A JANE AUSTEN BLOGFEST!

Most people on BYU campus are familiar with this woman:



Contrary to popular belief, she is neither this woman:



Nor this woman:



She is, however, the authoress of these items, which, alas, many people on BYU campus are not familiar with:



However, many BYU students, particularly girls, are familiar with these items:



Lots of girls on BYU campus get together with their family members, friends, or roommates to watch the above films. In the research paper I wrote on this BYU ritual, I decided to call this phenomenon the "Jane Austen Movie Night."

Why do a research project about Jane Austen movies on BYU campus?



Lots of people all over the country watch Jane Austen movies obsessively, but I wanted to know why, specifically, Jane Austen movies appeal so strongly to BYU audiences. I concluded that BYU's fascination with Jane Austen movies has something to do with this:



I.e., MARRIAGE.

How do these three things (marriage, Jane Austen, and BYU culture) connect?
Well, this novel:



was written by a woman who lives in Utah Valley, and her novel describes the "Jane Austen Movie Night" perfectly. The story's protagonist, Jane, had

"first read Pride and Prejudice when she was sixteen…But it wasn’t until the BBC put a face on the story that those gentlemen in tight breeches had stepped out of her reader’s imagination and into her nonfiction hopes" (Hale 2).

Jane’s behavior mimics that of many Mormon female students at BYU or in Utah Valley, who frequently get together with their roommates, friends, or family members to watch Jane Austen movies and fall in love themselves with the film's versions of various Romantic gentlemen, like this man:



And like this one:



Jane watches Jane Austen movies because she sees in them the man of her dreams--i.e., this man:



Behavior like Jane's is also evident in many BYU students' behavior, particularly among girls. For instance, when this movie came out:



my friends and I went and saw the movie and obsessed over this beautiful man:



We squealed so much so that the woman sitting next to us at the movie theater asked us to be quiet. However, the movie theater was packed (mostly with women), and we were definitely not the only ones squealing during this scene:



We weren't BYU students then, although we all are now--we all grew up in Utah Valley, though, and were familiar with BYU's marriage culture. I can only speak for myself, but I know that while watching the movie, I was thinking about how much I wanted my own "Mr. Darcy" and a similarly romantic love story to play out in my own life, even though I was only 15. I wanted a boyfriend, dangit! I wanted to be kissed like Elizabeth Bennet in a dramatically romantic fashion!



I attribute my early obsession with marriage to the culture I grew up in. Even at age 15, I had already had a lot of lessons in church about the importance of marriage, and I knew a lot of girls who were only 19 who had gone to BYU or UVSC and had immediately gotten married. Based on this, then, it didn't seem like marriage was that far off for me.



I think the mentality that me and my friends exhibited through our squeals and rapture while watching various Jane Austen movies connects Jane Austen movies with BYU's marriage culture: BYU students watch Jane Austen movies on campus at least in part because they are obsessed with marriage, and watching the characters' romances played out on screen enables them to live out their own mental fantasies of marriage and romance, which, they hope, will eventually end in marriage.



HOWEVER, not all students are comfortable with BYU's marriage culture OR with BYU's perception of Jane Austen.

The girl on the left of this picture



is named Tiffany. She said that both Jane Austen and BYU

"put way too much pressure/emphasis on marriage and not enough on education and thinking before doing something stupid that will affect the rest of your life."

She thus sees a connection between BYU's obsession with Jane Austen movies, and BYU's obsession with marriage, and she doesn't particularly like or agree with the connection.

This boy



is named Jon. He is an English major at BYU. He said,

"I don’t think [BYU students] read [Jane Austen] correctly, that she’s misunderstood and misinterpreted by a BYU…she’s been like 'chickified' somehow and it’s turned into some sort of… teenage thing where everyone’s just 'yay Jane Austen yay!' and it’s funny and it’s cute and all the girls squeal and the social critique has sort of been lost."

He doesn't like how BYU interprets Jane Austen movies and novels. This doesn't mean that he doesn't like either marriage or Jane Austen, though. In fact, he still believes Jane Austen novels and movies are important to BYU culture and to understanding marriage and relationships:

"[Austen’s] stuff on relationships and how we see people and how we treat people and what is appropriate and inappropriate and everybody interacting with one another and why they marry or don’t and why they do or don’t like people is I think very important for BYU."

IN CONCLUSION:

I decided with my project that many people on BYU campus are a part of the "Jane Austen Movie Night," especially girls like me and my friends.



I also think that BYU's obsession with Jane Austen movies highlights its obsession with marriage.



However, many people are opposed to BYU's interpretation of both marriage and Jane Austen, which doesn't mean that they don't like marriage or Jane Austen--it only means that they have a different view of both of them.

BUT DON'T FEEL BAD, NO MATTER WHICH GROUP YOU'RE A PART OF!

The girl in this picture



is me. I believe that, based on my own experience, it's possible to be a member of both groups. I watch and like Jane Austen movies and I fantasize about marriage like a lot of girls on BYU campus. However, I also dislike parts of BYU's emphasis on marriage. For instance, even though I'm only twenty, lots of people I know ask me if I'm dating anyone and if I'm planning on getting married soon.



I don't know why they ask me this when I'm only twenty.



I also think there's more to Jane Austen than just marriage. Marriage is certainly an important part of her novels, but what she's saying about marriage--Is it always a good thing? Why do people get married? What makes a good marriage? Is love as important as wealth?--isn't always simple or straightforward.



What this project shows most of all is that Jane Austen was a smart, complex women. Her novels weren't meant to be merely "chicklit" or romantic fantasy; they were, and still are, deep novels with multiple levels of meaning--although they are, of course, romantic in their turn.



Congratulations, Jane Austen, on a job well done. Your influence is felt near and far, from England to BYU campus, and your books have changed a lot of lives--including mine.

In conclusion, if you are part of the first group (i.e., the whole-hearted Jane Austen Movie Night watchers), this video will make you squeal with glee. If you are part of the second group, or the anti-Jane Austen/BYU culture group, you will probably roll your eyes a lot. If you are part of the third group, who love certain parts of Jane Austen chickflickyness but criticized it at the same time (which, I believe, the majority of the people I interviewed were, including me), then you might outwardly mock this video, but inwardly squeal with joy. Alternatively, you might laugh while watching it but also say things like, "Oh, I love North and South! I love you, Mr. Thornton!!" and then, depending on who you are watching it with, feel embarrassed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOFps_Naytg

Works Cited:
Hale, Shannon. Austenland. New York: Bloomsbury, 2007. Print.

P.S.
A shout-out to Kris, who I also interviewed for this project and who would like it to be known that she finds this man



aka, Mr. Rochester, infinitely more attractive than these men:


these men:


or, alas, this man:






Sad!

It's okay, though. Rochester is, yes, pretty dang hot. Kudos to Kris!