Auerbach, Emily 1956–

PERSONAL: Born 1956.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Liberal Studies and the Arts, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 628 Lowell Center, 610 Langdon St., Madison, WI 53703. E-mail—eauerbach@dcs.wisc.edu.

CAREER: Writer, broadcaster, and educator. University of Wisconsin, Madison, professor of English, 1983–, director of Odyssey Project (free humanities course for low-income adults), organizer of Jane Austen in the Twenty-first Century Festival, 2001. Director of radio documentaries, Annenberg/CPB Foundation and The Courage to Write series; cohost for University of the Air, Wisconsin Public Radio; lecturer at libraries, schools, prisons, and Elderhostels;

AWARDS, HONORS: Teaching and arts awards, University of Wisconsin; Governor's Award in the Humanities, 2001, for Jane Austen in the Twenty-first Century Festival; national broadcasting awards for The Courage to Write series.

WRITINGS:

Maestros, Dilettantes, and Philistines: The Musician in the Victorian Novel, P. Lang (New York, NY), 1989.

Searching for Jane Austen, University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, WI), 2004.

Creator of Introduction to Modern English and American Literature, parts I and II (independent learning courses with audiocassettes), Wisconsin Public Radio/Annenberg/CPB Foundation. Author of scripts for The Courage to Write radio programs.

SIDELIGHTS: Emily Auerbach is best known as a scholar of early nineteenth-century British novelist Jane Austen, gaining her authority in a variety of ways: a college professor, conference organizer, lecturer, radio documentary creator, and author. In Searching for Jane Austen Auerbach attempts to debunk the popular image of Austen as a "woman's writer," an author of mere early "chick lit," and as a sweet, domestic woman. Auerbach analyzes all of Austen's writings, from well-known novels such as Emma and Pride and Prejudice to Austen's lesser-known novels and writings from her adolescence, and demonstrates the craft and skill evident in each. "Novel by novel, Auerbach overturns patronizing concepts about Austen's tiny canvas and limited view," Mary Ellen Quinn noted in Booklist. In addition, a Publishers Weekly reviewer commented that Auerbach's "revisionist approach is most engaging when it wrestles with her subject's public image." "I think Jane Austen wins the prize for having the most distorted public image of any of the world's great novelists," Auerbach told a Beatrice online interviewer. "I want the world to give Austen (not 'Jane') her full dignity as an author and approach her with the same respect granted male writers."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 2004, Mary Ellen Quinn, review of Searching for Jane Austen, p. 546.

Publishers Weekly, November 1, 2004, review of Searching for Jane Austen, p. 55.

ONLINE

Beatrice, http://www.beatrice.com/ (October 17, 2004), "Emily Auerbach" (interview).

University of Wisconsin, Madison, Department of Continuing Studies Web site, http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/ (October 22, 2005), author profile.