In the first episode, Dr Pamela Cox explored the life of servants in the country houses of the 19th century, looking at how the idea of service changed in the early part of the century in response to new ideas about the country estate. | Tags: Austen Mansfield Park Seminar PrepĪ series on ' Servants: The true story of life below stairs' began last week on BBC2, and it provides some useful context for the themes of the first unit of the module on The House and its Head.

How do you read the relationship between England/Mansfield Park and Antigua, and what problems does the novel raise with regards to Imperialism? Rather, I think, the novel steadily, if unobtrusively, opens up a broad expanse of domestic imperialist culture without which Britain’s subsequent acquisition of territory would not have been possible.” (Culture and Imperialism, p. The House and Empire: Edward Said suggests that 'having read Mansfield Park as part of the structure of an expanding imperialist venture, one cannot simply restore it to the canon of ‘great literary masterpieces’ – to which it most certainly belongs – and leave it at that. The head of the house: what is the relationship between the house and its head? How does the head of the house function, and what are we to make of the failures of Heads? How is masculinity portrayed more widely in the novel? The house: What does Mansfield Park stand for - ideals, values, traditions? What (and how) does the novel endorse and/or critique about the house? How do different characters relate to the houses/spaces they inhabit, and what does this tell us? Stoneleigh Abbey- inspiration for some of the Sotherton Court scenes in Mansfield Parkįor the seminar on Mansfield Park, please prepare these questions:

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