BOOKS, BRAS AND BRIDGET JONES: reading adaptations of Pride and Prejudice with Olivia Murphy

In April 1996, following the huge success of a recent TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, the lingerie manufacturer Berlei caused controversy by claiming its products were responsible for the ‘eye-catching cleavage’ of the show’s actresses. This talk investigates what happened next, and explores what else is at stake in adaptations and interpretations of Jane Austen’s novels.

Olivia Murphy is currently a Teaching Fellow in English at the Women’s College, The University of Sydney. From January 2013 she will also be a Visiting Fellow of the University’s English Department. She recently finished her doctorate at Oxford, and has published several scholarly articles on Jane Austen. Her book Jane Austen the Reader will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2012.

This lecture is kindly supported by The Friends of The Johnston Collection.

Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones, The Edge of Reason (2004)