In this course, we will study Austen's novels with a focus on her use of language to show the universal tension between raw desire - for money, power and love - and the restrictions placed on that desire by social conventions and internal conflict. Despite her quiet life in the English countryside of the early 19th century, Jane Austen captured this tension in a way that echoes through the ages, such that her works continue to be adapted for stage and film today (and even borrowed for new written works, such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies). As we study Jane Austen's intricately calculated plots and consider how action releases meaning, we will also think about how people get it wrong or get it right with language, examining in particular the role of intellect and humor in both concealing and revealing the truth as we manage our emotional lives. Students will write short pieces analyzing and perhaps imitating Austen's style.