At UCLA, students marked Jane Austen’s 250th birthday by completing final projects in an upper-level course focused on the author’s works. The class, taught by lecturer Cailey Hall, asked students to create their own one-scene adaptations of Austen’s novels.
Hall encourages her students to analyze both original texts and contemporary updates, including the 2005 film adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice” and the 2022 movie “Fire Island.” She emphasized that adaptations should not focus solely on romance. “If all an adaptation does is capture the romance of Austen’s novel, it’s missed the point,” Hall said. She added, “I want my students to appreciate what an incredible hater Austen is.”
Hall has extensive experience with Austen studies, having written her senior thesis on Austen fandom and received a fellowship to study at Chawton House near where Austen lived. She has developed several courses about Austen at UCLA.
Mariana Souza, a senior English major in Hall’s class, said learning about historical context deepened her understanding of Austen as more than just a novelist. “She was a bold social commentator,” Souza said. “We not only get to learn about the novels alone, but also about Austen’s world. Understanding her childhood, family history and place in society helps put many of her composition choices into context, making it easier to understand why each story is the way that it is.”
For her project, Souza reimagined Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy meeting at a college dance. She noted that effective adaptations translate themes rather than replicate scenes exactly: “A good adaptation excels at translating the themes and messages of a work, not necessarily replicating it scene by scene.”
Adaptations continue to be popular globally; recent examples include television miniseries like BBC’s version starring Colin Firth and modern retellings such as “Clueless.” In 2025 alone there have been new productions like “Miss Austen,” “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,” announcements for upcoming series from Netflix based on “Pride and Prejudice,” and another film adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility.”
“What makes Austen resonate is that she’s an incredibly careful observer with an astute ability to reflect or criticize,” Hall said. Her assignments prompt students to consider how they might pitch their own adaptations by analyzing how best to translate critical readings across different settings.
The class examined several works closely over two or three weeks each—including “Sense and Sensibility,” “Pride and Prejudice,” and “Persuasion”—and compared them with film versions. During one session reviewing scenes from both “Fire Island” and the 2005 film adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice,” students discussed how these reinterpretations highlight issues such as class hierarchy differently from the originals.
One student observed that “Fire Island” brings attention to intersecting status markers like wealth, race, and appearance within its characters’ dynamics: “Without this scene, we would have been paying attention to the money and might not have understood the role of race in this community,” she said.
Hall responded by noting that while class structures differ between eras depicted in literature versus today’s settings: “Yes, even if class in Austen does not exist in the same way or extent in the 2020s, what they’re articulating here is an alternate set of class hierarchies.”
Students also analyzed staging choices from other adaptations; for example discussing how Elizabeth Bennet’s positioning on a swing during pivotal news reflects character development differently than in print.
Hall pointed out that even less successful adaptations can offer valuable insights: “Every time I read one of Austen’s novels, I discover something new,” she said. “To me none of her novels feel like texts you could come close to figuring out after a single read.”
With ongoing global interest in adapting Jane Austen’s work for modern audiences—and continued engagement among fans—Hall anticipates having new material for future classes.
