Dr Victoria Bladen from the University of Queensland will give a presentation on ‘Persuasion on Screen’.

Any screen adaptation of a Jane Austen novel presents particular challenges. With Persuasion, there are some additional difficulties, for example whether to use the original deleted chapter or not? If you were a director, how would you approach Austen’s descriptions of characters’ inner feelings? What can be done about Austen’s technique of free indirect discourse when translating to the screen? Dr Bladen will be focussing on two screen adaptations of Persuasion to see how they have approached these challenges:

• Persuasion. Directed by Adrian Shergold, performances by Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones, Clerkenwell Films, 2007.

• Persuasion. Directed by Roger Michell, performances by Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds, BBC Films, 1995.

Dr Victoria Bladen teaches in literary studies and adaptation at The University of Queensland, Australia, including the course on Jane Austen and Her Influence. Her publications include articles on Jane Austen and Shakespeare, and landscape in Jane Austen; six Shakespearean text guides in the Insight (Melbourne) series, including The Merchant of Venice (2020), and five co-edited volumes, including Shakespeare and the Supernatural (Manchester UP 2020). Her forthcoming monograph The Tree of Life and Arboreal Aesthetics in Early Modern Literature will be published by Routledge in their World Literature and the Environment series.

Due to Queensland Government Health Directions, there is a limit on the number of people that can attend. Allocation is now full. Please email info@jasabrisbane.org if you would like to be added to the waitlist.