One of my favourite sessions at the JASNA AGM in Brooklyn last weekend was Marcia McClintock Folsom’s talk about “Power in Mansfield Park: Austen’s Study of Domination and Resistance.” Marcia always speaks so eloquently about Austen, and she and I share a fascination with Fanny Price and her determination not to give in to the arguments of her guardian, Sir Thomas Bertram, and her beloved cousin, Edmund, despite their repeated attempts to persuade her to marry the less-than-virtuous Henry Crawford.

You can read Marcia’s paper on sisters and brothers in Mansfield Park here, and my own paper on Mansfield Park as a tragedy here. With John Wiltshire, editor of the Cambridge Mansfield Park (2005), Marcia is editing a volume on Approaches to Teaching Austen’s Mansfield Park (forthcoming from the Modern Language Association Press), which will include a revised version of my essay on tragedy. Marcia has also edited the MLA volumes Approaches to Teaching Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1993) and Approaches to Teaching Austen’s Emma (2004), both of which I’ve found very helpful in the classroom.