigrated as “less serious” for their both perceived focus on feminocentric issues and their popularity. In this talk, I read Austen…
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Continue reading →: Maidens in the MoorlandsI present my letterpress illuminated book project that compares two 19th-century British novels whose protagonists are Black Women: the 1808 epistolary novel of manners, The Woman of Colour (Anonymous) and the 1897 fin-de-siecle Gothic sensation The Blood of the Vampire (Florence Marryat). The project puts these texts in conversation with…
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Continue reading →: The Darkness Behind the TurbanCharlotte Dacre conjures a gripping Gothic story full of lust, desire, and starring Satan in her 1806 novel Zofloya, or The Moor, documenting the lives of an aristocratic family in 15th-century Venice. Zofloya focuses on the life of Victoria, a wealthy and indulged young woman. She gets sent to live…
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Continue reading →: A Deep Dive into Miss LambeSanditon by Jane Austen, her final published work, showcases a new cast of characters and landscapes not seen in her previous publications. This unfinished book features Miss Lambe, a wealthy, Black heiress from the British West Indies who visits Sanditon on vacation. In my lecture, I analyze her character in…
Prologue,
The art of storytelling intricately weaves into the fabric of our lives, delving into the intimate moments that shape our history. This writer champions the power of words to illuminate the lives of those often overlooked. Join us in exploring these captivating narratives.
Tiffany Franchesca Cruz 